Fort Worth Regional Preview

Baseball America will break down all 16 regionals, including Fort Worth, hosted by Texas Christian. Will Bryant has the details.

STAT PACK (National rank in parentheses)
Team	Avg.	Scoring (R/G)	HR	SB	ERA	K/9	WHIP	Fielding %age
1. Texas Christian	.308(21)	7.3 (23)	48 (45)	87 (27)	3.31 (26)	8.2 (46)	1.27 (32)	.973 (58)
2. Arizona State	.265 (191)	5.2 (166)	33 (123)	41 (212)	4.19 (100)	7.3 (122)	1.46 (134)	.971 (88)
3. Gonzaga	.290 (67)	6.4 (66)	32 (135)	36 (230)	4.37 (124)	8.9 (19)	1.45 (125)	.974 (48)
4. Oral Roberts	.306 (24)	6.4 (64)	41 (80)	49 (167)	3.90 (74)	8.0 (57)	1.51 (155)	.966 (188)

1. Texas Christian (42-15, 16-10 in Big 12 Conference)

14th appearance (third straight), automatic, third place in Big 12 regular-season and Big 12 Tournament champion

Top 300 Prospects: RHP Brian Howard (274), 3B Elliott Barzilli (279)

Season In A Sentence: The Horned Frogs came into this season with question marks after losing seven players to the MLB draft, but led by the seventh-ranked recruiting class, TCU found a way to win another conference championshp.

Player To Watch: Luken Baker, dh. Baker continued his dazzling freshman campaign with the game-winning home run in the 10th inning of the Big 12 Tournament championship game against West Virginia. He leads the Horned Frogs in average (.376) and RBI (54), and will have to continue hitting for TCU to make a deep tournament run. Baker also was the team’s best pitcher in the first half of the season, but remains limited to hitting duties due to injury.

Best Weekend: Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic, Feb. 26-28. On the second weekend of the season, TCU went 3-0 in one of the premier tournaments of the year. It sent an early message that the Horned Frogs weren’t going anywhere, even after all the departures.

Outlook: TCU has been a bit inconsistent this year as it has worked through growing pains and some injuries. But it has been hot the last two weeks and enters the tournament having won nine of its last 10 games. Coach Jim Schlossnagle said after winning the Big 12 Tournament that he believes the Horned Frogs’ best baseball is still in front of it. They’ll be though to beat at Lupton Stadium, where they are 21-7 this season.

2. Arizona State (34-21, 16-14 Pac-12 Conference)

39th appearance (fourth straight) at-large, third place in Pac-12

Top 300 Prospects: SS Colby Woodmansee (131), C Brian Serven (215), 3B David Greer (251)

Season In A Sentence: Things were looking bleak for Arizona State after losing three of its first four conference series, but the Sun Devils got things turned around and played their way into regionals with a strong second half.

Player To Watch: David Greer, 3b. On a team without much firepower, Greer is without a doubt the hottest flame. He leads the team in all three triple slash categories (.344/.436/.585) and is tied for the team lead in home runs (eight). The Sun Devils will need his bat in a big way this weekend.

Best Weekend: at Arizona, May 13-15. After splitting its midweek games with Arizona, Arizona State captured the season series with two wins in the Pac-12 series in Tucson. Both teams came in hot as they were making a run at the Pac-12 leaders, but the Sun Devils held the the Wildcats to seven runs on the weekend and got enough hitting to scratch out two wins against their rivals.

Outlook: Don’t let the 31-9 thrashing at the hands of Southern California on the final day of the regular season fool you; this Sun Devils team has talent. ASU went 10-1 in games decided by one run this year, so it will be up to the pitching staff to hold teams down for an offense that scored just over five runs per game this season.

3. Gonzaga (35-19, 18-9 in West Coast Conference)

Second appearance (last in 2009), at-large, tied first in WCC

Top 300 Prospects: RHP Brandon Bailey (280)

Season In A Sentence: With only 10 home games this season, the Zags had to be road warriors, and they were, going 27-17 away from Spokane to build a good enough resume to earn their first at-large bid.

Player To Watch: Jeff Bohling, of. A breakout season led the redshirt junior to be named the WCC player of the year. He hit .297/.363/.522 with seven home runs and 10 stolen bases. Gonzaga will need his magical season to continue this weekend.

Best Weekend: vs. Pepperdine, March 18-20. After spending the first month of the season on the road, Gonzaga returned home for the opening weekend of WCC play. The Zags won a game started by Wavesace A.J. Puckett, the WCC pitcher of the year, and went on to take the series.

Outlook: Gonzaga traveled to TCU for an early-season series and the Zags sprung a Friday night upset with Bailey pitching them to victory. They’ll need another big game from their ace this weekend, and then for the rest of the rotation to follow his lead.

4. Oral Roberts (38-19, 22-8 in Summit League)

26th appearance (second straight), automatic, Summit League regular season and tournament champion

Top 300 Prospects: None

Season In A Sentence: Oral Roberts, the Summit League’s powerhouse, won the regular season by four games, but had to climb out of the losers’ bracket in the conference tournament to make it back to regionals.

Player To Watch: Noah Cummings, of. The sophomore is heating up at the right time. In the month of May, Cummings had 10 multi-hit games, and bashed three of his six home runs. He slowed a bit in the conference tournament, but will be vital to Oral Roberts’ success moving forward.

Best Weekend: at Dallas Baptist, Feb. 26-28. Oral Roberts went to on the road to capture a series win against Dallas Baptist on the second weekend of the season. It was the Golden Eagles’ first series win against the Patriots since 2008.

Outlook: Oral Roberts was drawn into the Fort Worth Regional in 2011, and ended TCU’s season with an 8-4 victory in a losers’ bracket game. Repeating history won’t be easy, but if the Golden Eagles can find a way to turnover leads to closer Brady Womacks, they may again play the role of spoiler this weekend.