Kirk Saarloos discusses rollercoaster, unique fifth inning while doing interview with ESPN

College baseball fans have been in for a treat during TCU games, with coach Kirk Saarloos providing some lengthy in-game interviews with the ESPN broadcast crew while his team is hitting.

On Tuesday in an elimination game against Oral Roberts, Saarloos essentially provided color commentary during a topsy-turvy half inning that included a review and several other interesting moments.

He opened up on how he’s able to do such an interview during the game.

“I think part of those in-game interviews, I don’t do a whole lot when our hitters are hitting,” Kirk Saarloos said. “Coach (TJ) Bruce and coach (John) DiLaura and coach (Bill Mosiello) and our offense is doing everything. I kind of just sit on the rail and cheer like the rest of our guys.”

But it didn’t take long for things to get weird during Saarloos’ interview in the fifth inning of the Oral Roberts game.

With a TCU runner on third base, Oral Roberts was called for a balk on a throw to third base, sending the runner home. However, officials turned to review shortly after to look at the balk.

After looking at the play, the officials called Saarloos over to explain, reversing the call.

“I’ve got a good buddy up in the booth, (ESPN’s) Chris Burke,” Kirk Saarloos said. “We had the interview. Then that happens, it’s OK, let’s go see what he has to say.”

Saarloos trotted out to meet with the umpires, who explained the situation to him. As soon as the TCU coach got back to the dugout he popped back on the headset and explained the whole thing to the ESPN booth.

TCU seemed unfazed by the coach doing an interview during the chaos, going on to plate a handful of runs to take a 6-0 lead in the game.

“I think the big thing was being able to overcome that and figuring out a way to score some more runs,” Kirk Saarloos said. “And it obviously was big because you’ve got the bases loaded and a guy with a bunch of home runs standing in there in a 3-2 count, it’s a little bit different if it’s a 2-1 or 3-1 game.”

If TCU can get similar results with Saarloos on the headset, the Horned Frogs skipper will likely be all too happy to keep it going.

With the win on Tuesday, TCU advanced to the College World Series semifinals, where they’ll have to beat Florida twice to make it to the championship series.

The Horned Frogs and the Gators are set to meet on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET with a broadcast on ESPN.

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