Saarloos Tabbed Assistant Coach of the Year
8/10/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
FORT WORTH – D1Baseball.com has named TCU baseball assistant coach Kirk Saarloos the National Assistant Coach of the Year. Saarloos just completed his fourth season with the program.
"There's no doubt in my mind, last year is the best job he has done here," raved head coach Jim Schlossnagle. "We lost close or more than 400 innings and had you told me before the year that Mitchell Traver wouldn't pitch for as long as he did and Luken Baker would get hurt, and we'd still overcome those things, that's impressive. Given that we had Jared Janczak starting in Game One of the super regional and in Omaha, I'd say he did an unbelievable job with our pitching staff. I think everyone out there and around the country were waiting to see what he could do with this pitching staff. Clearly, he has made the good ones great and the average ones much better."
At the conclusion of the 2015 campaign, TCU bid adieu to eight seniors in addition to a pair of drafted underclassmen. Heading into the 2016 season, the Horned Frogs needed to replace 48 starts, 14 saves and 406 innings on the mound.
TCU showed no signs of let up as Saarloos brought in a group of 15 newcomers to fill the vacancies, helping to lead TCU to a third straight appearance in the College World Series. Luken Baker was named an All-American in addition to earning TCU's second-straight Big 12 Freshman of the Year honor. The Frogs also had four Freshmen All-Americans.
This season, TCU one of the top pitching staffs in the country. The Horned Frogs ranked first in the Big 12 and 16th in ERA (3.18), fifth nationally with nine shutouts and 16th in K:BB ratio (2.81).
Saarloos will begin his fifth season with the program in 2017.
