LAWRENCE – Texas Tech (24-5, 4-1) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning and never looked back Saturday to take down Kansas (9-16, 0-5) by a score of 28-2. That’s the second time in 2022 the Red Raiders scored 28 runs in a game, adding another line to a list of all-time offensive performances. Against New Mexico on March 15, the 28-run outing was fueled by a program record 16-run frame, Saturday however, the distribution was more even as Tech scored in six of the seven subsequent innings after the second and hung a crooked number in all but one of those.
- 31, 1997 vs. College of the Southwest
- 30, 2004 vs. Harvard
- 30, 1984 vs. Baylor
- 29, 1975 vs. Rice
- 28, 1996 vs. Eastern Michigan
- 28, 1928 vs. Shallowater
- 28, 2022 vs. New Mexico
- 28, 2022 vs. Kansas
Brandon Birdsell was exceptional in his seventh start of the season as he earned the win to improve to 4-1, but Birdsell exited after his fifth inning of work at 65 pitches. Birdsell would have most likely continued the appearance, in which he held the Jayhawks hitless and struck out eight, but the Red Raiders exploded for eight runs in the top of the sixth inning forcing Birdsell to sit through the extended frame.
Rather than risk injury after sitting so long, Birdsell gave way to Colin Clark, Bo Blessie, and Chase Hampton, who were all strong and combined for only four hits and one walk through the remaining four innings. The Red Raider pitching staff fanned a dozen Jayhawk hitters Saturday and issued only three bases-on-balls, although three hit batsmen doubled the rate of free passes.
Birdsell now has 58 strikeouts on the season with only 10 walks. He’s tallied 39 of those Ks and 4 walks in his last four games.
Tech’s early lead was driven by the long-ball, as Parker Kelly pounded a two-out two-run bomb in the second to score Hudson White and get the Red Raiders on the board. Kurt Wilson and Owen Washburn followed going back-to-back in the third fueling a five-run frame. Most impressively, Jace Jung stepped to the plate in the fifth inning facing a fresh reliever with two outs on the board and Easton Murrell on first base. Jung battled to a 14 pitch at-bat after fouling off nine balls to load a 1-2 count. Jung finally got the pitch low and away he was looking for and demolished that 15th offering for a 440-foot bomb over the huge batter’s eye at Hoglund Park and touched them all.
And the 15th pitch of the at-bat was just rrrrrright
440 FOOT BOMB OVER THE BATTER’S EYE 💣@jace17jung | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/yZiW13OaHY
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) April 2, 2022
Overall, Jung finished a triple shy of the cycle going 3-3, 2B, HR, BB, 2RBI, 3R before giving way to Lauden Brooks in the sixth. Kelly’s dinger was his team-leading eighth of the season, but he wouldn’t hold the lead for long as Jung’s shot tied him back atop the team board with Kelly. Jung’s elite at-bat is indicative of his big-league plate approach in 2022. Jung now has appeared in 14 games in 2022 in which he has not struck out and still has only one multi-strikeout game in Tech’s 28 games thus far.
White was excellent, batting seventh as is the norm for the freshman C/1B. He went 5-6, 2B, 5RBI, 5R, BB. While the stat line looks like White recorded an out, he still reached safely in the sixth at-bat when he reached on an E6 in the third and came around to score on a Murrell two-RBI double.
Sam Hunt also had a very nice day in his fourth start of the season. Hunt, a redshirt freshman out of Flower Mound, has been pressed into service in center field as Dillon Carter has missed this week’s action. He’s been confirmed as unavailable but was in street clothes against Stephen F. Austin in the midweek, indicating he is most likely out with an undisclosed injury.
Hunt joined Murrell (2B, 3B), Jung (2B, HR), Cody Masters (2 2B) who pinch-hit for Ty Coleman in the sixth, and Wilson (2B, HR) as the Red Raider hitters with multiple extra-base hits Saturday. Hunt played the full game and finished the day 4-5, 2 2B, 2BB, 4RBI, 4R. An unusual situation led to Hunt missing out on his first career home run as he learned a valuable lesson in a generally low-stakes situation with a big lead.
In the seventh, he pounded a 2-0 pitch over the wall, but the Kansas outfielder and crowd reaction led him to believe his shot was caught rather than leaving the park. Hunt didn’t see the 2B umpire call the home run and peeled out of the base path to go back to the dugout. He was called out for skipping 2B and leaving the base path with the odd score in the book of a single that grounded out to 2B unassisted. Despite the mistake, Hunt has been solid offensively and defensively in his new role, looking well-suited for the level of play.
Fifteen Red Raider players saw opportunities at the plate and in the field with multiple pinch hitters, pinch runners, and defensive substitutions that started in the sixth inning. The bottom third of the lineup played the full game and after seeing the 7-8-9 hitters struggle against Iowa in that two-game weekend stand in Iowa City, White, Kelly, and Hunt combined to go 10-15, 3 2B, HR, 6BB, 12RBI, 13R on Saturday.
The Red Raiders will look for their first Big 12 sweep of 2022 Sunday as they face the Jayhawks once again at 1:00 pm. There is never a guarantee of a sweep and Tech will have their work cut out for them. In 2018 in Lawrence, Tech dominated the Jayhawks to clinch the series, but the Jayhawks run-ruled the Red Raiders in the getaway game to deny Tech the sweep. The live stream will be available on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with radio call available on Double T 97.3 FM and in their listening area, as well as through The Varsity Network App.
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