Don't look now, but the TCU baseball team is on a roll at the moment. After taking two of three games from #24 Oklahoma State this past weekend, the Horned Frogs find themselves among the nation's top ten of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll for the third week in a row.
While this was a common position for the Frogs in 2010, this year has been a different story -- a story filled with injuries to key players and a high bar set by the previous team.
The Horned Frogs had fallen from the poll's top ten following a home loss to Dallas Baptist. Despite sweeping Texas Tech the following weekend, TCU still dropped three spots on the coaches' ballots on March 7 to number 11.
The good news is though, that those things are all in the past for the Frogs now as they boast a 33-14 record with just two weeks remaining in the season. Having won 11 of their past 14 games, the Frogs seem to be rolling at the perfect time with only eight regular season games to go before the Mountain West Conference Tournament. It was that same kind of momentum that the Frogs rode in 2010 to close out the regular season.
At this point last year, the Horned Frogs were on a 16-3 run and steamrolling into the post-season. They finished with a 19-5 record in MWC play and won 15 of their final 18 to finish the regular season at 46-11. Amazingly, this team still has a chance to beat that conference record thanks to the current 15-2 mark. However six games do still remain on the Mountain West docket.
The Frogs will play host to Baylor Tuesday night, followed by a three game weekend set at home against Mountain West foe Utah. Oral Roberts comes to town the following Tuesday night to close out the regular season home schedule for the Horned Frogs and then TCU travels to Albuquerque, NM for three games against New Mexico to wrap up the slate. Then, it's off to San Diego where the Frogs will likely find themselves as the top seed again. While that doesn't guarantee tournament success, it sure can help.
Despite the difference in record from last season, TCU is still in a great position. By taking care of business, they should be "automatics" for the tournament field of 64 and a good showing in the conference tournament could go a long way to solidify a spot as a regional host for the tournament if ESPN's Jeremy Mills is correct. Then barring anything crazy, it would set up a potential meeting in Austin once again. But that's all in the future. Plenty still needs to happen though before anyone worries too much about that.
But one can't help but think a regional host and a pairing with Texas as the Super Regional host is not the worst thing that could happen. After all, just ask the 2010 team. They sure enjoyed it.
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