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Texas Tech baseball erases 8-run deficit in win over Oregon

By Matthew Conner

BREWSTER, MA - AUGUST 11: Zac Susi of the Bourne Braves warms up in the on deck circle during game one of the Cape Cod League Championship Series against the Brewster Whitecaps at Stony Brook Field on August 11, 2017 in Brewster, Massachusetts. The Cape Cod League was founded in 1885 and is the premier summer baseball league for college athletes. Over 1100 of these student athletes have gone on to compete in MLB including Chris Sale, Carlton Fisk, Joe Girardi, Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek. The chance to see future big league stars up close makes Cape Cod League games a popular activity for the families in each of the 10 towns on the Cape to host a team. Each team is a non-profit organization, relying on labor from volunteers and donations from spectators to run each year. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
BREWSTER, MA - AUGUST 11: Zac Susi of the Bourne Braves warms up in the on deck circle during game one of the Cape Cod League Championship Series against the Brewster Whitecaps at Stony Brook Field on August 11, 2017 in Brewster, Massachusetts. The Cape Cod League was founded in 1885 and is the premier summer baseball league for college athletes. Over 1100 of these student athletes have gone on to compete in MLB including Chris Sale, Carlton Fisk, Joe Girardi, Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek. The chance to see future big league stars up close makes Cape Cod League games a popular activity for the families in each of the 10 towns on the Cape to host a team. Each team is a non-profit organization, relying on labor from volunteers and donations from spectators to run each year. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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The Texas Tech baseball team rallied from an 8-0 first inning deficit to knock off Oregon 12-11 Saturday in Lubbock.

For the second-consecutive day, the Texas Tech baseball team was put in an early hole by a poor effort from its starting pitcher.  But unlike in Friday’s 9-4 season opening loss, Saturday, the Red Raider bats were able to come to the rescue.  After falling behind 8-0 after the top of the first inning, Tim Tadlock’s team fought back for a 12-11 win in the second of a four-game series to begin the season.

Sophomore catcher Braxton Fulford homered twice (doubling his total from 2018) and drove in three runs while Gabe Holt scored three times from the leadoff spot as Tech chipped away at the Oregon lead.  And eventually, a rather routine play gave the Red Raiders the lead for good in a game that was anything but.

Freshman shortstop Dru Baker drove home Tanner O’Tremba on a bases-loaded ground out in the seventh inning to cap a three-run frame finally putting the home team ahead for the first time on the day.  In all, Tech pounded out 12 runs on 10 hits and scored multiple runs in the first, second, sixth and seventh innings on a day that saw winds blowing out to left field at nearly 35 mph.

But the wind was not to blame for the poor first inning.   Rather, that has to be chalked up to one of the worst innings of defensive baseball in the Tadlock era.

Sophomore Bryce Bonnin, a transfer from Arkansas, made his first start as a Red Raider and gave up six runs (for earned) while recording just one out.  He walked three hitters with the bases loaded and his replacement, Erikson Lanning, beaned the first hitter he faced as the Razorbacks scored four runs off of free passes.

But what transpired next was truly beyond belief.  Lanning fielded a comebacker with an opportunity to turn a double-play and limit the damage.  But his throw home was errant allowing a runner to score.  Still, Tech had an opportunity to register an out on the base paths when an Oregon runner was caught in a run-down.  However, in the ensuing chaos, Tech lost track of the other runners on base and the Ducks plated two more runs while Tech failed to record an out on the play.

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Fortunately, the Raiders would settle down.  After Oregon plated single runs in the next two innings, they would score only once more in the final six innings.

Much of the credit goes to the Texas Tech bullpen, specifically Taylor Floyd.  The JUCO transfer tossed 2.2 innings of scoreless ball scattering five hits and striking out five Ducks to earn the win.

And his final strikeout of the night was his biggest.  Trying to preserve a one-run lead with two men on base, Floyd fanned the final man he faced on the evening.  In the ninth, Ryan Keesee and redshirt freshman Clayton Beeter combined to shut the door with Beeter registering the final two outs behind a fastball that topped out at 97 mph.

To say that this game was unusual would be an understatement.  In what felt like the type of offensive shootout that one might expect when these two universities meet on the football field in 2023-24, the Red Raiders displayed grit and determination to avoid an 0-2 start.

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Certainly, the unexpected often happens at Dan Law Field when the West Texas winds are howling as they were Saturday and Tadlock’s team never lost sight of that fact, even when put in a huge hole for the second-straight day.  Friday, the Ducks plated three runs in both the third and fourth innings to put the Red Raiders in a stranglehold that they could not break.  But in game-two of the young season, Texas Tech found its footing and completed a most improbable comeback.

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