The #16 Red Raiders (20-6, 2-1) fell 12-1 to the #2 Texas Longhorns (19-7, 1-2) in a run-ruled game at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park Sunday. The Red Raiders struggled to slow down a Texas offensive attack that accounted for 17 hits on the day and amassed 49 hits over the series. Texas Tech won the Friday game with a walk-off steal of home in the 10th inning by Kurt Wilson and the Saturday offering on a walk-off grand slam in the 10th by Wilson as well but were unable to secure the Big 12 opening sweep of Texas.
Texas outhit the Red Raiders in the first two games but Tech was able to find the offense they needed each time to respond to Texas home runs and leads, that was not the case Sunday, although it was tight through the fifth inning.
Neither team scored in the first inning for the first time in the series but Texas struck first when a sacrifice fly by Mitchell Daly scored Silas Ardoin, who had led off the second inning with a double down the left-field line. The Red Raiders responded in the third in a remarkably similar situation. Easton Murrell led off the inning with a double to left-center field and Jace Jung drove him home with a sacrifice fly.
Texas Tech put four more runners aboard the rest of the way but was unable to find a way to bring any of them home. With singles by Ty Coleman and Owen Washburn in the sixth, the Red Raiders had runners on the corners but were unable to capitalize. Tech went 1-4 (.250) with runners in scoring position Sunday after hitting 7-14 (.500) Saturday in the same position. When compared to the Longhorns, who went 17-34 (.500) on the day and 7-11 (.636) with runners in scoring position, it’s clear their dangerous offense was in overdrive as they looked to avoid the sweep.
Murrell had a good day at the plate for Tech going 3-4 with a double and a run scored. That makes back-to-back multi-hit games for Murrell, who hit a leadoff home run in each of the first two games of the series. The senior from Prosper, TX has settled in nicely to the leadoff position.
“Easton’s seeing the ball really good, he puts together good professional at-bats, separates balls and strikes,” said Texas Tech Head Coach Tim Tadlock. “Yeah, that’s something that definitely helped us get through the weekend for sure, really the week.”
Texas pitching deserves plenty of credit in limiting the Tech offensive attack. Starting lefthander Lucas Gordon tossed 101 pitches over six innings and struck out seven Red Raider hitters.
Tadlock praised the Longhorns for earning the win Sunday. “I think Texas earned every bit of it. Their lineup was outstanding top to bottom. I thought Lucas Gordon was outstanding on both sides of the plate. They’ll be tough to beat if he does that. Anytime you can command the fastball it’s obviously going to cause some problems and he’s got a good changeup.”
Texas Tech starter Mason Molina settled in after the run in the second and retired six Longhorn hitters in order over the next two innings. But Skyler Messinger and Daly hit back-to-back home runs to start the fifth, marking the third time in the weekend that Texas hitters hit back-to-back solo shots. Josh Sanders, Kyle Robinson, and Jace Lopez saw time in relief Sunday but all struggled against the red hot Texas bats. Trey Faltine hit the final home run of the series, the eleventh of the weekend for the Longhorns.
The seven-run seventh inning pushed the lead to 12-1 and Texas Tech was unable to answer to avoid the getaway game run rule that ended the contest with a 10+ run differential after seven innings.
Ivan Melendez, who came into Sunday with a streak of reaching safely on 12 consecutive plate appearances had gone 8-8 with 3 walks over the series. He walked in the first inning but strikeouts in the third and fifth ended his streak at 13. This was the first day of the weekend Melendez did not hit a home run.
The loss snaps a 13 game home winning streak for the Red Raiders but the silver lining is the Big 12 opening series victory against probably the toughest opponent they’ll face in Big 12 play.
“As far as the weekend goes, really great series. Both teams are to be commended for how they competed through the weekend and obviously you could look at it and go ‘hey, you could be on the other side of it really easy,'” explained Tadlock. “I thought our guys competed, I thought they prepared good, but I also think we’re going to keep evolving as a baseball team. We’ve by no means played our best baseball.”
The Red Raiders will have their next opportunity to continue evolving on Tuesday and Wednesday when they host the Stephen F. Austin State University Lumberjacks at Rip Griffin Park with first pitch Tuesday scheduled for 6:30 pm. 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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