TCU Baseball releases 2019 schedule, featuring two tournaments and a trip to California

TCU baseball released its full 2019 schedule on Monday, and it’s a doozy. The Frogs have never been afraid to play anyone, and this iteration of their regular season schedule proves that this is once again true.

The Frogs will play 10 teams that qualified for the 2018 NCAA tournament over 21 games, while heading to Houston and Arizona for non-conference tournaments, and making a west coast swing through California.

The Frogs open their season in Scottsdale, Arizona, from February 15-17, where they’ll play in the MLB Collegiate Baseball Invitational. Opponents Cal State Fullerton, Virginia, and Vanderbilt are all formidable, while Fullerton and Vandy are coming off of tournament appearances. Meanwhile, Virginia won a national championship in 2015, and prior to a down year in 2018 had won 40+ games in all but two seasons dating back to 2004.

TCU will also play in the Shriners College Classic again, in Houston, which features a slightly different slate of teams in 2019. Unlike previous iterations of the tournament, which have prominently featured Big 12 and SEC schools, the 2019 Classic will exclusively feature schools from Texas. The Frogs will play Houston, Texas A&M, and Rice, adding two more 2018 tournament teams (Houston and A&M) to their 2019 resume.

In the final of three tough stretches in non-conference play, the Frogs head to California over spring break, where they’ll face Long Beach State in a three-game series before heading to play a midweek game against San Diego.

The usual games against Abilene Christian, UT-Arlington, San Houston State, and Stephen F. Austin, along with series’ against Grand Canyon and Eastern Michigan, round out TCU’s opening non-conference slate.

The Frogs will also play midweek games against URGTV, Dallas Baptist (another 2018 tournament team), and Lamar, along with more games against UT-Arlington and Abilene Christian throughout their conference schedule. TCU also plays a weekend series against Seton Hall in the middle of their conference schedule (April 12-14).

If the non-conference schedule wasn’t daunting enough for a team looking to bounce back from an off year, the Big 12 schedule features an even bigger challenge.

The Frogs open conference play by hosting Texas (March 22-24), who reached the College World Series a season ago, before hosting tournament qualifier Oklahoma State the following week (March 29-31).

TCU’s front-loaded Big 12 schedule then continues with a trip to Norman to face Oklahoma, meaning that TCU opens the season against three of the Big 12’s five tournament teams from a season ago.

After their weekend series against Seton Hall, TCU picks back up with their Big 12 schedule with a trip to Kansas State, before coming back home to host Baylor (April 26-28). Weekend trips to Morgantown (May 3-5) and Lubbock (May 16-18) sandwich a weekend at home against Kansas. The end-of-season trip to face Texas Tech means TCU will bookend it’s Big 12 regular season with College World Series qualifiers from 2018.

The Big 12 Tournament will take place following the end of the regular season, beginning May 21. The tournament will once again take place at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, in Oklahoma City, Ok.