The No. 3 Texas Tech baseball team earned its fourth-straight weekend series win after defeating Wichita State, 4-1, on a cold & windy Saturday afternoon at Eck Stadium.
It’s the first series win for the Red Raiders (21-4) in Wichita in program history and the first against the Shockers (10-12) since 1995. The victory also moved Tech to 6-1 on the road this season.
Sophomore left-hander Steven Gingery improved to 5-0 in 2017 with the win, tossing his sixth-straight quality start. The Huntington Beach, California, native worked 6.0 innings of shutout baseball, giving up only three hits and striking out eight. It was the fourth time this year Gingery has struck out eight and walked two in an outing, raising his overall totals to 44 & 12, respectively.
Three different Red Raiders produced multi-hit performances for the fourth time in the last five games. Senior Hunter Hargrove, junior Tanner Gardner and freshman Grant Little also recorded two hits in Saturday’s contest, as Hargrove also had two RBI, while Gardner scored twice. With their marks, Gardner & Little continue to lead the team with 10 multi-hit games, with Hargrove trailing closely at nine, who is tied for the top spot on the squad with multi-RBI contests with six.
The Red Raiders put the first run on the board in the top of the third, as McMillon crushed a solo homer over the centerfield wall to go up, 1-0. It was the second homer of the season for the Jasper native. Tech would add another with two away in the frame, as Gardner picked up a walk and was fulfilled by a triple from Hargrove that carried over the right fielder’s head to give Tech a 2-0 lead.
Tech plated another in the fifth, as Long smashed a one-out double off the yellow stripe on the right field wall and advanced twice on a pair of wild pitches to make it 3-0.
The bottom of the fifth was full of theatrics, as Gingery’s streak of nine-straight batters retired came to an end with a single to center field. A walk combined with a passed ball later and the Shockers were in business with two runners in scoring position and nobody out. The next batter hit a slow roller in between the mound and the left field line, but a charging Gingery bare-handed the ball and flipped it to Berglund to swipe the first out at home. The second out took a little bit more work, as a bunt back to Gingery and a toss to Berglund put the man on third in a rundown, which was quickly taken care of to erase the second scoring threat. Gingery capped the frame with a strikeout to neutralize the fifth-inning thriller.
Wichita State found themselves in the same situation in the bottom of the seventh after Gingery was lifted for junior righty Jose Quezada. With runners on second & third and nobody out, WSU’s Klusener lifted a sacrifice fly to deep right field to push across Vickers to cut the lead to 3-1. That would be all for the Shockers though, as another fly ball to right field was handled and delivered quickly to the plate by Ryan Long, keeping the runner at third. The Shocker would be stranded at third to end the inning after Hargrove made a nice diving play on the right field line to cut down the grounder, then followed with a dive to the bag for the out.
Tech got the run back in the eighth thanks to back-to-back doubles from Gardner and Hargrove to their respective outfield gaps, as Hargrove swapped places with Gardner to the lead back to three at 4-1.
The Red Raiders wrap up the weekend series with a noon first pitch on Sunday, March 26, at Eck Stadium.
(Courtesy Texas Tech Sports Information Department)