The TCU Baseball team is looking to make their way to Omaha for the fourth consecutive year in 2016. They return 22 letter winners from a year ago, only losing center fielder Dane Steinhagen (Graduation), relief pitcher Preston Guillory (Graduation), starting pitcher Rex Hill (Draft), relief pitcher Brian Trieglaff (Draft) and catcher Zack Plunkett (Transfer to Arkansas).
The entire infield returns from 2015 with Elliott Barzilli at third, Ryan Merrill at shortstop, Cam Warner at second and Connor Wanhanen at first along with key reserves Michael Landestoyand Mason Hesse along with Trent Franson, who missed last year due to injury. Evan Skoug will be back behind the plate and looks to continue his success from the previous two seasons. Watch out for Luken Baker, the 2015 Big 12 Freshman of the Year to get a chance at first base along with his duties as the designated hitter this year.
The outfield returns left fielder Josh Watson and right fielder Austen Wade. They are getting outfielder’s Nolan Brown and Evan Williams back from injuries and both will compete for playing time in the outfield. Brown was the projected center fielder prior to his injury in 2015 and is expected to get the first crack again in 2016. They will be joined by sophomore Ryan Johnson, freshmen Zach Arambula and junior college transfer Austin Ingraham.
The pitching staff for TCU will be stacked once again with their College World Series rotation of Mitchell Traver, Brian Howard and Jared Janczak all returning. Luken Baker is taking the fall off from pitching and will decide if he wants to continue to pitch after suffering a lat injury last year. The bullpen returns lefties Dalton Horton, Drew Gooch and Ryan Burnett. From the right side the Frogs will have Dalton Brown, Sean Wymer and closer Durbin Feltman.
The Frogs will be bringing in twelve new faces from across the country including the 41st overall selection in the 2016 MLB Draft, left handed pitcher Nick Lodolo from LaVerne, California. Joining Lodolo will be a slew of powerful arms for pitching coach Kirk Saarloos to groom. Charles King, Alec Creel, Trey Morris, Cal Coughlin and Jake Eissler are all right-handed pitchers along with lefties Dion Henderson and Haylen Green. Zach Humphreys, from nearby DeSoto will be the backup catcher with Zach Arambula and Austin Ingraham adding depth in the outfield and freshman Bryan Sturges could end up any number of positions, having played OF and catcher primarily in high school. His strong arm may lead to third base as his eventual position. Cal Coughlin and Alec Creel were good hitters in high school and could find themselves getting playing time in the field as well as pitching.
The Frogs will have 25+ practices over the next 40 days to get ready for the spring. It should be another great year for Jim Schlosssnagle and the TCU Horned Frogs.
