Red Raiders Take on the TCU Horned Frogs

The Red Raiders are back in Lubbock for their third conference matchup of the season against the TCU Horned Frogs. The Horned Frogs come to Lubbock with a 16-9 season record and a 4-2 conference record with wins against No. 10 Vanderbilt and No. 8 Arkansas. 

Pitching

TCU will open the series with RHP Ryan Vanderhei (5.28 ERA) to go against Brendan Girton (4.28 ERA). Vanderhei comes to Lubbock with a 2-2 record in 6 appearances for the Horned Frogs. He has allowed 23 hits, 19 runs, 3 home runs, and 13 walks, and has recorded 32 strikeouts. Saturday’s matchup will be LHP Mason Molina (2.93 ERA) for the Red Raiders and RHP Kole Klecker (2.30 ERA) for the Horned Frogs. Klecker comes to Lubbock with 4 wins and 2 losses, in 6 appearances for TCU he has allowed 25 hits, 10 runs, 3 home runs, and 4 walks while recording 25 strikeouts. RHP Trendan Parish (4.64 ERA) will get the Sunday start for the Red Raiders to match up against RHP Cam Brown (2.08 ERA) for TCU. Brown enters the series with 1 win and no losses in 7 appearances for the Horned Frogs, he has allowed 19 hits, 9 runs, 2 home runs, and 13 walks while recording 34 strikeouts.

Batting

Of the 8 batters that have played in most of TCU’s games, 3 of them are batting better than .300. Their leading batter is Karson Bowen with a .373 batting average. Bowen has played in 19 of the Horned Frogs’ 25 games and started in 18, he’s tied for third in hits with 25 and tied for third-most RBIs with 17. Tre Richardson (.337 AVG) leads TCU in hits with 32 after starting in all of TCU’s games this season. Brayden Taylor (.258 AVG) leads the team in home runs with 8 and draws the most walks with 22 on the season.

TCU appears to be a very even matchup with Tech on the pitching front, TCU ranking third in the Big 12 in team ERA and Tech ranking fourth but the Red Raiders still lead the Big 12 in team batting average while TCU comes in at sixth. If the Red Raiders can get the bats hot back on their home turf and the pitching comes out to match them they will control this series but they have to leave the past four games behind them and tackle the Horned Frogs with renewed confidence.