TCU Baseball 11, Kentucky 13: Frogs fall in a see-saw game

TCU Baseball opened this weekend’s series against Kentucky with a hard-fought 13-11 loss, ending their win streak at six.

Watching the top of the first, you would have thought the Frogs had this one in the bag, but that quickly changed as starting pitcher Austin Krob experienced some struggles early on. After a three-hit, three-run first inning for the Frogs’ bats, Krob gave up 4 hits including a 2-run bomb, had 2 walks, a wild pitch that brought in a run, and he hit two different batters for an easy trip to first base. Not exactly what you expect to see from your ace, as Kentucky had a 5-3 lead after the first inning.

Both teams took to the bullpen relatively early as Kentucky made a pitching change in the top of the 2nd inning while TCU followed shortly after by replacing Krob with Connor Oliver in the bottom of the third. This change was made after the Wildcats put up another pair of runs in the 2nd inning, extending their lead to four at the time.

It was a quick couple of innings from there on featuring an impressive one-two-three by Connor Oliver, who caught three straight batters looking. The bats didn’t get going again until the Frogs caught fire in the top of the 5th.

Elijah Nunez got things started with a single to center field followed by a near-identical hit from Luke Boyers and a walk taken by Brayden Taylor. With the bases loaded and 0 outs, David Bishop singles to right-center field to bring in two runs. Bishop had a solid performance as he finished with two hits on 4 at-bats with 3 RBIs. Nunez also had a monster day, scoring 3 runs and finishing 4-for-5 from the plate, a career record for the centerfielder.

The 5th inning surge didn’t stop there though as a walk, wild pitch, and an error by the Wildcats would help the Frogs bring in two more runs. TCU ended their scoring-run in the 5th with an 8-7 lead, but that was short-lived.

Kentucky answered with four runs of their own in the bottom of the 5th, and the Frogs were facing another deficit down 11-8. Luke Savage was put in for Oliver during the Wildcats’ hitting streak, but the bats stayed hot through the inning.

Like a see-saw, these teams were battling back and forth, nearly matching each other on hit count, strikeout count, everything. The Frogs immediately answered by scoring three more runs in the top of the 6th, again led by an Elijah Nunez double, but they were unable to grab the lead.

With as close as the game had been since the first pitch, I wouldn’t have been surprised in the slightest to see extra innings. Unfortunately for the Frogs, Kentucky wasn’t having any of that. The Wildcats put up two runs in the bottom of the 8th, taking a 13-11 lead and giving the Frogs three more outs to come back.

It was a quick inning for the Frogs, with back-to-back groundouts followed by a strikeout after Goodloe was hit by a pitch. With the loss, TCU falls to 7-2 on the season but is right back at it tomorrow afternoon to try and even the series.

First pitch for TCU vs Kentucky is set for 12 p.m. CST tomorrow and will be broadcast on SEC Network+ and ESPN+. Hopefully tomorrow the Frogs will get a competent play-by-play broadcaster who doesn’t confuse Connor Oliver for Austin Krob for an entire inning.