TCU Baseball Senior Sendoff: Nolan Brown

Nolan Brown is a hometown talent who played his high school ball just a few miles up the road at Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville, TX. He went the junior college route out of high school and ended up at Blinn College, not far from College Station. He earned NJCAA third-team All-American honors as a sophomore, hitting .411 with a .478 on-base percentage.

He was likely on TCU’s radar long before his time at Blinn due to his success in high school, but it seems his performance in junior college earned him a spot on the Frog’s roster. Right away it was easy to see that he had serious wheels. He even walked up to the batter’s box like he was ready to sprint around the bases at any moment. In his time at TCU he was 35-40 in stolen bases. His 26 in 2017 led the team, and was the most since Cody Jones had 33 in 2015.

In Brown’s junior year he started all 65 games in right field. He ranked ranked third on the team in both batting average (.302) and doubles (11). He also ranked third in the Big 12 that season with 19 stolen bases. Together with Cody Jones and company, that team was 119-164 in stolen bases that year.

Brown also had a knack for coming up big at the plate when the lights were brightest. In the Dodgertown Classic he went 2 for 3 in the Frogs’ victory over the eventual National Champion, Vanderbilt. In the Fort Worth Regional he it .421 (8 for 19) with three doubles and was 2 for 4 with two runs scored in an elimination game against NC State. He also had two hits (including a triple) and drove in two runs in the Fort Worth Super Regional against Texas A&M.

Brown was all set to take over center field as a senior in 2016, but a hand injury essentially kept him out the whole season. He tried to get back on the field appearing in 14 games, but only had three at-bats. In the end the coaches decided to get him a medical redshirt and let him get back to full health for 2017.

This last year, Brown came back from the injury with a vengeance. He was hitting around .400 for the first month of the season, and led the team in batting average for most of the year before ending the season hitting .277. He scored a total of 50 runs and hit 14 doubles, two triples and three home runs. On the base paths he was 26 of 28 stealing bags. Not only was he almost perfect, but it should have been 27 of 28; I’m pretty sure he was safe on one of those.

This summer, after the College World Series, Brown signed with the Chicago White Sox as an undrafted free agent. He is currently playing Advanced Rookie ball with the Great Falls Voyagers.