FROM NCBWA RELEASE
ALBUQUERQUE – After leading his team to the program’s first appearance at the NCAA College World Series, TCU head coach Jim Schlossnagle was named the National Coach of the Year by the National College Baseball Writers Association.
The award, which was voted on by the NCBWA Board of Directors, was chosen from a list that included all Division I Conference Coaches of the Year and the coaches of the eight NCAA College World Series teams. Schlossnagle, who was the only coach to appear on every voter’s ballot, received the honor Saturday morning at Rosenblatt Stadium.
Schlossnagle led the 3rd-ranked Horned Frogs (51-12) to their fourth straight 40-win campaign and fifth consecutive Mountain West regular-season title in 2010 on the journey to Omaha. TCU won the MWC Tournament title, taking just three games to earn the league’s automatic bid for the fourth time in just five seasons in the league.
TCU hosted the NCAA Fort Worth Regional for the second year in a row, beating Lamar, Arizona and Baylor to advance to the Austin Super Regional, also for the second consecutive year. But in 2010, the result reversed in the Horned Frogs favor as they took the series from Texas and punched their ticket for Omaha’s Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium.
The Horned Frogs took the first game of the Austin Regional, 3-1, behind an outstanding pitching performance by NCBWA Freshman Pitcher of the Year Matt Purke. Texas responded the next day with a 14-1 pounding at the expense of MWC Pitcher of the Year Steven Maxwell, evening the series and forcing a game three.
In the decisive game three, Kyle Winkler took the mound held the Longhorns scoreless for 7 2/3 innings to earn the biggest win to date in TCU history, 4-1, while Tyler Lockwood tallied the final four outs to pick up the save. TCU scored first in the fifth inning when Jason Coats drove in Taylor Featherston on a single. Aaron Schultz connected on a two-run blast in the seventh to push TCU to 3-0 and Bryan Holaday added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, 4-0. Texas threatened with base runners in the top of the ninth, but was only able to get one run across before Lockwood got Jordan Weymouth to ground out to Jerome Pena to end the game.
Entering the 2010 NCAA College World series, Schlossnagle has posted a 379-179 career record over nine seasons as a head coach. In seven seasons as the Horned Frogs’ skipper, he has led TCU to seven consecutive NCAA Regional appearances, earned six MWC Coach of the Year awards and accumulated a 302-132 record.
Schlossnagle’s Horned Frogs will face Florida State at 1 p.m. (CT), Saturday, on the first day of the NCAA College World Series. They will then face the winner or loser of the Florida-UCLA game on Monday.
NCBWA membership includes writers, broadcasters and publicists. Designed to promote and publicize college baseball, it is the sport’s only college media-related organization, founded in 1962.
ALL-TIME WINNERS
2010 – Jim Schlossnagle TCU
2009 – Brian O’Connor Virginia
2008 – Mike Batesole Fresno State
