They walked to the sweep, but this game wasn’t a cakewalk by any means, with five lead changes in a back-and-forth affair starting at 11:00 am on Monday that ended with dust in the air. But #24 Texas Tech (4-0) closed out the sweep of Gonzaga (0-4) with a walk-off walk by Austin Green to make it a 9-8 win.
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It was the first game of the series the Red Raiders needed the bottom of the ninth inning to finish things out but it felt like it would be one of those days from the beginning.
Gonzaga leadoff hitter Enzo Apodaca got aboard on a 0-1 pitch due to catcher’s interference, ultimately the lefty Apodaca reached on 3 CI calls this weekend. The Bulldogs followed with a single and RBI double off of starter Trendan Parish to take the early 1-0 lead.
Tech stormed back in the bottom half of the inning to plate two of their own as Nolen Hester pounded a leadoff double to the right-center field wall and Gage Harrelson followed with a bunt single. Kevin Bazzell worked a walk and Green did the same, the latter hanging an RBI. Ty Coleman sent a sacrifice fly to right field to give Tech their first lead of the day.
Parish held the Bulldogs at bay the next two innings, at one point retiring six hitters in a row. But Tech would lose the lead in the fourth on a solo home run and then an error scored the go-ahead run. But the Red Raiders responded in the fifth when Gavin Kash scored Bazzell, who led off the inning with a walk, and Hudson White provided an RBI double to score Kash. Harrelson found his first collegiate home run, going opposite field in the sixth to tack on one more for the Red Raiders.
.@harrelson_gage oppo taco 🌮
First career HR for the freshman! pic.twitter.com/Bp3U7Gl7b1
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) February 20, 2023
But the Bulldogs weren’t done with Lubbock yet as two home runs spread over the seventh and eighth innings plated five more runs for Gonzaga, forcing some nail-biting action down the stretch with Tech needed to dig out of an 8-6 deficit. In the bottom of the eighth, Hester led off with a walk, his third of the day, and was brought around to score by an RBI double off the bat of Harrelson. Bazzell followed with a walk of his own and Coleman was sent to first, putting a force out at any bag. Ryan Brome entered as a pinch hitter and sent a towering sacrifice fly to center field to give Tech the tie.
The Red Raiders brought in freshman Damian Bravo to slam the door on the Bulldogs in the ninth and he did just that, striking out the side with a walk issued to the second hitter. Drawing one of the most difficult tasks in baseball, Zac Vooletich was sent into the game as a pinch hitter and he smoked a double to left field. Hester followed with a single to right, his second hit of the day but a big throw from the outfield held Vooletich at third base.
Bazzell was walked intentionally and Green worked a four-pitch walk to score, fittingly, Vooletich, for the walk-off victory.
4-0
🎥 Highlights from today’s 9-8 dub. @Gatorade | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/5YWeQCX7jm
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) February 20, 2023
It was decided before the game that no inning would start after 2:30 pm, adding an unusual element to the game – a time limit. If extra innings became part of the equation, playing more than one would have been very difficult. Setting up the potential for Texas Tech’s first tie since April 15, 2006, against Kansas State.
But that wasn’t on the mind of the team in the critical moments
“Oh no one told us about that,” said Vooletich looking to Kash surprised.
“Uh uh. That’s news to us.”
“I’m glad I got a double then,” said Vooletich with a smile. “That would have been a sour week if we had tied, for sure.”
“We were thinking about that,” said Tadlock of the coaching staff. “That’s the worst thing in a baseball game, having to worry about time, it just doesn’t seem normal. But on getaway day it’s something we do, so you knew you kind of need to throw goose eggs up there in the eighth and ninth if you could and give yourself a chance.”
When asked about who else on the team they were impressed with, Kash mentioned Bravo’s performance Monday and Vooletich mentioned Brandon Beckel, who turned in two scoreless innings of relief following Parish.
But Kash continued, “You can’t forget about Zac Voo coming in in a tough situation or Ryan Brome coming into a tough situation, pinch hits are not easy. It’s never easy to pinch hit and I think them coming off the bench to do that, it just shows that they’re team, they’re locked in, it’s fun.”
Fun is something that keeps coming up with players and Head Coach Tim Tadlock early in this season. I’ve said it on radio interviews and podcasts, but there’s a sense of chemistry about this team. They have a camaraderie that helps them lift each other up and walking off a tough Gonzaga team giving everything they have to take a win out of Lubbock is evidence of that.
“I don’t want to hype it up too much but, this year, we’ve got a good group of fellas, we really do,” said Vooletich. “We like to have fun together, we like to work hard together. I think really the biggest thing is doing things off the field with each other, we really do that a lot, and we enjoy it.”
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows on Monday. Texas Tech was charged with 6 errors in this game, giving them a grand total of 11 errors across the four games of opening weekend. Only the Saturday matchup was clean in that category. It’s probably to be expected, with as many true and redshirt freshmen that are seeing time in the field, there are bound to be growing pains both in sharpening their game and learning to play together.
The Red Raiders will be back in action next weekend hosting the Western Illinois Leathernecks in Lubbock next weekend in a four-game stand. Friday’s matchup is slated to begin at 1:00 PM and the broadcast will be available on Big 12 Now on ESPN+, Double T 97.3 FM, and The Varsity App. Saturday’s doubleheader is slated to begin at 12:00 PM and Sunday’s matchup at 2:00 PM.
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