The No. 4 Texas Tech baseball team completed the sweep of Kansas State with a 9-6 victory in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park.

The Red Raiders (29-8, 8-4) posted its first sweep of a conference opponent this season, defeating the Wildcats (15-21, 2-10) on Friday & Saturday by scores of 21-4 & 26-6, respectively. Tech finished the weekend with 56 runs, clearing the school record for most runs by a Tech squad in a Big 12 series by 19 runs (36 vs. Oklahoma on April 25-27, 2014).

Senior Zach Rheams and sophomore Josh Jung both recorded multi-hit days at the plate, with Rheams knocking around his third double of the season. Jung leads the Red Raiders with 20 multi-hit games this season.

Sophomore right-handed pitcher John McMillon got the start on Sunday and tossed 4.0 innings against the Wildcats. McMillon racked up eight strikeouts, but allowed three runs on three hits & five walks. He gave way to senior lefty Dylan Dusek, who improved to 3-0 on the year after 3.0 frames of shutout relief work. Junior RHP Ty Harpenau tallied his second save of the season with 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out three to shut the door on the series.

Tech made several big defensive plays that helped minimize the Wildcat attack in the finale. Junior catcher Zayne Willems caught two Wildcats attempting to steal second in the first & second innings, with the latter ending the frame. In the fifth, Dusek picked off a runner to close the inning, while inducing double plays in the sixth & seventh innings to erase threats on the base path.

The Wildcats plated two in the opening frame behind a two-RBI single from Mount for the early 2-0 lead. Tech answered back in the bottom half of the inning with one of their own to cut the deficit to 2-1. After a pair of walks to begin the frame, Jung ripped a first-pitch single to left field to score freshman Gabe Holt for the first Red Raider run of the day.

Mount provided another RBI single in the third inning with two outs to push the lead back to two at 3-1.

Tech took the lead in the fourth inning thanks to a three-run home run from junior Cody Farhat, flipping the score to 4-3. Rheams opened the frame with a single up the middle, then senior Michael Davis walked to bring up Farhat, who uncorked his fourth homer of the year just to the left of the batter’s eye in center field.

Rheams would drive in two insurance runs in the next trip to the plate in the fifth inning. After a walk to Jung & a single by sophomore Grant Little, Rheams struck a two-RBI double down the first base line & into the right field corner to make it 6-3.

Another dinger, this time by junior Cameron Warren in the seventh, pushed the lead to five at 8-3. Warren crushed a two-run shot over the left field wall, scoring Rheams after a walk for his seventh home run of the 2018 campaign.

K-State answered back in the top of the eighth by scoring three to cut the Tech lead to 8-6. Mount again provided the damage with his third RBI single of the game, a bases-loaded walk to Biller added another & an infield single from McWhertor capped the three-run inning for the Wildcats.

Jung provided a big insurance run for the Red Raiders in the ninth, cashing in sophomore Brian Klein’s two-out double with a single to left field to build the lead to 9-6.

The Red Raiders hit the road to take on New Mexico on Tuesday, April 17, at 2 p.m. CDT at Santa Star Field in Albuquerque.

COURTESY OF TEXAS TECH ATHLETICS