The No. 11 TCU Horned Frog baseball team kicks off its 2010 campaign Friday night when they host 2009 NCAA Regional participant Sam Houston State. Steven Maxwell is slated to be the opening night starter for the TCU. First pitch will be at 6:30 p.m. at Lupton Stadium. The three game series will run through Sunday. Coming off the most successful season in school history, TCU has once again been picked to win the regular season Mountain West Conference. Kyle Winkler and Taylor Featherston were selected to the preseason all-conference team.
Four-time defending Mountain West Conference champion TCU is the unanimous favorite to win its fifth consecutive regular season MWC baseball title in 2010 according to a vote of the seven MWC head coaches and a selected media panel.
The Horned Frogs received all 10 first-place votes and 70 points overall, while New Mexico garnered 55 points to finish second in the poll. San Diego State collected 47 points for a third-place ranking in the poll, while defending MWC Tournament champion Utah was fourth (45 points). Rounding out the poll were BYU in fifth (28 points), UNLV in sixth (22 points) and Air Force in seventh (13 points).
TCU returns five starters from a 2009 squad that captured the NCAA Fort Worth Regional championship and advanced to the program's first NCAA Super Regional. All-Conference members Bryan Holaday (Sr./C), Featherston (So./SS) and Trent Appleby (Sr./RHP) anchor the Frogs' roster. TCU posted a 15-5 record in Conference play before finishing the season with a 40-18 overall record and No. 14 ranking in the final 2009 Baseball America poll.
