Some lingering disappointment faded for Texas Tech hitters midway through their second showdown against TCU on Saturday at Dan Law Field but then re-emerged and threatened to spoil what had become a gritty performance on several fronts.
So when Cal Conley stepped into the batter’s box in the 10th inning, he took matters into his own hands.
The Red Raider shortstop jacked a leadoff solo home run to left field off tough-as-nails Horned Frogs’ reliever River Ridings to lift his team to a stirring 6-5 victory in extra innings.
Conley’s clutch swing ended Texas Tech’s three-game losing skid, snapped TCU’s 11-game winning streak, and evened the key Big 12 Conference matchup of top-10 powerhouses.
“Going into the at-bat, good pitcher on the mound, I was trying to keep my swing short and trying to hit the ball to right-center field,” Conley said after he duplicated the walk-off heroics he delivered earlier this season against Connecticut. The homer was the first Ridings has served up this season.
“I got lucky, and reacted to an off-speed pitch, and it set me up for my swing path to be on time for that pitch.”
Conley’s blast was the Red Raiders’ first run since the 4th inning when they generated four runs to erase a 4-1 deficit. In between, TCU reliever Charles King was tough to solve with 5 scoreless frames of work after a wobbly beginning when he plunked a batter and surrendered back-to-back run-scoring singles.
That was the Red Raiders’ most productive inning in four games dating back to consecutive losses at Kansas State, piggybacked by a 7-3 loss on Friday in the series opener.
Texas Tech produced two hits with runners in scoring position to fuel the rally, but those were the Red Raiders’ only knocks in those situations (2-for-10) and they were 3-for-17 with runners on base.
Enter Conley and his one swing that camouflaged those warts and sends the teams into a rubber match at noon Sunday.
Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock said there was no rallying the troops or fire-and-brimstone pep talks needed.
“I think we’ve been playing with a sense of urgency,” he said. “I think they show up … these guys like playing, they like preparing. Ball hadn’t bounced our way, call it what you want — it’s baseball. The sense of urgency has been there. What you get is you get energy by executing, playing defense, pitching, and executing offensively.”
All of which were elements on Saturday as two really good teams tangled.
Texas Tech’s starting pitcher Patrick Monteverde and his TCU counterpart Austin Krob were both sharp in the early going. The only damage done was the Red Raiders’ 1st-inning run after newly installed leadoff hitter Easton Murrell whipped a triple into the right-field corner and scored on Conley’s productive ground ball to short.
The Horned Frogs couldn’t get anything going against Monteverde for 3 innings, but that changed in the 4th. Brayden Taylor drew a leadoff walk, Zack Humphreys rolled a single to left field, and the Red Raiders wobbled defensively when second baseman Jace Jung fielded a potential double-play ball but threw wildly to second base to load the bases.
On Monteverde’s first offering to Hunter Wolfe, the TCU designated hitter rammed a fly ball over the left-field fence for a grand slam and 4-1 lead. Although all four runs were earned, they were also potentially unavoidable. The Red Raider southpaw gutted out 1.2 more innings, allowing only one more run on Tommy Sacco’s two-out single in the 6th before giving way to Derek Bridges
“I thought he really gutted it out for us,” Tadlock said. “Probably deserved a better fate, as far as like … you obviously want to go out and play good defense behind the guy.
“Showed a lot of grit to me, to continue to pitch and give us a chance to get to the bullpen.”
In particular, getting the ball to Ryan Sublette turned out to be a major subplot.
After Bridges snuffed out the Horned Frogs’ 6th-inning rally, Sublette took over and was nearly flawless. He tossed 2 perfect innings, worked around Gray Rodgers’ leadoff single in the 9th, and didn’t flinch after hitting a batter with two outs in the 10th.
Sublette struck out 5 in 4 innings to earn his 4th victory – arguably none bigger than one that gives Texas Tech a fighting chance to stay in the hunt for the Big 12 regular-season crown.
“Kind of like basketball, once you see that first strike, you know more are going to fall,” Sublette said. “Just getting ahead early, trying to get that first-pitch strike, and just get ahead and stay ahead.”
Added Tadlock, “I thought Sub really held the door there for us, really executed some pitches. … Really good, really elite stuff, too.”
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