After ending their five-game homestand with a 2-4 loss against the No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners, the TCU Horned Frogs travel to Houston this weekend for a three-game series with the Cougars (13-14 on the season). After a hot start to the season, the Frogs (20-7, 5-2 in Mountain West Conference play) have cooled down quite a bit.

Ranked as high as No. 4 in some polls, TCU has fallen now to No. 11 in the national rankings.

The Frogs boast a 6-5 record since March 19, and their offense has stalled in their recent games. The Horned Frogs’ road to Omaha for the College World Series has become that much more difficult, thanks to the loss to Oklahoma, and some key losses to Air Force, San Diego State and Dallas Baptist.

Head coach Jim Schlossnagle said “there is no one game that makes or breaks the season, but losses start to add up, and the competition for the Top Eight spots is tougher every week.

Schlossnagle pointed out that in four consecutive home games, the Horned Frogs have had to play from behind, giving up runs in the top of the first.

He also noted that the team has not been itself in the past few weeks. Errors, failure to get the third out to prevent runs, and runners left on base have defined the Horned Frogs’ play as of late. Schlossnagle pointed to “two-out runs” and the Horned Frogs’ failure to generate them, as well as their inability to prevent them.

When asked what is causing the drop in the teams play, sophomore Taylor Featherston said it was a tough question and he was unsure of the answer.

That phrase just about sums up the sentiment of the entire team.

Schlossnagle didn’t attribute the recent disappointing play to any one aspect of the game that the team could improve but said that the best thing the team could do now is “to try and show that we can go out and win three games in a weekend.”

This is a long season, not even halfway done, and the Horned Frogs are still nationally ranked, but as the season goes on, they are going to have to put together some quality wins to get to Omaha. They look to improve their case for Omaha at the University of Houston this weekend.

TCU vs. Houston

When: 6:30 p.m. Friday, 6:30 p.m. Saturday,1 p.m. Sunday

Where: Houston

Follow the games on KTCU 88.7 FM.