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Three takeaways from No. 7 TCU baseball’s series opener against No. 1 UCLA

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TCU entered Friday’s game against No. 1 UCLA looking to avoid a three-game losing streak after dropping back-to-back games against unranked opponents.

The trend continued with their 10-2 loss to UCLA.

TCU head coach Kirk Saarloos said — during the broadcast on FS1 — his team would need its veterans to step up to try and help the Horned Frogs get back on track.

“We haven’t really got off to the start we wanted to. We started the first two days well, and haven’t played good since. So we’re going to need these veteran guys to kind of weather the storm a little bit here,” said Saarloos.

Top Horned Frogs out of commission

The Horned Frogs suffered a major blow when ace Tommy LaPour was sidelined for this series with elbow soreness and will be re-evaluated in a couple of weeks.

LaPour was the preseason Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and got his season off to a strong start against Vanderbilt, giving up two runs off fives hits in five innings of work with five strikeouts.

TCU was also missing the reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Week, Noah Franco, who was out of the game against the Bruins with an oblique injury.

Without LaPour, TCU turned to Mason Brassfield as their Friday night starter, how did he fare?

Bruins bounce Brassfield in second inning

Brassfield did not give up any runs in the first inning: He forced a pop-up to end the inning after allowing back-to-back singles.

The next inning Brassfield would not be so lucky, after allowing a lead off double to Aiden Aguayo, Will Gasparino came up one batter later and hit his own double that scored the Bruins’ first run of the game.

The Bruins inning continued with a single and a hit by pitch that loaded the bases for Roch Cholowsky, the presumptive No. 1 pick in the upcoming MLB Draft, Cholowsky broke the inning open with a grand slam that put the Bruins up 5-0.

Brassfield allowed two more base runners before being pulled for Tyler Phenow.

Pitching has been a problem for the Horned Frogs in their last three games, with the team giving up a total of 33 runs.

Saarloos talked about the team’s struggles and injuries after a starting the season with back-to-back wins.

“We got to keep playing. I mean, we haven’t last couple outings, last couple games, we’ve gotten off to really poor starts with our starting pitching, again tonight obviously, they end up getting seven in the first three [innings],but we got to keep playing. I mean, nobody’s going to feel sorry for injuries or stuff like that. We got to be able to overcome those things,” said Saarloos.

Horned Frogs hitters stymied

UCLA pitcher Logan Reddemann had a career day against TCU. He struck out ten Horned Frogs and gave up only one run off five hits in five innings of work.

TCU’s first run of the game came off a Chase Brunson home run. TCU went hitless with runners in scoring position and went 2 for 16 with runners on base as the offense failed to get into rhythm against the nation’s top team.

TCU will continue the three-game series at UCLA at 4 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. The Horned Frogs will then stay in Los Angeles and play their next game against Loyola Marymount at 3 p.m. Monday at Page Stadium.


Game schedule dates, times, locations

  • Feb. 3 Boston 110, Mavericks 100
  • Feb. 5 San Antonio 135, Mavericks 123
  • Feb. 7 San Antonio 138, Mavericks 125
  • Feb. 10 Phoenix 120, Mavericks 111
  • Feb. 12 L.A. Lakers 124, Mavericks 104
  • Feb. 20 at Minnesota, 6:30 p.m., ESPN, KFAA, MavsTV
  • Feb. 22 at Indiana, 4 p.m., KFAA, MavsTV
  • Feb. 24 at Brooklyn, 6:30 p.m., KFAA, MavsTV
  • Feb. 26 vs. Sacramento, 6:30 p.m., KFAA, MavsTV
  • Feb. 27 vs. Memphis, 7:30 p.m., KFAA, MavsTV
  • Feb. 1 Colorado 87, TCU 61
  • Feb. 7 TCU 84, Kansas State 82
  • Feb. 10 TCU 62, Iowa State 55
  • Feb. 14 TCU 95, Oklahoma State 92 (OT)
  • Feb. 17 Central Florida 82, TCU 71
  • Feb. 21 vs. West Virginia, 4 p.m., Peacock
  • Feb. 24 vs. Arizona State, 8 p.m., CBSSN
  • Feb. 28 at Kansas State, 5:30 p.m., ESPN2
  • March 3 at Texas Tech, 6 p.m., FS1
  • March 7 vs. Cincinnati, 1 p.m., TNT
  • Feb. 1 Texas Tech 62, TCU 60
  • Feb. 4 TCU 90, Houston 45
  • Feb. 8 Colorado 80, TCU 79
  • Feb. 12 TCU 83, Baylor 67
  • Feb. 15 TCU 59, West Virginia 50
  • Feb. 18 TCU 72, Houston 50
  • Feb. 22 vs. Iowa State, 3 p.m., ESPN
  • Feb. 25 at Cincinnati, 5:30 p.m., ESPN+
  • March 1 vs. Baylor, 3 p.m., ESPN
  • March 4-8 Big 12 tournament (at Kansas City, Mo.), TBA
  • Feb. 13 TCU 5, Vanderbilt 4
  • Feb. 14 TCU 5, Arkansas 4
  • Feb. 15 Oklahoma 12, TCU 2 (seven innings)
  • Feb. 17 UT Arlington 11, TCU 8
  • Feb. 20 at UCLA, 7 p.m., FS1
  • Feb. 21 at UCLA, 4 p.m., BigTen+
  • Feb. 22 at UCLA, 3 p.m., BigTen+
  • Feb. 23 at Loyola Marymount, 3 p.m., none
  • Feb. 27 vs. New Haven, 6 p.m., ESPN+
  • Feb. 28 vs. New Haven, 2 p.m., ESPN+
  • March 1 vs. New Haven, 1 p.m., ESPN+
  • Jan. 27 Stars 4, St. Louis 3
  • Jan. 29 Stars 5, Vegas 4 (SO)
  • Jan. 31 Stars 3, Utah 2
  • Feb. 2 Stars 4, Winnipeg 3 (OT)
  • Feb. 4 Stars 5, St. Louis 4
  • Olympic break
  • Feb. 25 vs. Seattle, 7 p.m., Fox, Victory+
  • Feb. 28 vs. Nashville, 7 p.m., Victory+
  • March 2 at Vancouver, 9 p.m., Victory+
  • March 3 at Calgary, 8 p.m., Victory+
  • March 6 vs. Colorado, 7 p.m., Victory+
  • 2026 season
  • Aug. 29 vs. North Carolina (at Dublin), TBA
  • Sept. 12 vs. Grambling State, TBA
  • Sept. 19 vs. Arkansas State, TBA
  • Sept. 26 at Central Florida, TBA
  • Oct. 3 vs. BYU, TBA
  • Oct. 17 at Baylor, TBA
  • Oct. 24 vs. West Virginia, TBA
  • Oct. 31 vs. Kansas, TBA
  • Nov. 7 at Arizona, TBA
  • Nov. 14 vs. Kansas State, TBA
  • Nov. 21 vs. Utah, TBA
  • Nov. 28 at Texas Tech, TBA
  • 2026 season
  • TBA vs. TBA (at Rio de Janeiro), TBA
  • 2026 opponents (dates and times TBA; one home game will be in Rio)
  • vs. N.Y Giants
  • vs. Philadelphia
  • vs. Washington
  • vs. Arizona
  • vs. San Francisco
  • vs. Tampa Bay
  • vs. Jacksonville
  • vs. Tennessee
  • vs. Baltimore
  • at N.Y Giants
  • at Philadelphia
  • at Washington
  • at L.A. Rams
  • at Seattle
  • at Green Bay
  • at Houston
  • at Indianapolis
  • Feb. 21 Team Texas-David Starr’s Racing School
  • March 6-7 Goodguys: 16th LMC Truck Spring Lone Star Nationals
  • March 12-15 Steak Cookoff Association World Championships
  • March 14 NASCAR Racing Experience
  • March 20-21 POWRi Racing
  • March 28 Mopar Heaven
  • April 11 NASCAR Racing Experience
  • April 18 Team Texas-David Starr’s Racing School
  • April 18 Bubble Run
  • April 23-25 Pate Swap Meet
  • April 25 FuelFest
  • April 30-May 2 High Limit Racing Stockyard Stampede
  • May 1 NASCAR Truck Series: SpeedyCash.com 250
  • May 2 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: Andy’s Frozen Custard 340
  • May 3 NASCAR Cup Series: Wurth 400

This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 10:33 PM.

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Lawrence Dow

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Lawrence Dow is a digital sports reporter from Philadelphia. He graduated with a master’s degree in journalism from USC. He’s passionate about movies and is always looking for a great book. He covers the Texas Rangers and other sports.

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