TCU Baseball Signs Top-10 Transfer Class For 2023

The TCU baseball season is right around the corner. Who did the Frogs land through the transfer portal this season?

Spring arrived early to Fort Worth, at least for the time being. With college football in the rearview mirror, college baseball is knocking on the door. The TCU Horned Frogs baseball team finished with a .667 win percentage in the Big 12 in 2022, but fell short of a second straight Big 12 title and failed to make it out of the Regional Tournament.

In 2023, TCU added firepower to both the hitting lineup and the pitching rotation, a unit embattled by injury last season. Find TCU's full recruiting class here– a class ranked inside the top-10, per D1Baseball.

Below, we'll go over all the transfers joining the Frogs this spring.

TCU Baseball Signs Top-10 Transfer Class

The Frogs raided Big 12 rivals for a pair of terrific pitchers this offseason. The first may make his way into the weekend starting rotation, Kansas right hander Ryan Vanderhei. The junior went just 5-6 with a 6.64 ERA in 2022, but he struck out 83 batters and walked just 43. Vanderhei is a high-velocity pitcher, with fastballs clocking in near 100 mph.

According to D1Baseball, Vanderhei improved significantly in the fall under Kirk Saarloos' staff. Per the site, TCU "might’ve hit a gold mine with the addition of... Vanderhei."

Grad transfer Austin Davis joins TCU from West Virginia after batting over .300 and playing in the outfield in 2022. Davis joins a talented outfield group that includes Elijah Nunez. Like Nunez, Davis an accomplished baserunner, stealing 64 of them during his 164-game career in Morgantown.

Once again, the Frogs dipped into Junior College to find talented players. Cole Fontenelle played ball at Washington before earning All-American honors at McLennan Community College this past season. Fontenelle hit 15 home runs and 38 doubles last season.

TCU also added pitchers Sam Stoutenborough and Hunter Hodges. Stoutenborough is a grad transfer that logged 143 strikeouts in his time at Cal and Hodges, a junior, is a bullpen pitcher who was named all-CAA in both years at UNC-Wilmington.

Tre Richardson comes in from Baylor after being named a Big 12 Honorable Mention in 2021. The infielder is a .295 career hitter and logged at least 60 hits in each of the last two seasons. Richardson also drew a team-high 32 walks.

D1Baseball ranks TCU's transfer class eighth nationally.

---

Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the Killer Frogs message board community today!

Follow KillerFrogs on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest TCU news! Follow KillerFrogs on Facebook and Instagram as well. Download the KillerFrogs app on Google Play or in the Apple App Store.