The No. 9 Texas Tech baseball team concluded its 2018 campaign with a 9-6 loss to No. 1 Florida on Thursday night at the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park.

The Red Raiders (45-20) finished the night with six runs on 12 hits against the Gators (49-20). The result pushed Tech to 2-6 all-time at the CWS, as Tech was one of only three schools in the country to earn three appearances in Omaha over the last five years and was one of the last five teams remaining in this year’s tournament.

Four Red Raiders finished the night with multi-hit bids at the plate, as senior Zach Rheams, junior Cameron Warren and sophomores Josh Jung & Brian Klein all had two knocks in the game. Warren was the only Red Raider with an extra base hit, shooting a double to left-center field in the seventh inning.

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Caleb Kilian got the starting nod in Tech’s third game of the 2018 College World Series and went 4.1 innings against the Gators. He carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning, but finished the night with three runs allowed on three hits, walking three and striking out four in the contest.

Florida plated the first run of the night in the fourth inning on a wild pitch for a 1-0 lead. India began the frame with a full-count walk, then moved to second on a wild pitch & third on a stolen base. He would score with two outs in the frame on another wild pitch to put the Gators ahead in the contest.

In the next inning, UF added two more runs to make it 3-0. A pair of singles by Reese and Horvath put two with one out, allowing a double from Liput down the first base line to score the first run of the frame. After the change to Harpenau, an RBI groundout brought home another run for the three-run advantage. The Gators tacked on another two-spot in the sixth inning on a two-run homer from Schwarz to extend the lead to 5-0.

Tech got on the board in the seventh inning with three runs for some late-game life. Warren kicked off the frame with a double to deep left-center field, then a single from Fulford & a walk to Holt loaded the bases. Klein followed with a single to center to easily score Warren for the first Tech run of the night.

After a pitching change, Jung smoked an RBI single to right field, scoring Fulford to make it 5-2. Then, Little sent a ball off the glove of the shortstop to plate another to make it a two-run game.

However, Florida pieced it back to a five-run lead in its next trip to the plate behind three runs to push the lead to 8-3. A lead-off double from Dalton and a sacrifice fly from Langworthy after a grounder to move him to third, followed by a triple from Smith scored the first two runs of the inning. Then, a single from Horvath brought the score to 8-4.

Tech added three more in the eighth inning to once again cut the lead to two. Warren once again began things for the Red Raiders, starting the frame with a walk, then a single (Holt) and a walk (Klein) loaded the bases for Jung, who sent an RBI single to right field to make it 8-4. After a change on the mound, Little sent a two-RBI single to left field to trim Florida’s lead to 8-6.

However, Florida got an insurance run via a Red Raider throwing error to push its lead to 9-6 in the ninth, and Tech wasn’t able to rally a third time in the bottom half of the inning. 

The Red Raiders finished the season with 45 wins, doing so for the second consecutive year and fourth time in five seasons. The 2018 campaign marked the third time in five years Tech secured a trip to the College World Series in Omaha.

Courtesy of Texas Tech Athletics Communications Department