HOUSTON – It was 40 degrees but felt like 29 thanks to the 25mph sustained winds at Reckling Park where Texas Tech met the Rice Owls Friday night. The Red Raiders (12-3) took down the Owls (3-11) of Conference USA 10-1 in a game that saw Andrew Morris and Josh Sanders put together their best performances of their Red Raider careers, cold hands notwithstanding.
Morris, who earned the win to improve to 2-0, went five full innings for Tech, and while he gave up 7 hits and the Tech defense booted the ball a couple of times, Morris was unflappable walking only one batter and adding four strikeouts to his season total which now sits at 28, good for 3rd in the Big 12 Conference. The lone run he allowed came in the third inning when his only leadoff hit allowed was knocked home with an RBI single, all aided by an error in the outfield.
Big fourth strikeout for @andrewmo03 to get out of a bases-loaded jam to end the inning!
End 4th | TTU 2, Rice 1 pic.twitter.com/SFsupsWDTw
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) March 12, 2022
Josh Sanders entered in relief in the sixth for Tech and he was exceptional. Sanders earned his first save of the season with four innings of scoreless, one-hit work. He walked only one and struck out five, including striking out the side in the eighth and adding his final K for the second out of the ninth.
The combined efforts of Morris and Sanders fanned nine Rice batters, but their pitch execution was nothing short of elite. Morris tossed 76 pitches in his five innings of work and threw strikes at a clip of 71.1%. Sanders bested him with 72% of his 50 pitches hitting the zone.
Rice did plenty of damage to themselves as well. The Owls walked into the evening with 25 errors on the stat line in 2022, and they added five more against Tech, aided in part by the conditions, but also due to hard-hit balls and an opportunistic and baseball-savvy Texas Tech offense.
Jace Jung, Kurt Wilson, and Ty Coleman all booked a multi-hit night with Jung and Wilson both going 2-4, 2RBI, 2R, 1BB. Wilson extended his hitting streak to eight games and Jung also belted a double, his seventh extra-base hit of the season. It was a scorcher into the right-center field gap that scored Cole Stilwell from first base. Coleman returned after 10 days out due to hamstring soreness and went 2-5 with a run scored despite not yet running full speed to protect the injury in the cold weather.
Dalton Porter, starting in left field and batting eighth, reached on all of his plate appearances with a walk, reached on error, RBI double, and two HBPs. Parker Kelly booked two RBIs, including his sixth home run of the season, a solo bomb to lead off the ninth. Perhaps more impressive was an RBI sacrifice bunt in the fifth that scored Wilson and was beautifully timed and executed. Kelly, drawing the big bopper attention, laid down a safety squeeze to extend Tech’s lead to 5-1.
ALL THIS GUY DOES IS HIT BOMBS 💣
Home run #6 in the last six games for @ParkerKelly22 pic.twitter.com/HAk0O0UseV
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) March 12, 2022
Finally, in a rough day for Dillon Carter in the leadoff, Stilwell consistently set the table reaching on three straight walks and scoring twice.
Texas Tech will be back at it Saturday at 2:00 pm at Reckling Park and should see sunny skies and 60-degree temperatures. 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.
TTU15 box score
