ARLINGTON – The freshman lefthander from California, Mason Molina, tossed an absolute gem at Globe Life Field and the two-seed #8 Red Raiders (37-18, 16-9) rolled over the seventh-seeded Kansas State Wildcats (27-28, 8-17) to open the Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament with 5-3 win. This marks the third season in a row Texas Tech has opened the conference tournament with a victory.
Molina (2-5) retired the first 8 hitters he faced and after issuing a two-out walk, retired the next 10 in a row to follow. He fanned a career-high 10 Wildcat hitters in his 6 2/3 inning appearance, marking the longest outing and first quality start of his rookie season. He bested his previous career-high of 8 strikeouts set against Iowa on March 20. Molina completed his first six innings of work in only 70 pitches and tossed strikes at a clip of 70% carrying a no-hitter into the next frame.
In the seventh, Molina walked his second man and a fielder’s choice (after a review took the shifted 6-5-3 double play off the board) put another man on. The Wildcats’ first hits followed, a double to left field put two in scoring position and an RBI single put them on the board making it a 5-1 game. Molina responded with his 10th K, but Kaelen Culpepper’s two-run double into the right-field corner made it a three-spot for K-State and a two-run ballgame.
“He pitched ahead in the count. It was strike one for most of the day. He was ahead of most hitters. He commanded the fastball and both off-speed pitches,” said Head Coach Tim Tadlock “He’s always had mound presence, but when he pitches ahead in the count it makes it tough on guys.”
Molina gave way to Andrew Devine who worked a groundout to end the frame. He fanned back-to-back Wildcats to start the next inning but after plunking Cash Rugely, Tadlock brought in Derek Bridges for the lefty-lefty matchup against Dylan Phillips representing the tying run. Bridges fanned the K-State all-time home run leader getting him to climb the ladder on some high heat and Tech got out of the jam.
Austin Becker took the ball for the ninth, his eleventh appearance of 2022. The Vanderbilt transfer started by pumping 94 mph gas, he fanned the first hitter he faced with full-count cheese. Back-to-back groundouts to the middle infield would end it and Becker earned his second save of the season.
The much-maligned Texas Tech bullpen was exceptional Wednesday combing for 2 1/3 perfect innings and 4 strikeouts.
Offensively after Tech went down in order in the first inning, three Red Raider hits and three Wildcat errors made it a three-run second and a 3-0 lead for Tech. Kurt Wilson tallied a three-hit day in his first three at-bats. Dillon Carter came up with his only hit in the sixth inning and it was a big one, his first triple since March 19 at Iowa, and it had two RBI hanging on it to make it a 5-0 Red Raider lead.
Hitting with two outs, Tech improves to 5-for-10 with the @dilloncarter16 2 RBI 𝙏𝙍𝙄𝙋𝙇𝙀
B6, 2 out | TTU 5, KSU 0 pic.twitter.com/vAp2IaQlSb
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) May 25, 2022
Hudson White and Parker Kelly both set the table well and both scored twice as the bottom five in the batting lineup accounted for all of the Red Raiders’ RBI, runs, and six of Tech’s eight hits. That was Parker Kelly’s twelfth multi-run game of the season.
Blake Corsentino entered out of the Wildcats’ bullpen to start the seventh and struck out the first five batters he faced, retiring six in order, the final a groundout on a nice play at third base guarding the line.
Texas Tech will be back at it Thursday night at 7:30 pm facing the winner of the Wednesday nightcap between (3) Oklahoma (33-20, 15-9) and (6) West Virginia (33-20, 14-10). That will be broadcast on ESPNU with radio call available on Double T 97.3 FM and in their listening area, as well as through The Varsity Network App.
The Red Raiders also received good news Wednesday as Special Assistant Ray Hayward’s doctors accepted a heart and kidney for transplant and he entered surgery at 4:20 pm.
Ray Hayward Currently in Transplant Surgery
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