Texas Tech baseball opens Big 12 Tournament with win over KSU

Wednesday in Oklahoma City, the Texas Tech baseball team opened the Big 12 Tournament with a 7-4 win over Kansas State.

Perhaps this will be the year that the Texas Tech baseball team finally puts the program’s struggles in the Big 12 Tournament to rest. Entering Wednesday’s game against Kansas State with an all-time mark of just 19-36 in the event, the Red Raiders won their opening game in Oklahoma City for just the third time in the seven years of head coach Tim Tadlock’s tenure.

But the 7-4 win was anything but easy. After jumping out to a 5-1 lead in the 3rd inning, the Red Raiders had to hold on as Taylor Floyd struck out KSU catcher Chris Ceballos with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth to give Tech the win.

Freshman Micah Dallas got the start for the top-seeded Red Raiders giving up three runs and five hits in five innings of work. Picking up the victory, Dallas moved to 5-0 on the season but at times the freshman struggled with his command and lacked the dominant form that he has shown in recent starts.

In his previous outing, the Aubrey, TX native tossed seven scoreless innings and struck out eight TCU hitters as he went toe-to-toe with the Horned Frogs’ ace, Nick Lodolo, a sure-fire first-round MLB draft pick this summer. But Wednesday, he struck out only three hitters as 42% of his 70 pitches were out of the strike zone.

Fortunately for Dallas, his offense gave him the run support that he didn’t get against TCU when the Red Raiders scored only once in 14 innings last Thursday in a 3-1 loss. After plating single runs in each of the first two innings (on RBI singles by Josh Jung and Gabe Holt respectively), Tech put the Wildcats in a big hole in the bottom of the 3rd.

Leading 2-1, the Red Raiders scored their third run on an RBI single from Cam Warren, who went 3-5 with an RBI and two runs scored as he continued to play well in his hometown. In Texas Tech’s April sweep of Oklahoma in Norman, Warren went 7-12 at the plate with 4 RBI and a pair of homers.

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Later in the 3rd, Josh Jung scored from third base on a balk and Warren came home on an infield single by Parker Kelly. That would spell the end of the day for KSU starter and Big 12 freshman of the year, Jordan Wicks who entered the game with a 6-2 record and a 2.70 ERA. But he allowed nine hits and five earned runs as the Red Raiders drove his pitch count up with a number of lengthy at-bats.

But when the game went to the bullpens, KSU seized the momentum. Freshman lefty Eric Torres kept the Wildcats in the game with 3.1 innings of scoreless work allowing just one hit helping to keep Tech from extending its lead and eventually allowing his team to cut the deficit in half at 5-3 after five innings.

Meanwhile, reliever John McMillon gave the Red Raiders three innings out of the bullpen allowing a run and three hits while striking out five. At times, he too struggled with his command and he was far from his dominant self but by powering through nine outs on 69 pitches, he helped save the bullpen extra work, something that is critical in a tournament setting.

But in the ninth, trailing 7-4 KSU put the first two hitters of the inning on base on a walk and a single off Tech reliever Clayton Beeter. After the runners advanced on a Beeter balk, lefty Dane Haveman entered and registered an out on a foul pop-up before loading the bases with a walk.

That’s when Tadlock turned to his all-conference reliever Floyd, who closed the door by getting a force out at home on a tapper back to the mound and a strike out. It was his third save of the season and because it took him only eight pitches to record the final two outs, he will likely be available Thursday when the Red Raiders take on West Virginia at 4 p.m.

Earlier this year, West Virginia took two of three games against Tech in Morgantown. The Mountaineers shut out the Red Raiders 2-0 in game-one and came away with a 4-3 win in game-two before Tech rebounded with a 3-0 win in the series finale.

In that Red Raider victory, Caleb Kilian threw a complete game needing only 94 pitches in what was his best outing of the season. Thus, it would seem logical for Tadlock to throw his best starter at WVU again on Thursday because Kilian has already proven to be capable of shutting the Mountaineer bats down and also because it would keep his weekend rotation in line to throw on normal rest next weekend in the regional round of the NCAA Tournament.

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With Tadlock at the helm, Tech has never won more than one game at the Big 12 Tournament, in large part because Tadlock is willing to sacrifice success at the event in order to fully rest his team prior to the NCAA Tournament. But if the Red Raiders can knock off WVU Thursday, they could set themselves up for not only a shot at another Big 12 trophy but also a top-8 national seed in the tournament that really matters.

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