TCU came into the 2026 season with high outside expectations, ranking in D1Baseball’s national Top 10 before play began in mid-February. Two months later, the Horned Frogs carry a 20-12 record and a 7-5 mark in the Big 12, still in the midst of the race but looking to find the form that made them unanimous coaches’ favorites to win the conference.

Strong at Home, Searching on the Road 

Head coach Kirk Saarloos’ team opened up the year on a high note at the Shriners Children’s College Showdown in Arlington, Texas, going 2-1 and beating No. 7 Arkansas and No. 23 Vanderbilt. The following weekend, the Frogs took a trip to Los Angeles to face the No. 1 UCLA Bruins and No. 1 MLB Draft Prospect Roch Cholowsky and got swept in a three-game series. Since that point, TCU has gone 18-7 and dropped out of the Top 25.

“At some point, we’ll start putting together good baseball. I don’t know who we are,” Saarloos said after the Frogs lost two out of three at Arizona State in March. “When we don’t pitch, we hit, and when we pitch, we don’t hit. That’s a bad recipe.”

TCU has, indeed, picked it up since that midseason swoon, winning seven of its last nine heading into a weekend series against Arizona at Lupton Stadium, where the Frogs have thrived all year, going 13-3. It’s been a different story away from Fort Worth, where TCU is 5-7 on the road and 2-2 in neutral site games.

Missing Pieces 

The Frogs have won seven of 10 games since Noah Franco’s return from injury, picking up wins in each of his last four appearances. Courtesy of TCU Athletics

Health has been an issue for the Frogs all season, with two of the team’s stars missing significant time.

Junior pitcher and MLB Draft prospect Tommy LaPour has only made one start this year, coming on Opening Day. The Frogs have missed his presence on the mound; he provided them 90.1 innings last season, posting a 3.09 ERA. Getting LaPour back on the bump would be a massive boost for a Horned Frog squad pursuing a second College World Series berth since 2023.

The other expected starter to suffer an early-season injury, sophomore Noah Franco, returned on March 22. Franco is a two-way player who provides big power potential, both on the mound and in the batter’s box. Franco hit 11 home runs last year and tops out at 97 miles per hour as a southpaw. The Downey, Calif., native has done well coming out of the bullpen since his return, conceding no runs and allowing only three base runners over his past four and a third innings pitched against Texas Tech, Lamar and Kansas State.

Sagouspe Shines Amid Pitching Struggles

Senior Tanner Sagouspe has been a bright spot for a pitching staff ranking 11th out of 14 Big 12 teams with a 6.18 club ERA. The Cal Poly transfer sports a 1.77 ERA across 20 and a third innings in nine appearances.

Sophomores Nate Stern and Zack James have also contributed stability out of the bullpen. Stern has logged 17 innings across 11 bullpen appearances, striking out 21 batters with a 3.18 ERA. James is 4-0 in his nine appearances, making two starts. His season ERA sits at 3.52 across 30 and two-thirds innings; on April 5, he fanned five batters and conceded just five hits and a walk across eight innings in a 4-0 shutout of Kansas State.

Draft Prospects Living Up to the Hype 

Sophomore outfielder Sawyer Strosnider ranks No. 10 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Draft Prospect list. So far this season, he’s delivered, batting .304 with 10 home runs (he hit 11 all of last season). He also has six doubles, three triples and nine stolen bases, which ties him for the team lead with junior outfielder Chase Brunson.

Sawyer Strosnider leads the team with 10 home runs, 41 RBI, 41 runs scored and 32 walks, continuing to show why he projects as a first-round MLB Draft prospect. Courtesy of TCU Athletics

Strosnider told assembled media in March that he is “starting to get more comfortable” manning the outfield alongside Brunson, a fellow MLB prospect. The two often rotate between playing center and right field. “Brunson’s an amazing outfielder, too,” Strosnider said. “It’s a good problem to have, having two good players who can play centerfield.”  

Brunson, whose 32 RBI place him second on the club behind Strosnider’s 41, is batting .283 with an on-base percentage of .458 and 13 extra-base hits.

Bell, Cramer Leading the Charge at the Plate

Junior infielder Jack Bell earned a place on the NCAA Baseball Lineup of the Week for his performances against Dallas Baptist and Texas Tech in late March, during which he hit .588 with three home runs, adding a double and seven RBI. Bell is hitting .317 on the year with an on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) of 1.019, good for second on the team.

Another key to the Frogs’ recent success has been graduate infielder Cole Cramer heating up at the plate at the right time. Over the last nine games, Cramer has 20 hits, including three home runs and three doubles.

Frogs Still Standing in a Bunched Big 12

Coming off a five-game winning streak highlighted by a series sweep of rival Texas Tech at Lupton Stadium between March 27 and 29, TCU managed to take two out of three games on the road against Kansas State this past weekend, before suffering a 4-1 loss at Abilene Christian on Tuesday.

Chase Brunson and the Horned Frogs still have plenty to play for, sitting tied for fourth in a highly competitive Big 12 with several key road series ahead. Courtesy of TCU Athletics

While the season hasn’t gone entirely according to plan, the Frogs still find themselves in the thick of the Big 12 race, currently tied for fourth place. The league is fairly balanced from top to bottom, with five teams being either tied with or within a game of TCU.

The Frogs’ remaining road conference series come against three teams currently bunched with them in the standings: West Virginia (third), Baylor (tied for fourth) and Oklahoma State (seventh).

— Grant Harris