Birdsell Dominates in the Owls’ House - Red Raider Dugout

Birdsell Dominates in the Owls’ House

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HOUSTON – Brandon Birdsell walked into Reckling Park, the home of the Rice Owls (3-12), with 19 strikeouts in the 2022 season. He walked off of the mound after the sixth inning having tossed 90 pitches of perfect baseball and 15 new strikeouts to hang on his season stat line. Tech took the 3-2 lead with late heroics and Trendan Parish shut the door to earn his first win of the season, clinching the series win over Rice, but Birdsell set the tone with an incredible performance Saturday afternoon.

Birdsell never allowed a baserunner in his start, but he did have to contend with two, and they led to a stat that many baseball fans may only see once. In his second start of the season, Trevor Conley was charged with an error on the leadoff batter of both the first and second innings. Both of those situations involved a dropped strike three on a swinging strikeout, in which the pitcher still earns the strikeout, but the runner reaches on the catcher’s error.

Birdsell went on to strike out the side in both of those innings, meaning he earned 8 strikeouts in the first two innings of his Saturday start. He also struck out the side once more, this time in the sixth for his 13th, 14th, and 15th Ks of the day. It was a career day for Birdsell who surpassed his previous best of 9 Ks in a game and the most for a Red Raider since Bobby Doran fanned 16 against Missouri on May 1, 2010.

Rice pitching was effective as well, combining for 13 strikeouts of Red Raider batters, nine of those at the hands of starter Roel Garcia in his 4.0 inning start. Texas Tech did come up with hits when they needed them. Ty Coleman pounded a two-out RBI double in the first to score Cole Stilwell who’d reached on an error. Coleman also drew a leadoff walk in the fourth and was driven home with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Owen Washburn, his fifteenth run driven in of the season. That 2-0 lead carried the Red Raiders until the eighth when a walk, fielder’s choice, and back-to-back RBI singles evened the game at 2.

Parish checked in and worked the final out of the eighth inning to send it back to Tech batters to find a way – they did. Kurt Wilson came up with a leadoff single, and with two outs, Parker Kelly came in clutch with an RBI double to left field to give Tech the 3-2 lead.

Parish came back out with fire in his belly, a quick groundout put one away but a single and an error put a runner in scoring position. The Owls sent former Red Raider Drew Woodcox to the plate as a pinch-hitter. Woodcox thought he’d worked a walk but made his way back to the plate with a 3-1 count, he couldn’t contend with the freshman from Poolville’s breaking ball and went down swinging. Parish fanned the final batter as well and earned his first collegiate win with a celebratory fist pump and some of his trademark fire.

Defensively it was another sloppy game for both dugouts. Tech was charged with four errors on the day due to execution and situational decision-making. Texas Tech walked into the series with a top 15 fielding percentage in the country but now has suffered from six errors in the two games in Houston so far. Rice has fared even worse with seven errors charged to the Owls, but they are a team that entered the series with 25 errors on the season already.

It wasn’t all bad news defensively for the Red Raiders. Washburn, who has been somewhat quietly putting together an exceptional freshman campaign at the plate and in right field, had a web gem at the fence in the bottom of the third. A leadoff fly ball off the bat of shortstop Jason Ben-Shoshan was headed for a rebound off the top of the wall and extra bases for the Owls’ nine-hole hitter. Washburn however, had other plans. He executed a perfectly timed jump to glove the long fly and set up a third where Rice went down in order, rather than one with a leadoff double or better.

Following the game during coaches handshakes, the chippiness of the series evidenced itself among the coaching staff as things became heated between Texas Tech Head Coach Tim Tadlock and Rice Head Coach Jose Cruz, Jr. The benches slowly cleared but both teams were sent back to their respective dugouts as cooler heads prevailed and both coaches parted with handshakes following an extended conversation.

The Red Raiders will look for the sweep Sunday at 1:00 pm. The streamed broadcast is available on C-USA.tv but requires a subscription. As always, the radio call with Jamie Lent and Dr. Mike Gustafson can be found on Double T 97.3 FM in the Lubbock listening area and on The Varsity Network App.

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TTU16 box score

 

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