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Texas Tech baseball: Bryce Bonnin’s strong start leads Red Raiders past NMSU

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - SEPTEMBER 18: Raider Red, the mascot of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, poses for a photo before a game against the Texas Longhorns at Jones AT
LUBBOCK, TX - SEPTEMBER 18: Raider Red, the mascot of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, poses for a photo before a game against the Texas Longhorns at Jones AT /
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Behind six shutout innings from starter Bryce Bonnin, the Texas Tech baseball team shut out New Mexico State 7-0 Tuesday in Lubbock.

Making his second start of the season Tuesday, sophomore transfer Bryce Bonnin showed the form that the Texas Tech baseball team has been expecting out of the former Arkansas Razorback.   Tossing six shutout innings against a potent New Mexico State offense, the Mont Belvieu, Texas native allowed just four hits and struck out three in a nice rebound effort following a disastrous Red Raider debut.

In his first start of the year, Bonnin was rocked for six runs (four earned) while recording just one out in the second game of the season against Oregon.  In that outing, he gave up four walks to go along with two hits as the Ducks built an 8-0 first inning lead.  Fortunately, the offense would bail him out in a 12-11 victory.

But Tuesday, Bonnin and three relievers needed very little help from the Tech offense.  First baseman Cam Warren had a three-run homer and five other Red Raiders had extra-base hits as Tech did all of its scoring in four innings.

Dylan Neuse began the scoring with an RBI triple in the second inning.  On the season, the sophomore is hitting .407 with 13 RBI and two homers.

After Warren’s homer in the fourth, Tech plated two runs in the fifth on singles from Cody Masters and Neuse.  A Brian Klein double in the sixth would cap the scoring for the Red Raiders, who have scored at least seven runs in their last four games.

But the story of the day was Bonnin.  Facing an Aggie lineup that had scored double digit runs in all six games this year and was averaging 17.6 runs per game, Bonnin made his case to stay in the starting rotation.

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After appearing in eleven games but making only one start for Arkansas last year, he left the program to look for an opportunity to be a starter.  At the time of his departure, Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said the he believed the then freshman needed to explore the JUCO ranks to find such an opportunity.

"“Bryce wants to start, we see him as a reliever,” Van Horn said. “Just up and down. There is a lot to it, I guess. In my opinion, and I don’t know where he is going to end up, but he needs to go to a Junior College where they can put him on the mound and he can pitch. He’s a guy that has a lot of talent with arm strength, but he needs to be able to take that into the game.”"

And after his Red Raider debut, Bonnin looked to be proving his former coach correct.  He was even dropped from the weekend rotation for the Kentucky series, being replaced by Erikson Lanning.

Perhaps being a mid-week starter is an ideal role for Bonnin.  It would allow him to start on a weekly basis while developing as a starter without the pressure of pitching in Big 12 games.

But that would not make his role in the rotation unimportant.  This year, Tech plays mid-week games against teams such as San Diego St., New Mexico and Duke.  And these games could be critical in helping Tech separate itself from other top teams when it comes to postseason seeding.

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Certainly, the Texas Tech rotation remains a work in progress for Tim Tadlock.  But after Bonnin’s strong start on Tuesday, it looks as if Tech may have found a young starter capable of holding down a regular spot as a starter, despite what the people at his previous school thought.

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