No. 18 TCU erased a 6-1 hole with a 12-run fifth inning to beat Loyola Marymount 17-7 as Nolan Traeger drove in six.
TCU baseball spent four innings playing with fire, then lit the whole ballpark up. Down 6-1 and staring at another early-season gut punch, the No. 18 Horned Frogs flipped the game on its head Monday afternoon, detonating for a 12-run fifth inning on the way to a 17-7 win over Loyola Marymount.
If you blinked, you missed the chaos.
Nolan Traeger went 3-for-3 and drove in a career-high six runs, turning one swing after another into a loud reminder that TCU’s lineup can still be a nightmare when it stops beating itself.
The afternoon started clean enough as TCU grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first on a sacrifice fly. Then things got messy. Loyola Marymount strung together a two-out rally in the third and piled on again in the fourth to build a 6-1 advantage. It looked like one of those days where every small mistake turns into a bigger one.
Until the fifth. The Frogs sent wave after wave to the plate, drawing 15 walks in the game and weaponizing pressure. The fifth inning alone featured a flood of free bases, hit batters and a handful of timely swings that finally cracked the Lions open.
Traeger’s key extra-base hit helped erase the deficit, and his later knock in the inning capped off a frame that felt like a full weekend series squeezed into 20 minutes.
The Frogs weren’t done either. They tacked on four more late to widen the margin, helped by Chase Brunson, who somehow got hit by a pitch four times - yes, four - and still managed to drive in runs.
Jack Bell chipped in with his first multi-hit game of the season, and the lineup’s patience turned the game into a long walk (sometimes literally) for LMU pitchers.
READ MORE: Ex TCU QB Chandler Morris Files Lawsuit Against NCAA Over Eligibility
On the mound, Walter Quinn earned the win in relief, while TCU also got scoreless work from Trever Baumler and Nolan Johnson.
Now 3-5, the Frogs head home to open the 2026 home schedule Friday vs. New Haven ... and if the fifth inning is any clue, the bats might be waking up.