TCU Baseball: UTPA Wednesday Gamethread

Alright, I pretty much can confirm that Tyler Alexander will start tonight. Alexander will take the mound after TCU's 5-0 win last night--as TCU looks to win their eighth straight, as well as remaining perfect at home. Last night was great for a few reasons; (1) it was comforting to see Brian Howard as an effective starter: something that'll produce fantastic dividends come tournament time. Going off that, it was also great to see Ryan Burnett recover after an underwhelming performance against USC nearly two weeks ago. (2), and most perhaps most important, it was really great seeing Derek Odell break out of his slump in such fashion.

Alexander's Return

And apologies, but I'm basically copying and pasting what I said about Alexander yesterday because I think it's important: Had this been just about any other team in the country--like, literally only Virginia, Alexander would still be starting and trying to organically work out of his funk while remaining a weekend starter. But when you’re TCU, and you have a power pitcher like Mitchell Traver throwing as good as anyone in the Nation--not to mention Preston Morrison and Alex Young not far behind that title--it’s easy to determine why there’s limited slack when you’re not doing as well as you’ve shown in the past, and thus have to be cut from the weekend rotation. The good news however, is that Alexander is showing signs of improvement: In the 4 innings of work last week against Loyola Marymount, he finished with four strikeouts and one earned run--yet, his fastball ball looked like it was losing velocity.

And again: Tonight, should be an important step in his hopeful return to form.

More insider baseball and Oklahoma State preview stuff tomorrow.