What Did We Learn From the 2025 TCU Baseball Season?

Welcome back to another edition of my weekly "What Did We Learn", an "editorial" in a sense, where I go over things that happened, that might now show up in the box score. This will be the second-to-last edition for the 2024-2025 athletic year. One more will come out, recapping everything that transpired, but for now, let's focus on baseball.

I've talked about it before in my "WDWL" articles from throughout the season, but I feel that it's worth re-emphasizing. This season has limited expectations. Now I don't say that because of how the season ended, but because it was the honest truth.

Pre-season rankings were all over the place, with no real aggregate of where TCU should be to start the year. Pair that with the news of Ben Abeldt being out for the year before the season even became underway, and the season started to look somewhat dimmer before a pitch was even thrown.

It was known it would be a rebuilding year. Freshmen and transfers were brought in to bring life to a program that had seemingly lost its juice the last season, despite only being a year removed from nearly playing for a national championship.

The season had some lows. There were losses that, at times, felt worse than what they actually were. Injuries, while heartbreakingly unavoidable, occurred. Slumps and errors happened as well.

Yet, the season delivered. TCU fans got to see one of the greatest freshman performances in program history. They watched them sweep a top-25 matchup at home, multiple come-from-behind and walk-off victories.

There was a palpable buzz around the program this year, one that hadn't been felt at Lupton during the Saarloos tenure. A large part of that is because of the culture built. Tommy LaPour, one of the country's top pitchers, showed emotion that rivaled what fans experienced with Tolle last season. When I asked him about how animated he became on the field, he said:

"I didn't get to let my emotion show last season there {Wichita State}, but here, I'm encouraged to be myself."

That's been the lesson learned in a way. This program - more specifically, its players - are on the precipice of creating something that could potentially alter the state and future of TCU Baseball. The current value of returning talent and production from this season will pay dividends for the anticipation and expectations for next season.

So, yes, the season didn't end how many expected it would, but they set a table for what next season can bring. The Cowtown Cattleman will return, and with that, a potential trip to Omaha.