TCU baseball’s 9-4 Big 12 Tournament loss to Kansas State leaves the Horned Frogs waiting nervously for Selection Monday.
TCU baseball came to the Big 12 Tournament needing a statement. Instead, the Horned Frogs left Arizona with a 9-4 loss to Kansas State and a whole lot of Selection Monday anxiety.
That’s the brutal part. TCU still has a 33-21 record and enough quality work to believe it belongs in the NCAA Tournament conversation, but this was not the final impression the Horned Frogs wanted to leave with the committee.
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Not with injuries piling up. Not with the bats going quiet early. Not with Kansas State punching first and never really letting go.
The Wildcats jumped TCU immediately, scoring twice in the first inning against Tommy LaPour. Dee Kennedy used his speed to create pressure, Ty Smolinski ripped a run-scoring double, and AJ Evasco added another RBI single. Just like that, TCU was chasing the game.
That problem only grew.
LaPour lasted just two innings, allowing four hits, three runs and a walk with two strikeouts. Mason Brassfield entered in the third, but Kansas State kept attacking.
Grant Gallagher’s two-run single helped stretch the lead to 5-0, and by the time Evasco blasted a triple later in the game, the Wildcats had full control.
The Horned Frogs were already playing short-handed without Sawyer Strosnider and Chase Brunson, and it showed. TCU didn’t look like a team building momentum. It looked like a team trying to survive.
There was a brief push. Preston Gmaster doubled, Noah Franco drove him in with a double of his own, and Rob Liddington followed with an RBI single to cut into the deficit.
Later, Cole Cramer and Lucas Franco helped force in runs during a bases-loaded seventh inning.
But that inning also summed up TCU’s night. Bases loaded, no outs, a chance to make Kansas State sweat — and the Horned Frogs came away with only two runs.
Kansas State answered enough times to keep TCU buried, and the final score left the Horned Frogs in a nervous holding pattern.
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Now comes the wait. TCU will learn its NCAA Tournament fate during Monday’s selection show, and the committee has plenty to weigh: a strong overall resume, a late slide, key injuries and a one-and-done Big 12 showing.
TCU may still get in.
But it sure made the wait uncomfortable.
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