Texas Tech slogged through much of its second midweek game against Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday at Dan Law Field, looking very much like a team struggling for offensive consistency with Dru Baker, Dylan Neuse, and Kurt Wilson still out of action with injuries.
Oh, there were occasional flashes of what the Red Raiders have proven to be capable of all season. Just never that one inning when they exploded with a thunderous knockout blow.
But like a team with top-shelf expectations should, Texas Tech found enough of a groove when it had to in a 7-5 victory against the feisty Lumberjacks.
The 8th-ranked Red Raiders (24-7) erased a two-run deficit by churning out four runs in the bottom of the 7th inning and Connor Queen logged the final two innings without a run scoring to make the tenuous lead hold up.
Texas Tech leadoff hitter Easton Murrell swatted a pair of solo home runs in the first 2 innings for an early kick-start, but it was light-hitting Max Marusak setting the table in the 7th and an SFA error on a routine fly ball that fueled the timely rally.
The comeback wasn’t textbook or orthodox by any means, but for a lineup still in figure-it-out mode while two of the Red Raiders’ best hitters mend, the means isn’t nearly as important as the end result.
“Really, it’s you do the best you can in that moment,” Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock said after his team’s fourth straight victory overall and 12th straight in mid-week action. “There’s just no guarantees in those moments. Really, what you can do is go pitch-to-pitch and try to get a good pitch to hit. Guys did that.”
Doesn’t hurt to catch a break now and then, and after 5 empty innings, that was a big part of the game-winning rally.
Marusak stepped into the batter’s box in the 7th inning 0-for-13 this season and promptly rifled a grounder down the left-field line for a leadoff double, the second of his college career. SFA reliever Austin Roth walked Murrell before inducing a ground ball that was headed to left field before Lumberjack shortstop Bryan Burgos smothered the ball and nearly made a big play on a 6-5 fielder’s choice. But Marusak was safe to load the bases and that’s when the biggest break arrived.
Scorching-hot Jace Jung drove a ball to medium-depth left field where newly inserted Clayton Loranger got a bead on it, seemed to be in position for the catch and dropped the ball. Marusak scored to close the gap to 5-4, but the misplayed ball swung the door wide open for Texas Tech.
Cole Stilwell followed with another bases-loaded sacrifice fly that knotted the score, and on a wild relay throw toward third base, Jung motored to second base. Cal Conley was intentionally walked to reload the bases and that backfired when Cody Masters lashed a single to left field to give the Red Raiders the lead. Two batters later, Parker Kelly walked to force in a run.
“We caught a break in the inning, obviously, on the fly ball to left,” Tadlock said. “It probably would have drove [a run] in, but who knows. … The break was a big part of the inning.”
But the decisive inning also the result of some hitters getting comfortable in their current skin. Subtracting Baker’s team-best .427 batting average and Neuse’s knack for doing-it-all from the middle of the batting order would be a challenge for any offense.
With those two on the shelf, Tadlock has tinkered and one of the major changes was shifting Murrell to the front of the lineup – a move that has paid some dividends, especially Wednesday.
“We’re not going to just go out easy; we’re going to put something together like we always do,” Murrell said. “The bats, they end up getting going, whether it’s at the start of the game or later in the game.
“I was just seeing the ball well (Wednesday). I had the mindset of just going up there and swinging. They threw me my pitch and I capitalized on it.”
Except for one inning, the Lumberjack hitters didn’t get a lot to hit on a patchwork quilt kind of day for the Texas Tech pitching staff.
Hayde Key started and was untouchable for 2 innings but struggled to get out of the 3rd when Stephen F. Austin (12-16) rattled him for four runs – three solid-contact swings after a leadoff walk and a perfectly executed bunt single as the foundation.
Following that frame, which ended with the Lumberjacks in front 4-3, the Red Raider pitchers were darn near flawless.
- Levi Wells notched 2 innings with 4 strikeouts and didn’t surrender a hit or a run.
- Eli Riechmann got nicked for a run in 2 innings, then choked off any chance SFA had of hanging a crooked number.
- Connor Queen came on for the final 2 innings and navigated through a bases-loaded jam in the 9th by inducing a 6-4-3 double play that was reviewed and upheld.
“They all showed flashes of what you want to see,” Tadlock said. “I thought Hayde threw the ball well for 2 innings. For the most part, Eli was pretty good. Levi lost command maybe for 4-5 pitches and other than that he was really good. And I thought Connor had enough stuff to get us through the 8th and 9th. It was good to get those guys on the mound in a really close game and let them go execute some pitches.”
Up next is the Red Raiders’ second Big 12 Conference road trip of the season to West Virginia, starting with a 5:30 p.m. game on Friday.
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