Baseball America: TCU’s Howard Responds To Challenge
HOUSTON—When Texas Christian righthander Mitchell Traver went down with a strained lat a week before the season began, it left the Horned Frogs without their most experienced pitcher and presumptive Opening Day starter. Losing its ace was a blow, to be sure, but TCU took the injury in stride and moved on with what it had available.
In its opening weekend series against Loyola Marymount, TCU went with a rotation of lefthander Rex Hill and righthanders Brian Howard and Luken Baker. Between them, they had made a total of four career starts for the Horned Frogs, all by Howard. But it didn’t matter. They won the series, with both Howard and Baker delivering scoreless starts of at least six innings.
No. 17 TCU shuffled its rotation for the Shriners Hospital for Children College Classic, moving Howard to Friday for a showdown with No. 10 Louisiana-Lafayette at Minute Maid Park. The junior responded to the challenge, throwing a quality start (6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 7 K), as TCU won the game, 7-1.
Howard said that after TCU lost starters Tyler Alexander, Preston Morrison and Alex Young and closer Riley Ferrell from last year’s team, he knew he would have to take on a larger role. He took on a different mindset, one that he picked up from coach Jim Schlossnagle and some of the great pitchers the Horned Frogs have produced in recent years. …
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