The TCU Horned Frogs baseball team represents Texas Christian University in NCAA Division I baseball. The Frogs have competed in the Big 12 Conference since 2013 and previously competed in the Mountain West, Conference USA, Western Athletic Conference and Southwest Conference. Since February 2003, the Horned Frogs have played their home games at Lupton Stadium, located on the TCU campus in Fort Worth, Texas. The Frogs are led by head coach Kirk Saarloos.
History
The early years TCU has fielded a baseball team since 1896, before the university found its permanent home in Fort Worth. The Horned Frog baseball team began playing baseball in the Southwest Conference (SWC) when it became a member of the conference in 1923. In their inaugural SWC season, the Frogs finished the year with a 13–11 overall record and a 2–10 conference record.TCU Baseball 2006 Media Guide TCU Baseball, p. 99
The Southwest Conference years In 1933 Dutch Meyer, most noted for his tenure as head coach of the two-time national champion football team, led TCU to its first SWC title with a 9–1 record. The Horned Frogs went on to win 4 more SWC titles in 1956, 1966, 1967 and 1994. The SWC baseball tournament began in 1977, but the Horned Frogs never earned a conference tournament title before the SWC dissolved following the 1996 baseball season.
The wandering years The dissolution of the SWC in 1996 touched off a period of instability for the Horned Frogs that lasted nearly two decades, during which they made stops in six conferences. Following the dissolution of the SWC, the TCU Horned Frogs first joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). During the 1997 and 1998 seasons, TCU competed in the WAC South Division with the New Mexico Lobos, UNLV Rebels, and former SWC member Rice Owls. The Horned Frogs made two appearances in the WAC baseball tournament in the team's five seasons as a member of the WAC. Eight WAC member schools joined with schools from several other conferences to form the new Mountain West Conference (MWC) in 2000. Two seasons later, TCU joined the Houston Cougars, another former SWC member, in entering Conference USA (C-USA) for the 2002 season.
Longtime TCU head coach Lance Brown, a SWC hall-of-famer as both a TCU player and TCU coach, retired after the 2003 season. Through his career as TCU's skipper, Brown notched a school-record 517 wins. After Brown's departure, TCU would go on to make several more conference moves in the early 2000s and see an emergence of its baseball program as a perennial national power.
TCU's emergence under Jim Schlossnagle Jim Schlossnagle was hired as TCU's head coach in 2003 and coached his first season at TCU in Spring 2004. His impact was immediate. Former Head Coach Lance Brown had recruited several exceptional classes, which allowed Schlossnagle to coach his first TCU team to the program's first regular season conference championship in a decade, its first conference tournament championship in history, and its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1994. Under Schlossnagle, conference championships began piling up year after year, in conference after conference. Schlossnagle's Horned Frogs repeated as C-USA regular season and tournament champions in 2005, and once again earned a berth to the NCAA tournament.
Prior to the 2006 season, conference realignment again led TCU to change conferences as eight other C-USA members changed conference homes. The Horned Frogs joined the Mountain West Conference (MWC), where the Frogs competed for seven years (2006–2012). In each season in the MWC, TCU advanced to the NCAA tournament and won at least a share of the Mountain West regular season title. In those seven years, TCU also won four MWC Tournament championships. During this era, TCU won its first-ever NCAA Regional Championship in 2009, and repeated the feat in 2010 and 2012. In 2009, the Horned Frogs advanced to its first NCAA Super Regional, where the Texas Longhorns eliminated TCU from the Tournament. In 2010, TCU and Texas met again in an NCAA Super Regional, but the Horned Frogs emerged from the rematch—advancing to the College World Series for the first time in school history. TCU compiled a 3–2 record in its first CWS appearance, eventually falling in the national semifinal to UCLA.
In 2011, the MWC Champion Horned Frogs were eliminated from the NCAA tournament in the Fort Worth Regional, but TCU came storming back in 2012 by winning the College Station Regional over host Texas A&M. TCU advanced to the 2012 Los Angeles Super Regional, where they were again eliminated from NCAA tournament play by the Bruins.
The Big 12 Conference era After 16 combined seasons wandering through the Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA and Mountain West Conference (and after brief plan to join the Big East Conference), the Horned Frogs rejoined three former SWC rivals, the Baylor Bears, Texas Longhorns, and Texas Tech Red Raiders, as members of the Big 12 Conference. Pre-season expectations for the Horned Frogs were high after the 2012 Super Regional run, but TCU finished their inaugural season in the Big 12 with a 29–28 record. This season marked the first and only time under Jim Schlossnagle that the Horned Frogs failed to make the NCAA tournament and win a conference title.
The Horned Frogs showed tremendous improvement in their second year in the Big 12. TCU finished the 2014 regular season in second place and swept through the 2014 Big 12 tournament, 4–0, to earn the Big 12 Tournament title. This was the first Big 12 championship won by any TCU team since joining the league on July 1, 2012. The late-season surge earned TCU a coveted National Seed for the first time in the program's long history. TCU hosted and won the 2014 Fort Worth NCAA Regional. Then, as a National Seed, TCU earned the right to host its first Super Regional. The 2014 Fort Worth NCAA Super Regional matched the TCU Horned Frogs against the Pepperdine Waves, winners of the 2014 San Luis Obispo NCAA Regional. The Horned Frogs took 2 of 3 in the Super Regional series to advance to the 2014 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. In this, their second CWS appearance in program history, TCU notched a 1–2 record after winning its opening games versus Texas Tech, then falling to Virginia and Ole Miss.
In 2015, TCU earned its first Big 12 Regular season Baseball Championship. The Horned Frogs were the fifth different team in as many years to win the conference title, and their victory marked the ninth time in Big 12 history that the prior year's Tournament champion went on to win the following year's regular season crown. During the regular season, head coach Jim Schlossnagle notched his 200th conference win and 500th total win as TCU's head coach. The Frogs won their second NCAA Regional of the Big 12 era by defeating North Carolina State, and then hosted and defeated Texas A&M in the 2015 Fort Worth Super Regional to advance to the 2015 College World Series. This season marked the 11th season in 12 years that TCU won either a regular season or conference tournament championship, the fifth time in seven years that the Horned Frogs advanced to a Super Regional, and the third time in six years that TCU advanced to the College World Series.
After significant roster turnover due to graduation and the MLB Draft, 2016 was expected to be a rebuilding year for the Horned Frogs, yet TCU won the 2016 Big 12 Tournament and was selected to host and won their third consecutive NCAA Regional. The Frogs advanced to the College Station Super Regional, where they defeated Texas A&M to advance to the College World Series for the third consecutive year.
On June 9, 2021, Schlossnagle was named the head baseball coach of the Texas A&M Aggies, leaving the Horned Frogs.
Kirk Saarloos Era Schlossnagle’s longtime TCU pitching coach, Kirk Saarloos, took over the program after Schlossnagle left for Texas A&M.
In 2022, the Horned Frogs won the Big 12 regular season championship and made an appearance in the College Station Regional. Saarloos was awarded Big 12 Coach of the Year.
In 2023, the Horned Frogs finished 4th in the Big 12 regular season. They won the Big 12 Tournament championship, the Fayetteville regional against national #3 seed, Arkansas, and the Fort Worth Super regional against national #14 seed, Indiana State to clinch the program’s sixth College World Series appearance.
TCU in the NCAA Tournament 1956 0–2 District 6 1994 1–2 Midwest I Regional 2004 1–2 Austin Regional 2005 1–2 Waco Regional 2006 1–2 Norman Regional 2007 2–2 Houston Regional 2008 1–2 Stillwater Regional 2009 4–2 Austin Super Regional, hosted Fort Worth Regional 2010 8–3 College World Series 3rd place, Austin Super Regional Champions 2011 1–2 Hosted Fort Worth Regional 2012 4-3 Los Angeles Super Regional 2014 6–3 College World Series 5th place, hosted Fort Worth Super Regional 2015 8–4 College World Series 3rd place, hosted Fort Worth Super Regional 2016 7-3 College World Series 3rd place, College Station Super Regional Champions 2017 8-3 College World Series 3rd place, hosted Fort Worth Super Regional 2019 2-2 Fayetteville Regional 2021 1-2 Hosted Fort Worth Regional 2022 2-2 College Station Regional 2023 7-2 College World Series 3rd place, hosted Fort Worth Super Regional 2025 0-2 Corvallis Regional 65–47
Attendance Since Lupton Stadium opened in 2003, annual total and average attendance for TCU baseball has steadily increased from approximately 1,500 fans per game to over 4,000 fans per game. The increase in attendance has coincided with the Horned Frogs’ 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016 College World Series appearances and the 2010 Lupton Stadium seating expansion.
Total and average attendance at Lupton Stadium has ranked in the top 15 for NCAA home games since TCU's 2011 season. In 2015, TCU and Lupton ranked 8th nationally in total attendance, 10th national in average attendance, and led all private schools in the nation in total and average attendance. Year HomeGames TotalAttendance Natl. Rankby Total Private SchoolRank by Total AverageAttendance Natl. Rankby Average Private SchoolRank by Average 2003 28 38,581 34 7 1,378 34 9 2004 28 34,657 44 9 1,238 44 9 2005 30 46,848 35 9 1,562 33 7 2006 26 40,158 43 11 1,545 38 8 2007 29 51,373 37 9 1,771 35 7 2008 33 63,959 26 6 1,938 29 6 2009 32 71,054 26 5 2,220 27 4 2010 29 90,687 22 4 3,127 19 2 2011 36 149,333 11 1 4,148 10 2 2012 32 131,610 11 1 4,112 11 2 2013 30 107,117 13 2 3,570 11 2 2014 34 121,957 12 1 3,587 13 1 2015 36 147,335 8 1 4,092 10 1 2016 31 132,796 13 1 4,284 11 1
The record attendance of 8,994 was set on June 10, 2023 when TCU hosted Indiana State in a 3-game NCAA Super Regional, surpassing the previous record of 8,812 set just one day earlier. 8,994 also set a new record for the largest crowd on a college campus for any school in Texas.
Season-by-season results
People
TCU Baseball All-Americans
YearPositionNameTeam1921PPete Donahue19271BBear Wolf1934PSlim Kinzy1948CFJim Busby1956SSAl Paschal1957OFCarl Warwick1963PLance Brown1970CJeff Newman19732BPhil Turner1974PFrank Johnstone1985OFMike Ramsey19881BRob Jones19941BAdam Robson2ndCDarren Tawwater3rdPTim Grieve3rd19983BRoyce Huffman2nd19993BRoyce Huffman1st2002OFTerry Trofholz2nd2003PClayton Jerome3rd2004PRobbie FindlayHM2005PLance Broadway1st2006PJake Arrieta2nd1BChad Huffman3rd2008PAndrew Cashner3rd2010PSteven Maxwell2ndPMatt Purke2ndCBryan Holaday2nd2011PKyle Winkler2nd2012PPreston Morrison3rd2014PPreston Morrison2nd2015PPreston Morrison2nd2017CEvan Skoug1stSource:TCU Baseball 2006 Media Guide p. 94TCU Press Release Huffman and Arrieta earn All-Star; June 13, 2006
Other baseball awards