Five games have given Texas Tech plenty of time to hammer out the kinks left over from a lost season-opening week. And the final new nails delivered Wednesday in the second game against Texas Southern were perfectly placed and put a fitting finish between the two phases of the first 2½ weeks of the new season.
The 10th-ranked Red Raiders thundered past the outmanned Tigers 15-0 in 7 innings at Dan Law Field to cap a quick and dominant mid-week sweep and extend their winning streak to five games.
During that streak, Tech has outscored Houston Baptist and Texas Southern 66-13. The offensive onslaught Tuesday featured 3 more runs and 5 doubles among the 13-hit total.
Jace Jung and Cal Conley supplied 3 hits apiece, two of Jung’s leaving the ballpark – a three-run homer that punctuated an 8-run 2nd inning as a lynch pin.
On the mound, the Red Raiders (5-3) trotted out five freshmen and there was rarely a hint of trouble. Starter Chase Hampton set the tone with 3 hitless, scoreless frames and earned his first college win.
“I really thought he started by executing his fastball command,” Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. “Any time a pitcher gets in a jam, when you locate a fastball, you can get out of a jam and I thought that’s what he did.”
Texas Southern (0-9) didn’t produce a hit until the 5th when Tyrese Clayborne and Tyler Williams produced back-to-back singles to greet Jamie Hitt, who walked the bases full.
Even that promising start fizzled for TSU when Hitt got a weak infield pop then induced a 6-4-3 rally-squashing double play off the bat of three-hole hitter Oscar Ponce.
One of the five rookies who took the mound making his career debut – Brady LeJeune-DeAcutis – was impressed by what he saw from his fellow hurlers.
“There is a ton of talent with all the young players we have,” he said after he struck out three of the four hitters he faced. “We have a very bright future. We get to look up to some of the older guys and to the coaches to show us the ropes, show us how it works.”
Safe to say the younger hitters on the Tech roster have gotten plenty of learning material the last five games. Of the Red Raiders’ 13 hits, 10 came with runners on base – 4 in the big early outburst.
Easton Murrell got the train rolling with a two-run double, Jung’s three-run bomb made the inning more crooked and back-to-bac doubles from Dylan Neuse and Nate Rombach capped the inning.
Jung bashed a two-run homer two innings later, his 4th of the season, and Conley joined the fray when he deposited the ball over the fence in right-center field to send the game closer to run-rule territory.
“These guys are just now starting to get their feet on the ground,” Tadlock said. “It seems like guys are starting to see the ball better.”
Up next is an uptick in terms of the challenge Tech will face when it heads to the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic at Minute Maid Park in Houston. The Red Raiders open the three-day event against Texas State at 7 p.m. Friday then face Sam Houston State at 3 p.m. Saturday and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 11 a.m. Sunday.
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