When Owen Washburn, Ryan Brome, and Damian Bravo were written into Wednesday’s starting lineup they were a combined 2-38 (.053) on the season, and all looking for a chance to get right at the plate. When the dust settled on a game that saw Tech (16-3) outhit the Mavericks 19-16 en route to a 14-7 victory, that trio combined to go 7-14 (.500), with 7 RBIs, a walk, 2 home runs, and another run scored.
Petty Leads Tech Past Mavericks in First Start
“Before that grand slam, DC [Dillon Carter] he sat me down and said ‘Hey, no matter what the situation is out there if there’s bases loaded, two guys on just go up there and just be you. You’ve been good all spring, all fall, just go up there and take a hack.’ And first pitch I saw I took a hack and it worked out,” explained Bravo of his first career hit, which was a grand slam in Tech’s seven-run fifth inning.
BRAVO‼️
When your first Texas Tech hit is a GRAND SLAM 🥵
…and he pitches. @bravoo2248 pic.twitter.com/fMkspL1r4u
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) March 15, 2023
Offensive production was not a problem for the Red Raiders on Wednesday, their third game of the season with 19 or more hits. In addition to Bravo’s salami, Hudson White, Washburn, and Gavin Kash all pounded long balls. Kash leads the team with seven jacks on the year and when NCAA statistics update, will most likely be leading the nation in hits as well with 37. Tech has hit almost half of their home runs this season in the last five games with 14 missiles over that span.
Gage Harrelson (3), Brome (3), Kash (4), Washburn (2), White (3), Bravo (2) all turned in a multi-hit game Wednesday. Harrelson got his first start in the leadoff spot as Nolen Hester took a day off and in addition to three hits, Harrelson reached base twice more and came around to score twice as well.
Defensively, the Red Raiders continued to add to their nation-leading double-play total, now with 29 turned after two on Wednesday. They had plenty of opportunities after giving up 16 hits to the Mavericks, but the silver lining of that is 12 of those were singles. Tech pitching also only issued three base-on-balls, one of their lowest totals of the season.
Line-drive double play 💪@TracerLopez | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/ClKCnpAHpS
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) March 15, 2023
On the other side of that number, Texas Tech has the unwelcome distinction of being charged with the second-highest total of errors in the country at 38. The Red Raiders have turned in only two error-free games this season, both in February, and have had as many as six. They’re averaging two errors per game so far.
Freshman Zach Erdman (1-0) got his second start of the season and turned in a three-inning outing and holding the Mavericks to one run on four hits while fanning three hitters.
When asked about the pitch he’s most confident in besides his fastball, Erdman explained, “My changeup, I feel like that’s my setup pith, or even my put-away pitch or my two-strike pitch. I think it compliments my fastball and it keeps them [the hitter] off balance and it can set up the curve ball or even another fastball.”
There were a lot of changes in the Red Raider lineup Wednesday with Hester taking the day off, Harrelson leading off and working in center field, Brome moving to the two-hole, Washburn getting the start in right field, and Bravo getting the nod in left field and batting ninth.
The waters continue to be muddy in regards to who will fill in for the injured Carter. Bravo looked extremely comfortable in left field Wednesday, and we’ve seen Hester play center field well in scrimmages. There’s a potential slide over to see there if Bravo’s bat continues to produce. Between Jeric Curtis, Washburn, and Bravo, the question may come down to who can continue to string together quality at-bats in addition to their defensive proficiency in the outfield.
“Yeah he [Bravo] played left quite a bit in the fall, probably hasn’t been out that way quite as much this spring. I thought in BP he ran a lot of balls down and looked really good, was breaking on the ball,” said Head Coach Tim Tadlock after the game. “Left field was probably the toughest place to play today with the slice and just with the wind and everything and thought he went and got the one ball that Ryan Black hit and made it look routine. I thought he routined that ball about as good as you could.”
But despite how good he looked, the outfield is not a place Bravo has spent much time in his baseball career.
“Maybe my senior year I played like two or three innings and that’s about it. And then first base, I never played first base in my life until I got here. So everything was really new here, and with the wind, it was even worse. My first few weeks were like, a ball would get hit to me and like ‘I don’t know where to go,’ my reads were terrible,” said Bravo to a room of laughs. “But Joe [Hughes] and Gute [Eric Gutierrez] have really helped me out and DC has been really good about it, he’s helped me out during BP and during practices, tells me where to go and where to be, how to read the wind.”
#22 Texas Tech will open Big 12 play Friday at 6:30 pm hosting the #12 Oklahoma State Cowboys (15-3). The radio broadcast will be available on Double T 97.3 FM in Lubbock and on The Varsity App and the television stream will be available on ESPN+.
“It’s Big 12 Baseball, you’ve gotta go earn the right to win,” said Tadlock of the Big 12 opener. “We’ve had some battles with those guys, I’m sure we’ll have some more this weekend. They’ve pitched good, they’ve hit good, just like every year.”
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