The No. 6 Texas Tech baseball team scored in every inning, powering their way to a 21-3 victory over No. 2 TCU in seven innings to clench the series win on Sunday afternoon at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park.
Earlier in the day, the Red Raiders (36-12, 11-7) resumed game two of the series and battled back to defeat the Horned Frogs (31-11, 12-6). In the finale, Tech recorded 21 hits for the fourth time this season, while tallying 20+ runs for the second time year, both coming during the week of action.
Over the last five games, the Red Raiders have scored 61 runs behind 67 hits. For the first time this season, every Red Raider in the starting lineup had at least one hit, one run and one RBI. Eight different batters put up multi-hit performances, with senior Hunter Hargrove & freshmen Grant Little & Michael Berglund each tallying three-hit bids. Little was the only Red Raider have an at-bat in all six innings of Sunday’s contest, posting five RBI.
Sophomore right-hander Ryan Shetter started on the mound for the Red Raiders, putting together his second consecutive 5.0 inning outing to improve to 3-0. The Friendswood native allowed two runs on six hits while racking up six strikeouts, finishing his 10th appearance of the year with four-straight scoreless frames.
TCU tacked on two runs in the first to open the game. A sacrifice fly from Warner plated Wade, who reached on a single, then an infield single with two away scored Wade, who also singled, to give the Horned Frogs an early 2-0 lead.
It would be the last time TCU led on Sunday, as the Red Raiders returned the favor with three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Freshman infielder Brian Klein hit into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded to score Little for the first run of the frame. With the bases full of Red Raiders, junior infielder Orlando Garica ripped a two-RBI single to score senior Ryan Long & Klein to go ahead, 3-2.
Freshman designated hitter John McMillon crushed a leadoff solo dinger in the second off the Chemical Engineering building behind right-center field to make it 4-2. McMillon also homered earlier in the day, making it the third time this year he’s hit home runs in back-to-back games.
The solo shot in the second would be the last time Tech only tallied one run in an inning the rest of the day.
Berglund began the scoring in the third with a single to left field, scoring Klein & moving Hargrove to third for the first of five runs in the frame. After a pitching change, sophomore outfielder Cody Farhat walked to load the bases and Little cleared them off with a three-run double to push the lead to 7-2. Tech got one more in the frame thanks to an RBI single from Long to drive in Little.
In the fourth, Garcia tallied an RBI single to lead, driving in Hargrove, who began the frame with a double. After a knock to center field by Berglund, Garcia stole third and easily trotted home after the catcher threw the ball out of reach of the third baseman and into left field trying to catch Garcia. A Farhat double down the left field line would plate Berglund, while a wild pitch would later score Farhat for the 12-2 lead.
With two outs in the fourth, freshman infielder Josh Jung unleashed a two-run homer over the Tech bullpen in right field. Another call to the TCU bullpen wouldn’t slow down the offense, as Klein triples to right field & Hargrove brought him home on a single to make it 16-2.
The five-run third & seven-run fourth marked the 28th & 29th times this season the Red Raiders have scored four or more runs in a single inning this season.
Tech kept the moment rolling late in the fifth when back-to-back homeruns were lifted over the wall by Little and Long. Little’s two-run homer was the second of the year and first in conference play. The solo shot over the right field wall was the first home run for Long since Tech played LSU on March 3 of this season.
Tech added on two more runs in the sixth as Berglund roped an RBI single to left-center to score Hargrove, while Farhat brought in Garcia with a double to left field. TCU got one back in the final frame to give the score the look a football game at 21-3.
The Red Raiders will travel to Columbus, Ohio for a two-game set against Ohio State on May 2-3 at Nick Swisher Field at Bill Davis Stadium.
