The No. 6 Texas Tech baseball team mounted several late comebacks, but ultimately fell in Thursday night’s series opener at Kansas State, 5-3, at Tointon Family Stadium.

The Red Raiders (29-8, 6-4) fought back to score runs in the sixth & seventh, while putting runners in scoring position in each of the last two frames against the Wildcats (17-16, 2-8), but were unable to push across the tying runs late. 

Sophomore outfielder Cody Farhat recorded a three-hit game, his fifth multi-hit performance of the season, while scoring a run in the third. Junior infielder Michael Davis also had a two-hit bid, as the Red Raiders put up 10 hits in Thursday’s contest.

Junior lefty Jacob Patterson made his first start on Thursday night since April 26, 2015, against Oklahoma State. The Garland native tossed a career-high 4.0 innings against the Wildcats, giving up three runs, two earned, on five hits, while striking out five, which was also a new best. It was the first loss of the year for Patterson, moving his record to 4-1. 

The Wildcats pushed one run across in the bottom of the first thanks to a sacrifice fly from Thompson. The flyout drove in Brennan, who began the frame with a single to center field for the early 1-0 lead.

Tech got the run back in the top of the third with a sacrifice fly of their own, coming from Little to score Farhat to tie the game. Farhat had the first hit of the night for the Red Raiders with a one-out knock to right field and was moved over to third on a single through the right side from Bernstein to set up the sacrifice. 

K-State answered back in the bottom half of the inning, scoring one for the 2-1 lead. The Wildcats led off the frame with a single & a hit-by-pitch to put two on with no out. Brennan drove in Harker from third with an RBI double to left-center and the Wildcats got the bases loaded with a walk to Crandall. However, Patterson responded with a grounder to Hargrove, who fired home for the force out, then tallied back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning with the bases loaded.

The Wildcats added another with two outs in the fourth to make it 3-1. After back-to-back strikeouts to begin the frame, K-State got a full-count walk to Harker, followed by a double off the right-center field wall from Ethier to push the run across. The Wildcats attempted to get another off a single from Crandall, but Brennan was thrown out by Little at third base before the run crossed home to keep the damage to one run. 

KSU plated two more in the next inning, both on a pair of wild pitches, to go up, 5-1.

Tech got back in the scoring column in the sixth, as Davis crushed a one-out solo homer over the wall in left-center field to make it 5-2. It was the second-straight game Davis has homered and the fifth consecutive game for a Red Raider to hit at least one dinger.

The Red Raiders plated another in the top of the seventh for their third run of the night. Gardner began the frame with a double down the right field line, while Farhat was hit by the second pitch he saw to put two on with no outs. A pinch-hitting Anthony Lyons delivered with an RBI single to left field to drive in Gardner & move Farhat over to third to cut the deficit to 5-3.

The Wildcats threatened in the bottom half of the frame, as a pair of singles with two away looked to put runners on the corners. However, KSU’s Rolette was thrown out at third after the relay to Davis from Long was fired into the glove of Jung, who quickly swiped the tag for the final out of the seventh.

Tech loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, with Farhat posting a leadoff double to get the inning going. With two away, a single from Davis put runners on the corners and a walk to Jung loaded them, but a groundout closed the book on Thursday’s contest.

The Red Raiders and the Wildcats will return to Tointon Family Stadium for game two of the weekend series on Friday, April 14, at 6:30 p.m.