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The TCU Horned Frogs baseball team will host Indiana State this weekend in the super regional round of the NCAA Tournament. It didn’t always appear that the three-game series would be held in Fort Worth, though.
In fact, the Sycamores actually enter as the more highly rated team, having hosted and won a regional just last weekend. Unfortunately, a scheduling conflict limited hotel and staff availability for the supers.
Indiana State is no stranger to hosting baseball events. Despite being considered one of the smaller schools in the field, the university has actually held both a conference tournament and postseason event over the last two weekends.
A third consecutive event seemed likely as the Sycamores continued their run through the NCAA Tournament.
ISU swept through the opening round of play, going 3-0 against its regional competition. As one of the top 16 seeds in the field, a host opportunity presented itself following a surprising result in the Fayetteville bracket.
The winner of the Indiana State region was matched up with the winner of the Arkansas region. The TCU baseball squad upset the host Razorbacks to advance to the next round as a No. 2 seed, anticipating another long trip for the super regionals.
Instead, a Special Olympics event in Terre Haute forced the NCAA Tournament out of Indiana and into Fort Worth.
To show gratitude of the surprise hosting opportunity, TCU fans have reportedly donated more than $25,000 to Special Olympics of Indiana.
This week, Indiana State was supposed to host its first-ever NCAA Super Regional.
A lack of hotels in town due to the Special Olympics will force the Sycamores to play at TCU.
As a show of a support, TCU fans have donated over $25,000 to the Special Olympics of Indiana. pic.twitter.com/cqz9bAy30e
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) June 7, 2023
An awesome gesture.
TCU baseball will begin its super regional against ISU on Friday with first pitch set for 5 PM EST.