Texas Tech (14-2) walked into Saturday’s matchup knowing that Brody Brecht (1-1) would bring his a-game looking to even the series after Tech’s lopsided Friday victory. The two-sport athlete (football, baseball) is known for his 100+ mph velocity from the mound. But despite the early pitchers’ duel, the Hawkeyes (10-3) came up short as Tech got the bats going and capitalized on Iowa mistakes to extend their home winning streak to 14 games dating back to the 2022 season.
Dillon Carter’s Career Day Leads Tech Past #23 Iowa
Brecht came out pumping straight 101 mph gas, but Tech booked three hits in the first two frames and the 2024 MLB Draft prospect went heavily to the offspeed for the duration of his outing. He didn’t get much run support, with only a 1-0 margin to work with earned in the fourth inning. Owen Washburn walked to lead off the fifth for Tech and a Dillon Carter double and Hudson White RBI groundout brought Washburn scampering home to even the game.
In the sixth, Gage Harrelson sent a one-out single through the left side. He took second base on a wild pitch, stole third, and ultimately stole home to give the Red Raiders the lead – they never relinquished it.
“Yesterday he goes ‘I can get it on the catcher’ and today he did it 100% on his own just playing baseball,” explained Head Coach Tim Tadlock of Harrelson’s steal of home.” He saw something, he saw he could get 90 feet, pretty cool play.”
WILD 🤯@harrelson_gage timed it perfectly to put us in front, 2-1! pic.twitter.com/YFj8PVLILK
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) March 11, 2023
Harrelson turned in another multi-hit day, his tenth of this, his freshman season. He is tied with Gavin Kash for the team lead in multi-hit games this season.
Mason Molina (2-0) got the start for the Red Raiders and lasted five innings allowing four hits and giving up an unearned run that was aided by his own error on an errant pickoff throw to second base. Molina fanned seven Hawkeyes but he was not particularly excited about his own performance.
“Might not have felt the best the last couple days from some allergy stuff, but it was kind of just trying to battle with what I had,” said Molina. “The stuff wasn’t maybe as sharp as it was in Houston but I just kind of went out there and tried to do what I could.”
Most observers would argue that Molina was excellent Saturday, he worked around baserunners effectively and dealt with only one miscue, while tossing strikes at better than a 65% clip. Molina is an easy guy to enjoy being around. He’s smart, witty, and self-aware, but it’s the constant drive to be better that is so endearing.
When asked about his self-criticism he responded, “Yeah, I think that’s what’s gotten me here. The game in Houston I was a little bummed out or a little disappointed in myself that the third inning happened. But, you can control what you can control but you can always want to do more.”
That game in Houston was a career outing for Molina against the University of Michigan in which he struck out 11 Wolverines over six innings while walking only one.
Brandon Beckel entered in relief of Molina and earned the win in two innings of work where he faced only two above the minimum. His day ended after giving up a solo home run to start the eighth inning but he did earn the win, his first of 2023. Beckel has now tossed 10 2/3 innings across five relief appearances. His ERA is a 0.84 and his WHIP is 1.03, he’s got 14 strikeouts to only 4 walks and is holding opposing hitters to a .167 average.
ATHLETE 👏@brandonbeckel ➡️ @Gavinkash6 pic.twitter.com/rYss5HayTV
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) March 11, 2023
Trendan Parish took over after the dinger and scuffled his way through two innings to slam the door on the Hawkeyes and earn his first save of the season.
Offensively it was another day of firsts for the Red Raiders. Tracer Lopez had a big swing in the seventh, his first collegiate triple, that plated White and Nolen Hester to make it a 4-1 Tech lead. The Red Raiders carried a 4-3 lead into the eighth inning and Kash called in the insurance man with a 487-foot moonshot over the scoreboard to make it a two-run Tech lead. It was Kash’s team-leading fifth home run of the season.
That’s a 487-foot 💣 👀@Gavinkash6 | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/HAXRQicbVG
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) March 11, 2023
Two hitters later, Dylan Maxcey added to the firsts with his first collegiate home run, and while it wasn’t the first ball he’s run out of Rip Griffin Park, it was the first that will appear in a box score.
The park’s not going to hold this one either!
Dylan HAX-cey’s first home run as a Red Raider!@Dmaxcey1 | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/GG19zsn12u
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) March 11, 2023
Hester completed the four-run eighth with a two-run double scoring Carter and White to solidify the final score of 8-3 in favor of the Red Raiders.
Tech entered the weekend with an RPI hovering around #200, but Iowa’s RPI of #18 helped the Red Raiders vault 120 spots up to #70.
Kyle Robinson is slated to get the start on the mound after an exceptional six-inning relief outing in the marathon game against Texas A&M a week ago in Houston. Tech will seek the sweep of the Hawkeyes Sunday at 1:00 pm. 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+.
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