The Red Raiders needed just 14 innings to beat Cal State Bakersfield in the first two games of their season with two solid starts from Jackson Burns and Lukas Pirko. On Sunday though, Connor Mohan didn’t have any success at all really. Mohan allowed three home runs and five runs in the top of the 1st inning and was replaced by Kaysen Raineri by the second inning.
The bullpen was rested, but CSB was just mashing early. Raineri, who’s been great in his last two appearances, gave up the team’s fourth home run of the game and the second to the Roadrunners Evan Cloyd. By the middle of the second, the score was lopsided at 6-0 but Raineri settled in after allowing the solo shot.
Offensively, Logan Hughes was robbed of a home run to end the first inning, while a single from Matt Quintanar and line out to the warning track from Davis Rivers was as close to scoring as the Red Raiders got through two innings.
Texas Tech sent out a third different pitcher for the third inning as Logan Bevis would try to hang the first zero on the board for the Red Raiders defense. Bevis gave up a hit to the wall in right field to his first batter, but Caden Ferraro threw the runner out trying to stretch it to a double. The next batter worked a walk, but got cut down trying to steal second the next pitch. Finally a fly out to Hughes ended the inning with an adventurous 1, 2, 3 inning.
With that momentum carrying over to the bottom of the inning, Robin Villeneuve got the Red Raiders on the board with a solo home run. Later on, Tracer Lopez roped a double through the infield into the gap. With two outs in the inning, Hughes lined a double down the line to score Lopez and cut the lead to 6-2 in favor of the Roadrunners.
After the final out of the inning, CSB got a little too excited to be up 6-2 which prompted the umpires to have a discussion with the head coaches. Bevis returned for a second inning and used his entire 6-foot-6 frame to field a ground ball pounded over the mound for the first out of the top of the fourth inning. After that, a hit batter, a single, and another hit batter would load the bases full of Roadrunners. That would prompt another pitching change with the lefty Ryan Free coming out of the pen.
Free would give up the grand slam. 10-2 Roadrunners.
Everything frustrating about Texas Tech baseball in the last several seasons was rearing its ugly head in game three of the series against CSB. Free passes, throwing hittable strikes, and errors marred a series that Texas Tech needed to sweep. At this point in the game, heading into the bottom of the fourth down 10-2, that seemed unlikely.
Still, Texas Tech scored 11 in an inning on Saturday afternoon so it wasn’t an impossible task.
Caden Ferraro led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run, but two quick outs put a damper on the potential comeback. Even with two outs, Villeneuve hitting his second home run of the game gave a glimmer of hope to the home crowd. We’d head to the 5th inning with the Red Raiders down 10-4.
The solo home runs wouldn’t do much without Texas Tech pitching figuring it out on the mound though. Free would allow a run on a wild pitch, but limit the damage to just the one run. He did strike out two batters in the inning.
Lopez, Shouse and Hughes were due up in the bottom of the fifth.
Lopez would get on base with a double and score after a balk and a single by Shouse. Hughes would then hit in a double play to nearly kill any momentum that was being built. Linkin Garcia finished the inning with a strikeout after being up in the count 3-1.
The top of the sixth inning would open 11-5 with Ryan Free returning for another inning of work.
He’d get a ground out then hit a batter, prompting another call to the bullpen. Bryce Suiter would enter and give up another bomb while working through his two outs. 14-5.
Villeneuve would get an RBI double in the bottom half of the 6th, but trading single runs with three run bombs just doesn’t work. Texas Tech trailed 14-6 heading to the 7th inning with Logan Addison coming to the mound. He’d work through the trouble and end the inning himself with a dazzling double play.
Linkin Garcia stepped to the plate with one-out and runners on second and third and knocked a base hit into the outfield to score both runners with an RBI single. That would be all the offense could muster though sending it to the 8th inning with the Roadrunners still up 14-8.
Heeryun Han worked a 1, 2, 3 inning in the top of the 8th, but Texas Tech would go in order in the bottom of the inning. Han couldn’t work through a lead off double in his second inning of work. He’d surrender a run and be replaced on the mound by Jorden Espinoza.
Espinoza made it interesting but closed out the inning giving the offense a chance to walk it off by scoring just eight runs in the bottom of the ninth. The Red Raiders made it interesting by loading the bases but Davis Rivers finished his rough 0-5 outing by striking out to end the game.
Texas Tech has done a lot of good things in this home stand and won the series against Cal State Bakersfield but that was a frustrating day at the park for Tim Tadlock and his team.
