The First Rule of Baseball is Never Leave Early

The First Rule of Baseball is Never Leave Early

By / / Leave a Comment

Heading into the bottom of the fifth inning Friday, the #22 Red Raiders (17-3, 1-0) looked to be cooked as they trailed 7-1 to the #12 Oklahoma State Cowboys (15-4, 0-1). Whether it was due to the score, the frigid evening, or a combination of both, a large contingent of the faithful at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park decided to hit the exits. Texas Tech then posted a lesson in staying for all 27 outs as the bats put up a two-run fifth and a four-run eighth to send a tie ballgame into extra innings and the Red Raiders took down their Big 12 foe on the opening day of the conference slate in walk-off fashion.

It was a rocky beginning for the Red Raiders as Brendan Girton struggled throughout his start surrendering six hits and six runs, five of them earned, to a potent Cowboys lineup. But the story of the evening became the four bullpen pitchers who followed as they combined to hang five zeroes in a row on the scoreboard.

Girton gave way to Garrett Crowley, who entered in a jam with two runners in scoring position and worked a flyout from Carson Benge, who had two hits and three RBIs so far in the game, to exit the inning unscathed.

Brendan Lysik followed Crowley after a single and walk ended his night. An RBI single in the fifth scored the final run of Oklahoma State’s evening and was the only hit that Lysik surrendered in his 1 2/3 innings of work.

The most eyebrow-raising performance came from Ethan Coombes, who walked into the game with 2 2/3 innings spread over three appearances in 2023. He entered after Lysik walked the leadoff hitter of the seventh and, despite the baserunner stealing second and taking third on a wild pitch, he struck out the side. Coombes then got himself into a jam walking the first two hitters of the eighth, but responded by working a flyout to left field and then fanning his fourth Cowboy hitter. A single then loaded the bases, but he struck out his final hitter for his fifth K of the evening, leaving the bases loaded and leaving the field with fiery excitement.

“I talked to Oklahoma State when I was at Howard [College], they were the first Power 5 I talked to and I thought they were going to offer me, and the day I was ready to go there, it didn’t work out,” explained Coombes. “So I have a little bad blood with them, so it was really good to throw against them in the first Big 12 game, I was loving every moment with it.”

Coombes has had a unique path in his collegiate career. He started out at Eastern New Mexico University, “one of the worst Division II programs in the country” as Coombes described it, his only offer out of high school. He planned to graduate early from ENMU, but when the 2020 season was cancelled he was contacted by Howard College. From Howard, he moved on to Lubbock Christian University and enjoyed being in Lubbock.

“I wanted to grad transfer and play Division I baseball somewhere. Texas Tech was always my goal when I went to Howard I wanted to come to Tech but it just didn’t work out that way,” said Coombes.

“I had J-Bob’s number, I got it from one of my old teammates at Howard actually. I was going to play Power 5 baseball somewhere and I wanted it to be here [at Texas Tech] no matter what. I talked to a good amount of mid-major D1’s but I just kept blowing up J-Bob’s phone until he finally texted me back. I’m pretty sure I just annoyed him until the point he texted me back. I even got Tadlock’s numbers and texted him once,” said Coombes to much laughter from the media.

“So that’s really what it came down to. I was sending them video every day whether they wanted it or not. So I was figuring out a way to get here no matter what.”

Head Coach Tim Tadlock was pleased with what Coombes brought to the table, “He’s got a good arm, got a good fastball but he’s got a wipeout secondary pitch. You can know it’s coming, which is really the definition of one, and not be able to hit it,” explained Tadlock. “I think they started trying to sit on it, a few guys did, after they saw him an inning. I’m just really proud of him. He kind of made a mess for himself in his second inning, he had first and second with no outs and he pitched his way out of it.”

Crowley, Lysik, and Coombes ate the innings required to bring in Ryan Free, who has been solid for Tech. He turned in two perfect innings with a strikeout to hold the door for the Red Raiders and give them an opportunity to get the win. Free was excellent in his own right, but Lopez was also excellent defensively. He handled all three outs in the ninth and the first two were starts in the scorebook and brilliantly handled.

Kevin Bazzell, Austin Green, and Tracer Lopez all had a multi-hit night, and more importantly, all hit as part of the big eighth inning. After a groundout to start, Owen Washburn walked and Lopez sent a perfect bunt up the third base line for a single to set the table. Ryan Brome pinch hit and took a glancing blow off of his elbow to get aboard and load the bases and Gage Harrelson worked an RBI walk. Bazzell followed with a bending two-run single to right field and Green added an RBI single of his own to even the score at seven all.

The Red Raiders did much of that work against two of the Cowboys’ best bullpen arms, Isaac Stebbens, who entered the game leading the Big 12 in ERA and carrying as many innings in relief as Cowboys’ starters, along with a WHIP of 0.77. Nolan McClean followed the rest of the way and entered with six saves in seven appearances but gave up four hits and ultimately the game-winning run.

In the tenth inning, Bazzell got aboard with a one-out single and Green was intentionally walked to put two on. With two outs, Gavin Kash, who struggled at the plate all night, sent an apparent flyout to the left field corner. The freshman standout Nolan Schubert overran the ball and was unable to glove it, giving Kash an RBI double as Bazzell scored for the walk-off victory.

It was Tech’s second walk-off win of 2023 and of course a big one as they open Big 12 play with a victory. The Red Raiders have won 15 of their last 17 games against Oklahoma State and have extended their winning streak over the Pokes to six in a row dating back to 2021. As with any big win there was an element of luck involved as well. The Red Raiders booked only one error in the game, playing one of their cleanest performances of the season. Oklahoma State walked into Friday with nine errors on the season and booked four on the evening, with arguments to be made for at least one more.

Texas Tech and Oklahoma State will face off Saturday at 2:00 pm at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park. The radio broadcast will be available on Double T 97.3 FM in Lubbock and on The Varsity App, and the television stream will be available on ESPN+.

TTU20

Start typing and press enter to search

Scroll to Top