ARLINGTON – The bid for redemption against Oklahoma was not to be Thursday night when Texas Tech (37-19, 15-9) came up short against the Sooners (35-20, 15-9) and starter Jake Bennett who fanned a career-high 12 Red Raider hitters holding Tech to two hits in his outing.
Andrew Morris (7-2) was excellent the majority of the time, but a hiccup in the second inning prompted flashbacks of the six home runs surrendered a week prior against the same opponent in Lubbock. After sitting the Sooners down in order in the first, back-to-back singles started the frame and Jackson Nicklaus snuck a one-out dinger onto the short porch in right field to make it a 3-0 advantage for OU. Morris followed with a walk but then retired 14 of the next 16 hitters he faced.
A leadoff single in the third by Hudson White turned into a run for the Big 12 Freshman of the Year when he swiped his fourth bag, was moved to third on a groundout, and Dillon Carter brought him home with a sacrifice fly. Tech only managed four baserunners over the next five innings via hit-by-pitch, error, and two walks. Jace Jung was picked off after the HBP, but the rest were left stranded.
Oklahoma turned to small ball in the sixth inning when Peyton Graham bunted aboard, advanced on a sacrifice bunt, and stole third base. Strong pitching and heads-up defense left him standing 90 feet away at the end of the OU half of the frame.
Defensively Tech saw some excellent plays. Hudson White hosed Squires attempting to steal second base in the second inning and Kurt Wilson turned in a stellar play to end the fifth.
What a play, Kurt. What a play.@Kurtwilson14 | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/uWIwUUX5Tf
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) May 27, 2022
The seventh inning started well for Morris as he got his eighth strikeout and then after issuing his second walk, picked off the baserunner at first. Morris hit the next batter and surpassed 100 pitches for the fourth time this season before walking his final man. He gave way to Garrett Crowley and John Spikerman jumped on his first pitch with a soft dribbler towards third base. Parker Kelly charged and gloved it, but he struggled for two steps with the exchange and the bang-bang play at first base went the way of the runner to load the bases.
Graham, who’d pounded a straightaway center field grand slam Wednesday against West Virginia, sent a two-run single through the right side. Things then really began to unravel for Tech as Cole Stilwell looked to have Graham in a rundown but spiked the throw to Wilson scoring another OU run making it 6-1. Brandon Beckel entered and a flyout ended the frame. Beckel, Jamie Hitt, and Kyle Robinson combined for 2 strikeouts and 2 1/3 perfect innings the rest of the way retiring the final 7 Oklahoma hitters in order.
For Morris his struggles with Thursday games continued as Tech is now 0-3 with Morris on the starting on Thursday (@ TCU, vs. OU in Lubbock, vs. OU in Arlington).
The Tech offense was not able to answer in the bottom half of the seventh inning although Wilson worked the first walk of the evening on Bennett, representing the fifth baserunner for the Red Raiders. Bennett exited in the eighth after a two-out walk to Easton Murrell, he gave way to Trevin Michael in his fourth appearance of the season against Texas Tech.
Michael got out of the eighth with a popup, but the Red Raiders put together a rally in the ninth. Jung led off with a walk and Ty Coleman hit into a fielder’s choice to follow. Then Wilson smoked an 0-2 offering into the second deck over left field for his 14th home run of the season, tying him with the team lead with Jung. Zac Vooletich pinch-hit and got aboard with a single to shortstop when Graham couldn’t execute the barehand of his grounder. Cody Masters also pinch-hit but his groundout and a Kelly struck out to end the game at the 6-3 final in favor of OU.
Big Kurt got every bit of that one 💣@Kurtwilson14 | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/A6uTLVOVHt
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) May 27, 2022
Texas Tech was held to only four hits with two of those coming in the ninth inning. That’s the lowest hit total for the Red Raiders since the Friday night game against the University of Texas in Lubbock.
The Red Raiders will move into the loser’s bracket and will face Kansas State on Friday at 7:00 pm. That will be broadcast on ESPN+ with the radio call available on Double T 97.3 FM and in their listening area, as well as through The Varsity Network App.
B12G8