OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – No. 5 Texas Tech erased an early four-run deficit with six runs over the middle innings Wednesday afternoon as the Red Raiders opened the Big 12 Championship with an 8-5 victory over Kansas State at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
The victory ended Tech’s woes in Big 12 Championship openers as the Red Raiders (41-14) had previously lost each of their past seven games to start the tournament. It was Tech’s first opening-round win since defeating Nebraska, 5-3, in 2005.
The Red Raiders, who overcame an early 5-1 deficit to top the Wildcats (26-30), advance to face West Virginia at 4 p.m. Thursday evening. The Mountaineers shut out Oklahoma, 6-0, to open the tournament earlier in the day.
Six different Red Raiders recorded a multi-hit game en route to helping Tech overcome its largest deficit ever in a Big 12 Championship win. Tech previously erased a three-run Oklahoma State lead during the conference’s inaugural 1997 tournament.
Stephen Smith and Tyler Floyd recorded three hits each to lead the top of the lineup as they boosted the Red Raiders with back-to-back singles to lead off both the fifth and sixth innings. Tech plated three runs in the fifth to tie the game and then took its first lead with two more runs in the sixth.
Cory Raley plated Smith early in the fifth on a RBI single through the left side. It was the second RBI on the day for Raley, who finished 2-for-4 at the plate after connecting on a RBI triple to the gap in left center in the opening frame.
Hunter Hargrove, meanwhile, matched his career high with three RBI as he connected on a sacrifice fly in the fourth and then added RBI singles in both the fifth and eighth innings. Hargrove, who was 2-for-4 overall, previously set his career high with three RBI last Friday against West Virginia.
Eric Gutierrez notched a multi-RBI game of his own, his Big 12 leading 15th of the season, after a RBI single in the fifth and a sacrifice fly in the sixth. He followed a Tyler Neslony RBI single earlier in the sixth that gave Tech its first lead of the afternoon.
Neslony joined Smith and Floyd with three hits as he finished 3-for-5 overall with two runs scored. Michael Davis also went 2-for-4 as he connected on his Big 12-leading 20th double of the season in the fourth inning.
Tech’s comeback was boosted by five shutout innings of relief by the Red Raider bullpen as K-State reached base just twice against the likes of Parker Mushinski, Robert Dugger, Dalton Brown and Hayden Howard.
The Wildcats had previously scored three runs in the opening frame and then two more in the fourth before Mushinski entered following a leadoff single to start the fifth inning. K-State benefited early from a pair of two-run doubles from Jake Scudder and Michael Smith.
Dugger (5-0) picked up the win of the Red Raiders after tossing two shutout innings where he surrendered just a two-out walk in the seventh. Howard, meanwhile, retired the Wildcats in order over the final 1.2 innings for his team-leading seventh save of the season.
K-State reliever Mitch Zubradt (2-1) suffered the loss after giving up two runs off three hits and a strikeout. He was the second of three K-State relievers as starter Corey Fischer lasted just four innings after giving up four runs off seven hits and two strikeouts.
Davis Martin will get the ball for the Red Raiders on Thursday in his second start against West Virginia in less than a week. He earned a no-decision last Friday in Tech’s 2-1 victory.
