TCU's Brayden Taylor makes stunning play to end seventh inning

Oral Roberts was trying to put together a two-out rally in the seventh inning of its elimination game against TCU. Horned Frogs third baseman Brayden Taylor made sure that didn’t happen.

With a runner on first and two outs, Taylor made a sensational play to end the seventh inning, ranging to his left, doing a full 360 and firing the ball across the diamond to retire Jonah Cox.

Had Taylor not made the play, Oral Roberts would have had two on, with cleanup hitter Matt Hogan due up. Instead, the inning came to an end.

Brayden Taylor…WOW!! 🤯#MCWS #SCTop10 x 🎥 ESPN / @TCU_Baseball pic.twitter.com/WF6N0U2UcM

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 20, 2023

TCU is attempting to win its second straight game in Omaha after falling to this same Oral Roberts team to open College World Series play.

The Horned Frogs bounced back from a loss to Oral Roberts to open the CWS, before beating Virginia in an elimination game. Should TCU complete its win over the Golden Eagles, it would advance to face Florida on Wednesday.

TCU scored one run in the second inning, one run in the fourth inning and four runs in the fifth inning to build a comfortable 6-1 lead.

Eight of the nine Horned Frogs hitters have recorded a hit, with Elijah Nunez and Kurtis Byrne putting together a multi-hit afternoon.

On the mound, Cam Brown got TCU off to a solid start, while the bullpen has been excellent, too.

TCU coach Kirk Saarloos goes in-depth on bizarre sequence that led to overturned balk call

It has been a wild and entertaining game between TCU and Oral Roberts, and Taylor was also involved in another critical play earlier in the game.

Horned Frogs coach Kirk Saarloos just happened to be on the broadcast with ESPN as the craziness unfolded in the fifth inning.

With TCU outfielder Elijah Nunez on third and Horned Frogs third baseman Brayden Taylor at the plate, home plate umpire Angel Campos called a balk on Oral Roberts pitcher Joshua Caravalho, allowing a run to score and giving TCU a 3-0 lead.

Saarloos immediately guessed correctly that Oral Roberts coach Ryan Folmar wasn’t going to like the call.

“I’m not sure,” Saarloos said of what Caravalho did wrong. “I don’t think Ryan’s going to be too happy about this one. I wouldn’t be.”

After a discussion it was ruled that Caravalho didn’t commit a balk. The other three umpires, outside of Campos, saw Caravalho step off the mound before throwing to third. The call was reviewed and eventually the balk was overturned. Saarloos spoke with the umpires for an explanation, before relaying what he was told to ESPN.

“So Angel called the balk from behind home plate. The other three umpires had said he stepped off. So all I asked was ‘All three of them had it?’ He said ‘yes.’ So all I asked is was this a reviewable play? And he said, ‘Let me go check,’” Saarloos said. “I asked him, ‘Can you guys look at it? Because I don’t think I need to challenge this. I think y’all need to look at it.’ And he did. My big thing is getting the call right.”

Eventually it was decided that Caravalho didn’t commit a balk. However, everything still worked out just fine for TCU. Because Caravalho threw to third base but lobbed it over and didn’t make a true pickoff attempt, he was called for a pitch-clock violation. That led to a walk, because it was a 3-1 count. TCU went on to score four runs in the inning and held a 6-0 lead heading to the bottom of the fifth.

“I think they got that right all the way around,” Saarloos said.