This weekend, the TCU baseball team will be hosting the Fort Worth Regional as part of the NCAA baseball tournament. It's the first of two major obstacles that the Horned Frogs will have to clear in order to earn the school's first College World Series trip in team history. The Regional is a double-elimination tournament consisting of four teams competing for a trip to the Super Regional round, which will take place next week. The four participating teams in the Fort Worth Regional are (in order of seed): TCU, Baylor, Arizona, and Lamar. For the first in a three-part series looking at the tournament's participants, Examiner.com starts with a look at the Lamar Cardinals.
The Cardinals are an interesting team at 35-24. Of the three teams that TCU could potentially face this weekend, they have the best road record. That's not saying much though as they were 10-10 in road games this season. Sure, this weekend is technically a "neutral" site for them but that really will only apply when they aren't playing TCU, who happens to be their first opponent in the tournament.
Lamar's biggest win of the season came against Rice on February 24. Surprisingly, they led from the first inning and never looked back to pull away for a 13-7 victory over the Owls. However, the Cardinals were swept by Houston Baptist (243rd RPI) at home in a two-game set at the beginning of April. They overcame that with a championship run in the Southland Conference Tournament.
On the offensive side, shortstop Aaron Buchanan is the best all-around player for the Cardinals. He gets on base a lot with a batting average of .349 and an on-base percentage of .466. He's not really a power threat, as evidenced by the fact that he has just one home run this year, but he's disciplined, good on the bases and leads the team in hits (80), doubles (20), runs (63), walks (43) and is tied for the team lead in triples with three.
His high OBP and walk count, when combined with his 33 strikeouts, prove that he likes to go deep in the count and will risk a strikeout in order to take a base on balls. Buchanan has batted in the lead-off spot most of the season and his numbers prove exactly why. His ability to work pitch counts and up the totals for TCU starter Kyle "The Fonz" Winkler could be valuable for the underdog Cardinals Friday night.
Senior center fielder Anthony Moore is the power threat for Lamar. Despite missing 14 games on the season for the Cardinals, Moore is the team leader in home runs (10), slugging percentage (.636), is tied for the lead in triples (3), is second in on-base percentage (.456) and tied for second in runs scored (41). Of course, he was also the Southland Conference Tournament MVP this past week going 10/16 at the plate with two doubles, three home runs and ten RBI.
He showcases four-tool capability with his speed (8/11 in stolen base attempts), hitting (.322 batting average), hitting for power (ten homers and nine doubles) and his defense (just two errors for a .975 fielding percentage). Moore has the capability of making a difference from Lamar and if he can have the kind of weekend he did in the SLC tournament then he could surprise some teams.
As a team, the Cardinals are batting .302 while averaging 6.38 earned runs per nine innings. In most cases, that's enough for a win but that number will likely be lower against the Horned Frog pitching staff. Also with an offense as potent as TCU's, 6.38 runs likely won't cut it.
On the mound for the Cardinals, senior right-hand pitcher Matison Smith is their ace. In 17 appearances (16 starts), Smith has pitched 113 innings for a 4.54 earned run average (ERA) with four complete games and a shutout. Totaling just 62 strikeouts, he's not a "power" pitcher but gets the outs when he needs them and is the leader in ERA among starters. Opposing hitters have hit for an average of .304 against him on the year and will likely start Friday's game against the Horned Frogs and they'll be one of the most potent lineups he's faced this year.
As a whole, the Lamar pitching staff sports a 4.97 ERA with 394 strikeouts in 524.2 innings of work while holding opposing hitters to an average of .293. The staff typically "pitches to contact" and allows the defense to make the outs. The team's .967 fielding percentage shows they're not terrible in that department but have had their fair share of miscues.
Bold prediction
Expect the Horned Frogs to score a couple of early runs on Smith while Winkler goes six strong innings for the Frogs and allows two runs. TCU will extend their lead in the middle innings and the Frog bullpen will close it out for a 7-3 TCU win. Winkler will earn the win while Smith takes the loss. A home run from the Horned Frogs' left-hander Matt Curry is not out of the question either.
Follow the game live here:
KTCU -- audio
TV: None confirmed
Follow Examiner Nathan Walters for more info about the Lamar Cardinals
Stephen made his second appearance on College Baseball 360's weekly podcast this week. Check it out here to listen to the interview in it's entirety. Check out the website too as it's a great source for college baseball content from around the nation.
Special thanks to Sean Stires, the host and General Manager of College Sports Media, LLC for the opportunity.
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