Texas Tech baseball takes series from TCU; clinches Big 12 title

Saturday night in Lubbock, the Texas Tech baseball team beat TCU 8-4 to win the final regular season series of the season and claim the Big 12 title.

There are currently four Big 12 titles residing in Lubbock, Texas thanks to the Texas Tech baseball team. After knocking off TCU 8-4 Saturday night in the regular season finale, Tim Tadlock’s team claimed the conference title joining Chris Beard’s basketball team and West Kittley’s mens indoor and outdoor track teams as reigning conference champions.

Red Raider starter Bryce Bonnin struck out seven Horned Frog batters while giving up just two runs in five innings of work to move to 5-1 on the season. Meanwhile, seven Red Raiders had at least one hit with senior first baseman Cam Warren leading the way going 3-5.

The Red Raiders opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the 2nd when catcher Braxton Fulford blooped a single down the right field line with two outs in the inning. Dancing in the wind, the ball was overrun by TCU second baseman Austin Henry allowing DH Cole Stilwell and Warren to score.

But after retiring the first seven hitters of the game in order, Bonnin ran into trouble in the 3rd. Giving up three-consecutive triples, the sophomore allowed the Frogs to tie the game at 2-2.

In the bottom of the 4th, Fulford drove home two more runs to put his team back on top 4-2. In the same inning, center fielder Dylan Neuse drove home third baseman Parker Kelly to extend Tech’s advantage to 5-2. An inning later, a Stilwell double drove home shortstop Josh Jung as the Red Raiders scored four unanswered runs to ultimately put the game out of reach.

After TCU got a run back on a solo homer in the 6th, Neuse drove home Kelly on a bases-loaded walk in the 7th to get the run back putting Tech up 7-3. Finally, a Kurt Wilson RBI groundout in the 8th gave the Red Raiders their final run of the night ahead of an inconsequential TCU run in the top of the 9th.

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Entering the game, the Red Raiders knew their Big 12 fate was in their own hands. Because Saturday’s game in Stillwater between Oklahoma State and second-place Baylor was rained out, Tech knew that a win would bring home a league title while a loss would have sent the trophy to Waco.

By taking care of business, Tech brought home its fifth regular season conference title, fourth of the Big 12 era. The championship is the third of Tim Tadlock’s tenure to go along with titles in 2016 and 2017.

Perhaps more importantly, the Red Raiders took a critical step towards securing a top-8 national seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, which would ensure the Red Raiders would not have to leave home in their quest to reach the College World Series for the fourth time in six years.

On the other side of the diamond, TCU fell to just 29-24 on the season as their NCAA Tournament hopes took a significant hit. After being picked to finish third in the Big 12 preseason poll, the Frogs enter next week’s conference tournament as the No. 6 seed and likely needing to win the tournament in Oklahoma City to earn an NCAA birth.

Fortunately for Tim Tadlock and his Texas Tech baseball team, the postseason is a guarantee. And with the way the Red Raiders are playing, this could be shaping up to be another exciting early-summer run in Lubbock.

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Having won ten of their last twelve Big 12 games and 13 of 16 overall, it looks like the Red Raiders are hitting their stride at the optimal time of the season. Tech has averaged 8.1 runs per game since April 18th while surrendering just 4.5. Hopefully, that is a sign that the Big 12 title is not the biggest prize this team will bring home in 2019.

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