Four swings of the bat and a base on balls were the difference Friday night as Texas Tech (25-8, 5-2) took down the Kansas State Wildcats (15-14, 1-6) Friday night to take a 1-0 lead in the Red Raiders’ third Big 12 series of 2022.
Cole Stilwell pounded a solo shot over the left-center field wall to lead off the second inning to give Tech a 1-0 lead that stood for the next three innings. It was Stilwell’s fourth home run of the season and his second of Big 12 play. Stilwell moved into the cleanup spot batting fourth Friday as Hudson White moved into the leadoff in the absence of Easton Murrell.
In the postgame media availability, Head Coach Tim Tadlock confirmed that Easton Murrell, who leads the Big 12 in slugging percentage (.913) and OPS (1.465) was injured sliding into the wall pursuing a fly ball at Grand Canyon on Wednesday afternoon. Murrell cut his knee and cannot play because of stitches required to close the wound.
Andrew Morris was nails for the Red Raiders in his seventh start of the season. The Colorado Mesa transfer retired the first nine batters he faced in order, striking out seven. He worked out of a jam in the fourth inning after an error charged to him and a sacrifice bunt put a runner on third with one out. Morris responded working a flyout to Jung in shallow center field and his eighth strikeout. A leadoff single in the sixth inning, a hit batsman, and another single loaded the bases on Morris. A sacrifice fly and two-RBI single gave the Wildcats a 3-1 lead after the first crooked number of the day for either team.
“Each start you learn something new, sometimes it’s good to get knocked around a little bit early [in the season],” explained Morris. “That taught me a lot, I feel like I’ve grown a lot more as a pitcher as I’ve progressed through the season. I’m just happy we keep getting wins, happy to do what I can for the team.”
In the Tech half of the sixth, KSU starter Griffin Hassall faced Jace Jung and then exited the game. With one out, Ty Coleman worked back from down two strikes in the count and pounded a single into left field and Stilwell followed with a single of his own to left. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position and Kurt Wilson worked a walk to load the bases. Freshman right-fielder Owen Washburn stepped in and lasered a go-ahead bases-clearing double to the wall in the right-center field gap. Two hitters later, Dalton Porter, starting in left in place of Murrell, pounded a two-out RBI double down the left-field line to score Washburn turning the game around to a 5-3 lead for the Red Raiders.
Tadlock was pleased with Porter’s performance and outlined what he likes about the transfer from the University of Texas.
“He’s got a lot of tools. I thought he made a really good play in left field, probably goes unnoticed. There’s some guys that don’t make that play look as – I don’t know that he made it look easy, but he caught it” said Tadlock. “He brings a lot of things to the table. He can really handle a bat, steal a base when you need to, good runner. So yeah, that was good to see.”
A two-error inning for the K-State third baseman and a single from Wilson scratched Coleman across for an insurance run in the seventh inning to solidify the final score.
Freshman righthander Trendan Parish entered for the final frame. He worked a groundout and strikeout but back-to-back singles put things in doubt. Parish gathered and responded with a strikeout of nine-hole hitter Dominic Hughes to slam the door and earn his sixth save of the season. Derek Bridges also turned in a perfect relief inning to bridge Morris to Parish.
The heart of the Tech lineup was the strength Friday with Stilwell (2-4, HR, RBI, 2R), Wilson (2-3, BB, R), and Washburn (2-3, 2B, 3RBI, BB) all booking multi-hit games. Additionally, Coleman, who hit in the three-hole, scored twice after a hit and when he reached on an error.
“I thought we stayed pitch to pitch pretty good tonight, for the most part the whole game,” said Tadlock. “Andrew Morris, he gives you some margin for error the way he goes out and pitches. What we like to do is build some for him and go out and get him some runs so he can go pound the strike zone.
The Red Raiders will be back in action Saturday at 2:00 pm with a chance to secure the series win over the Wildcats. The live stream will be available on ESPN+ with the radio call available on Double T 97.3 FM and in their listening area, as well as through The Varsity Network App.
TTU33 box score