Nebraska vs TCU Series Preview:

Date: 25th-27th

Time: March 25th (Fri.) @ 6:00 p.m, March 26th (Sat.) @ 2:00 p.m, March 27th (Sun) @ 1:00 p.m

Location: Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas

Record(s): Nebraska (1-3) Texas Christian University (3-1)

Head Coach(s): Will Bolt & Kirk Sarloos

Stream: BTN+, FloBaseball (Game 1)

Radio: Husker Sports Network

The Huskers opening weekend against the Bearkats was filled with some growing pains to say the least. An uninspiring 1-3 start to the season wasn’t what any Nebraska fans saw coming and saw the Huskers fall out of most top 25 polls. For Nebraska, most of their problems came on the pitching side of the ball from some unusual culprits. Friday night starter Kyle Perry lasted just 1.1 innings while giving up five runs on two hits with five walks. Shay Schanaman followed that up by allowing four runs on Saturday.

The Huskers only win came in a game where they gave up 9 runs but the offense bailed them out by scoring 12 of their own.

Jake Bunz has also been confirmed to miss the remainder of the season, a key blow to the Huskers bullpen as Bunz was expected to have a pivotal late-game role this season.

On the offensive side there was a little bit more promising results for the Huskers. Aside from 15 total strikeouts on Friday, the Huskers scored 21 runs on the weekend. Colby Gomes had six hits on the weekend including three doubles. Max Anderson had five hits including a memorable triple in the first game of the season. Freshman outfielder Luke Jessen broke out with seven hits on the weekend. Outfielder Luke Sartori also put together some good at- bats this weekend

I don’t think the Huskers will be going into this weekend as sluggish as they did in Huntsville. I myself definitely overlooked Sam Houston as they are looking like a real competitor early on, beating #4 Oklahoma State 6-3 on Tuesday. I know Will Bolt and his team spent the last week eager to get on the field and prove why preseason polls had them ranked so high. Arms like Kyle Perry and Shay Schanaman are too talented not to bounce back. Hitters like Brice Matthews and Cam Chick are in the same boat and I expect them to show us more as well.

TCU Horned Frogs:

March 15th: vs. TCU 6:00pm cst

March 16th: vs. TCU 2pm cst

March 27th: vs. TCU 1pm cst

TCU is a team that has their sights on Omaha. They have played very good baseball this far, scoring 32 runs and holding their opponents to just 11. They are arguably the best pitching rotation in the Big 12. Junior lefty Austin Krob is the friday night starter and heralded ace for the Horned Frogs, he went four innings and allowed no runs on four hits and seven strikeouts and got the win to open up the season against San Diego State. Last year he went 8-1 with a 3.81 era in 16 starts.

Sophomores Riley Cornelio, Luke Savage, and Cam Brown also are big arms for the Frogs. Brown had a successful start against Steven F. Austin where he allowed two hits in five shutout innings, fanning 7 hitters. Sophomore righty River Ridings is a reigning unanimous freshman All-American after posting a 1.08 era in 33.3 innings last year and is going to likely close games out for the Frogs.

Another reigning unanimous freshman All-American leads the offense for the Frogs as well in Brayden Taylor. he hit .324 last year while manning third base for TCU, the Big Ten Freshman of The Year also hit 12 home runs in 2021. Taylor went 7-12 in the opening games with four RBI and two doubles.

Senior shortstop Tommy Sacco is a serious weapon for the Horned Frogs as well. Second is manned by another Senior in Gray Rogers. The two seniors will serve as serious life in the middle of the TCU batting order that is more than capable of backing up their elite pitching.

Verdict:

Nebraska fans are surely disappointed in the start to the season and the only ones more upset about a 1-3 start are Will Bolt and the boys. Kyle Perry and Shay Schanaman both are going to come out and throw higher quality innings than they did against the Bearkats. The offense should see some more life and competitive at-bats from their usual culprits as well.

The Horned Frogs however are an extremely talented club and they appear to be running on all cylinders right now. The pitching match ups for the first few games are going to be must watch baseball and the battle of which Freshman of The Year third baseman’s should be fun. It is going to be a tough weekend but I’m nothing if not optimistic.

Prediction: Huskers go 2-1 on the weekend.