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sportsTCU Horned Frogs

Dallas Baptist and TCU will have their ‘hands full’ when the schools renew their rivalry on Saturday

The Patriots won the NCAA Fort Worth regional in 2011, taking their first two games. Can DBU repeat that formula?

Now in his 10th NCAA baseball regional tournament, Dan Heefner can connect the dots pretty well between a strong start and a big finish.

The Dallas Baptist coach offered a primer following his team’s 6-5 opening win Friday over second-seed Oregon State in the Fort Worth Regional at Lupton Stadium. No. 3 seed DBU nearly blew a five-run lead before senior Kragen Kechely retired the final five batters, pitching out of a two-on jam in the eighth.

“We have found ourselves in the losers’ bracket quite a few times, and it makes it so tough on your pitching staff with the number of games you have to play,” Heefner said.

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“Winning the first one is everything, and Game 2 is a big one as well because you know you’ve shrunk the tournament to a maximum of four games. The one time we won the regional [in 2011], we won the first two [games]. It’s a big, big deal.”

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DBU (38-15) advances to face top-seed TCU (41-17) Saturday evening. The Horned Frogs downed fourth-seed McNeese State 12-4 Friday. Brayden Taylor and Luke Boyers each homered for TCU, which trailed 2-1 going into the bottom of the seventh.

Winning pitcher Austin Krob (8-1) struck out 13 batters in eight innings.

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“I’ve said all along, that’s an Omaha program that hasn’t broken through yet,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said of the meeting with DBU. “I hope they wait to 2022 to do it. I have a super amount of respect for coach Heefner, coach [Dan] Fitzgerald and their entire staff. They have a great culture, you can see that.

“Today was the first time I’ve seen them play. We got our hands full [Saturday] night. So do they. That’s what you get this time of year.”

In its win, DBU chased Oregon State starter Kevin Abel, the hero when the Beavers won the 2018 College World Series, en route to a 6-1 lead. Abel lasted just three innings, threw 83 pitches and walked eight.

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Cole Moore’s two-run homer in the first gave DBU an early lead. Andrew Benefield’s solo shot punctuated a three-run fifth inning.

Even while building the lead, the Patriots stranded 11 runners through five innings.

“I was getting a little frustrated,” Heefner said. “I thought our guys had outstanding at-bats early. Could not have done a better job against Abel. We knew how good he was, we had a really good idea of what he was like, how he was going to pitch us and what we needed to do to have success and I thought the guys did it to a ‘T.’”

Then DBU starter Dominic Hamel (13-2) walked two with one out in the sixth, and Greg Fuchs homered to right center on a fastball to cut the lead to one.

After Oregon State put runners on second and third in the eighth inning against reliever Peyton Sherlin, Heefner went to Kechely, making his 98th career appearance.

He got Ryan Ober to line to third and Andy Armstrong to ground out. Of his 23 total pitches, Kechely said 20 were sliders to go with three change-ups. “We always know what we’re going to get with Kragen,” Moore said. “He’s always attacking the zone and throwing every hitter on the team off-balance.”

Now DBU will renew its rivalry with TCU, the No. 6 national seed.

The Patriots’ only regional championship came 10 years ago in Fort Worth. With an opening victory following the MVC tourney championship, DBU is thinking this year might have more in store.

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“I’ve said it a couple of times this year, this is a special group,” Kechely said. “We didn’t come to Fort Worth just to win one game. We’re going to show a lot of people we’re here to stay.”

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Find more TCU coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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