FAYETTEVILLE — TCU maintained the momentum of winning the Big 12 Tournament in Stillwater and swept through the Fayetteville Regional undefeated downing Arkansas 12-4 on Monday.

TCU coach Kirk Saarloos was proud of his team and complimentary of the Razorbacks.

“I thought both teams left every single thing on the field,” Saarloos said. “Obviously want to say congratulations to Arkansas on a phenomenal season. It’s never easy to win a championship, especially the SEC championship. A classy group. I know all those coaches very well. I thought they left everything out there.

“I was super proud of the way our guys responded getting down and coming back playing good baseball the second half of the game. We’re obviously excited, but it’s not the destination. We’ll enjoy tonight and move on to next round tomorrow.”

TCU defeated Oklahoma State 12-5 on Sunday, May 28, to win the Big 12 Tournament. Outfielder Austin Davis had two hits, including a home run, and knocked in four runs on Monday. Davis and his teammates beat Arkansas twice and Monday was in front of 10,475 fans at Baum-Walker Stadium. Davis talked about how the team handled the atmosphere at Arkansas.

“I kind of like to compare the Big 12 championship game the atmosphere there kind of prepared us for this moment,” Davis said. “We know here this is a great fanbase. They’re really rowdy and get into the game. We piggybacked off that championship game and just kept it going. We had momentum on our side. We just had to be ourselves.”

The Horned Frogs placed eight players on the All-Regional team including MVP Tre Richardson. The TCU second baseman hit three home runs on Sunday against Arkansas knocking in 11 runs. On Monday he only got one hit, but it was a two-run blast over the fence. He also knocked in a run earlier with a ground out.

Richardson only had two home runs all season before this regional. Saarloos had a theory on why Richardson had so much power against Arkansas and Arizona.

“I think the ballpark played fairly small this weekend,” Saarloos said. “I go back to the Arizona game and I think all their 4 or 5 runs were on homers, hitting it on top of the new building. Arkansas, in the two games against us, most all their runs were on home runs. So I think when you start hitting balls hard and you’re playing in a place where it’s an offensive ball parks you tend to get those. At some other parks, those probably aren’t home runs. I’m not sure what the wind does here is usually like here, or the humidity. But the balls seemed to absolutely be flying, especially to right field. When you hit a balls hard and you get it up in the air you’ve got a chance.”

TCU didn’t just go undefeated in its three games in Fayetteville, but they outscored the Hogs and Arizona 44-13.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Saarloos said. “Especially calling pitches. It’s a lot more fun calling pitches when you’ve got a little cushion, when every pitch doesn’t seem like do or die. It makes everybody relax a little bit. It makes our pitchers relax a little bit. Don’t feel like they have to be perfect, or throw a shutout. Just collect the outs we’re supposed to collect and let the offense do their thing.”

TCU hasn’t lost since May 18 when they fell to Kansas State 7-6. They have won 15 of the last 16 games. The winning streak is at nine for TCU (40-22).