FORT WORTH — As the rain poured down on Fort Worth over the weekend, No. 5 TCU added its own flood of runs to complete a series sweep of the Longhorns.
By the time the series was over, Texas had given up 24 runs and 33 hits, possibly damaging the team’s NCAA Tournament chances.
“We just didn’t execute when we had to,” sophomore catcher Tres Barrera said. “We had our chances, but we didn’t capitalize on our opportunities.”
After a rainout Friday, Texas and TCU played a doubleheader Saturday. Senior pitcher Parker French put the Longhorns in a bind early in the first game, throwing the ball well wide of second base while trying to turn an inning-ending double play in the first inning. The error led to two runs after a single two batters later.
The struggles continued in the next inning as the Horned Frogs plated another run on a single and a fielding error by junior left fielder Ben Johnson to take a 4–1 lead.
TCU (34–8, 10–5 Big 12) had stretched its lead to 6–2 by the time the Longhorns (22–22, 8–10 Big 12) tried to rally in the eighth. Texas loaded the bases with two outs and pushed two runs across on a walk and single, but senior right fielder Collin Shaw struck out to end the inning. The Longhorns added another run in the ninth but fell just short in the end.
Despite the loss, Texas’ momentum in the last two innings carried over to the second game. After TCU scored a run in the first and third innings, Texas fought back with an RBI single in the third, a home run by senior second baseman Brooks Marlow and another RBI single in the fourth to take the lead.
“We kind of fed off of it a bit,” Marlow said. “We had the momentum a little bit even though we lost.”
But that was it for the Texas offense for the rest of the series as TCU began an outpouring of runs. TCU scored once in the fifth and sixth innings and then broke the game open with a six-run seventh inning to take an 11-6 win.
Sunday, in the third game of the series, Texas had a runner at second base in three different innings and came away with zero runs each time. Meanwhile, TCU scored three in the first as well as two in the sixth and eighth innings to seal a 7–1 win.
“There was a six-run difference because of the quality at-bats [TCU] took to get runners into scoring position and to score the runners,” head coach Augie Garrido said.
The Longhorns return to Austin to face Prairie View A&M on Tuesday before starting their final Big 12 home series against Texas Tech starting Friday night. Texas will likely need to win the Big 12 Championship to reach the NCAA Tournament.
