Despite trailing early, the Red Raiders (5-0) took care of business on a chilly Friday afternoon against Western Illinois (1-4) to open their second series of the season with a win.
Brendan Girton (2-0) got the start for Tech but a rocky three-hit first inning aided by an error in right field gave the Leathernecks an early 2-0 lead. Texas Tech’s bats came in strong to pick him up and the plate approach and heads-up baserunning were on display all day as they drew five walks, stole a base, and benefitted from three errors, five wild pitches, and a couple of hit batsmen.
Girton followed the three-hit opening 1/3 of his first frame with a groundout and strikeout, he kept that momentum into the second and third innings retiring six in a row after a leadoff walk. Andrew Devine, Josh Sanders, and Jacob Rogers (in his collegiate debut) turned in an excellent combined outing in relief tossing four scoreless one-hit innings giving up no walks, and striking out four.
“I thought their lineup really did a good job against Girton and competed with him,” said Head Coach Tim Tadlock. “Ya know, tip your hat to them, they played a good game. It’s college baseball, it’s college athletics. A lot of people think it’s easy, it’s not, you’ve gotta go earn the right to win.”
The Red Raider lineup had a few changes Friday with Dillon Carter getting his first start of the season in center field and Gage Harrelson moving over to right. Tracer Lopez was back at shortstop, where he played the first two games of the first series against Gonzaga. Carter came up big with the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the second inning, he snagged a second RBI with his first hit of the season, a triple to right field in the eighth.
.@dilloncarter16‘s first hit of the season goes for three bags!
Carter drives in White to make it 8-3. pic.twitter.com/k7HnJLHRhf
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) February 24, 2023
Kevin Bazzell contributed an RBI double in the first and Austin Green pounded a solo home run, his second dinger of the season, off of the Coke bottle radar sign in right-center field.
How we do it. 🤠@aust1ngreen_ | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/OfkczmxHky
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) February 24, 2023
It was a much cleaner day in the field for the Red Raiders who committed six errors in their last outing, and while it was the first game in 2023 they didn’t notch double-digit hits, they made significant production on the seven hits they did manage, especially with the help of miscues by Western Illinois.
First pitch Friday was at 1:00 PM after the solo-game day was moved to a doubleheader and then back to a single based on the weather forecast. Texas Tech will play a doubleheader Saturday starting at 12:00 PM, and the broadcast will be available on Big 12 Now on ESPN+, Double T 97.3 FM, and The Varsity App.
TTU05Box