#24 Texas Tech (1-0) stumbled out of the gates in their opening day tilt with Gonzaga (0-1) in Lubbock, but once they shook the jitters, the Red Raiders displayed some new offensive weapons and relied on bullpen returners to guide them to the 8-4 victory.
Kyle Robinson, earning his first collegiate start after turning in 11.2 innings over 12 appearances in 2022, surrendered a first-pitch triple to Gonzaga in what would become a two-run inning aided by another hit, a walk, and an error. Defensively Texas Tech tallied four errors on the day with Hudson White (C), Austin Green (2B), Kevin Bazzell (3B), and Tracer Lopez (SS) all experiencing a miscue.
Robinson pushed through with a scoreless second inning but a leadoff single in the third followed by a two-run bomb by Brian Kalmer spelled the end of his day after 2.0+ innings pitched.
Brendan Girton entered in relief and was exceptional, tossing six innings of one-hit baseball while striking out six Bulldog hitters.
“I just came in with the mindset of ‘keep my team in it’ and really that’s all I was trying to do,” said Girton. “I knew they were going to score runs…our guys can hit.”
Girton exited after the eighth, his sixth inning of work, with 84 pitches thrown.
“I felt good enough to finish it, but it’s also early in the season so I get it. But as soon as they said Sanders I’m like ‘ok I trust that’ Sanders is nasty,” explained Girton.
Josh Sanders finished the game for the Red Raiders, serving the Bulldogs a steady diet of offspeed pitches. Fourteen of Sanders’ 18 pitches were strikes with speed differentials between 72-93mph.
Texas Tech’s bats did not disappoint as they tallied 10 hits against Gonzaga ace Owen Wild. In the first, Bazzell sent a double to left field, scoring Gage Harrelson who’d walked to set the table. In the third inning, Nolen Hester got aboard with a leadoff single and Harrelson followed reaching on an error. With one out, Green, a transfer from Weatherford College, clouted a three-run bomb off the scoreboard to tie the game at four runs apiece.
In the fifth, University of Texas transfer Gavin Kash sent a dinger of his own over the right-center field wall to give Tech the lead and they never relinquished it.
Kash went 2-2 with a HR, 2 RBI, and a BB while Lopez, Bazzell, and Hester all booked multi-hit days with two base knocks each.
Following Girton’s game-winning outing, Josh Sanders entered to close it out for the Red Raiders and tossed a perfect frame to secure the victory.
Robinson earned the opening day start in what Head Coach Tim Tadlock has consistently described as a “really tough decision.” In preseason press availability on Wednesday, Tadlock explained that he and his staff identified a six-man starting rotation and had to make the call as to who would get the starts. Ultimately they went with Robinson, Mason Molina, and Bo Blessie with a Monday starter not yet named. The other half of the six who ended up in the bullpen this weekend are Girton, Trendan Parish, and Taber Fast.
There will be several positions that continue to play out over the course of the season with internal competition for playing time including at least two spots in the outfield and shortstop. Harrelson got the nod in center field Friday with Dillon Carter and Jeric Curtis both looking to get opportunities in the future. Lopez started at shortstop with Will Burns another newcomer who will see opportunities there.
“Not an easy decision, but really if guys make your decisions hard that’s what you want,” said Tadlock after the game. “What you want to try to do is not get too result-oriented at any point, as far as baseball goes. We’ve got a bunch of guys that can play baseball and we want to give them an opportunity. We really want everybody on the roster to make an impact when we ask them to.”
Texas Tech will be back in action Saturday at 1:00 pm for the second of the four-game stand hosting Gonzaga. The Saturday game will have a single-camera broadcast without announcers due to the Texas Tech’s production assets being devoted at the same time to Lady Raider Basketball.
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