IOWA CITY – It was an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel Sunday as Texas Tech (17-4) pitchers combined for 10 strikeouts, but they were outshined by the Iowa Hawkeyes (9-9) who fanned 17 Red Raider batters and allowed only four hits on the day en route to a 6-3 home victory. The loss in Iowa snaps a seven-game winning streak for Texas Tech dating back to the loss in Biloxi to Mississippi State, another two-game series the Red Raiders split.
Texas Tech appeared to get rolling early with a leadoff home run by Ty Colemen in the second inning, but the offensive fireworks of Saturday did not materialize Sunday. Tech didn’t score again until the eighth when Cole Stilwell reached on a one-out hit-by-pitch and Jace Jung hit an opposite-field bomb to close the gap to two runs in favor of Iowa.
Jung was the only Tech hitter to book a multi-hit game adding a leadoff single in the fourth inning to go 2-4, HR, 2RBI. Owen Washburn hit a one-out single in the second for Tech’s second hit of the day and their only multi-hit inning.
On the weekend, Red Raider hitters struck out 32 times facing Hawkeyes pitching. The 15 on Saturday were masked somewhat in an 11-3 victory that saw Tech pound 6 extra-base hits in an 8 hit day, but the bats going silent in Tech’s final non-conference weekend before hosting the University of Texas to open Big 12 play is not a positive sign. The Longhorn pitching staff leads the Big 12 in earned run average and a quality approach in Red Raider at-bats will be necessary to down the Longhorns, an early-season favorite to reach the College World Series in Omaha.
The strikeout issue was exacerbated in the middle and bottom of the Texas Tech batting order. Of the 32 strikeouts over the two games in Iowa, 24 came to 5-9 in the batting order, with all of those hitters going down on strikes at least four times, some as many as seven. No one in Tech’s 1-4 holes struck out more than three times on the weekend, Jung has not struck out since the first game against New Mexico on Tuesday.
Incredibly, Jung has not had a multi-strikeout game since facing Auburn in the second game of the season. That remains his only game in 2022 with more than one strikeout, Jung has played nine games this season without striking out at all.
With one swing of the bat, @jace17jung cuts the Iowa lead in half.
T8 | Iowa 5, TTU 3 pic.twitter.com/FvyzvJYJYl
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) March 20, 2022
Texas Tech starting pitcher Mason Molina did have an excellent outing for the Red Raiders, his best of the season. The left-handed freshman allowed only one hit in his five-inning appearance, a bunt single in the second, and he fanned a career-high 8 Hawkeyes. The damage came from the two walks issued by Molina, both led off an inning and both came around to score. One was pushed across after two sacrifices, a bunt and a flyout, the other via an RBI-double after Brendan Girton inherited Molina’s third and final baserunner.
Girton, who was excellent in the midweek in three innings against New Mexico, struggled Sunday giving up 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk in his two-inning appearance. He inherited a leadoff baserunner at first base and a 1-1 game, but an RBI-double, RBI-groundout aided by a wild pitch, and a two-run home run led to a four-run inning for the Hawkeyes that broke the game open. Tech’s offense was unable to string anything together to follow.
Texas Tech will host California Baptist University (13-5) on Tuesday in a single-game midweek. The Lancers are an up-and-coming team out of the WAC and once again the Red Raiders will get the best shot from a midweek opponent looking to secure a resume-building win. That game is scheduled for 6:30 pm on Tuesday, March 22. It will be streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with radio call available on Double T 97.3 FM and their listening area and on The Varsity Network App.
GAME 1: Extra-Base Hits Power Tech to Win in Iowa
TTU21 box score