Texas Tech baseball shut down again by West Virginia ace Alek Manoah

Thursday, the Texas Tech baseball team’s potent lineup was befuddled by West Virginia’s ace Alek Manoah in a 4-1 loss in the Big 12 Tournament.

Thursday night in Oklahoma City, the Texas Tech baseball team faced Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Alek Manoah from West Virginia for the second time this season. And unfortunately, the Red Raiders’ second crack at the future MLB first round draft pick was not much more successful than their first as West Virginia took down the Red Raiders 5-1 in the Big 12 Tournament.

Manoah allowed just one run while striking out ten hitters in tossing a complete game sending the Red Raiders to the losers’ bracket where they will face Kansas on Friday. It was the second time that the big righty has shut down the Big 12’s best lineup after he struck out 15 Red Raiders in a 2-0 complete game shutout last month.

Meanwhile, Texas Tech’s best starter, Caleb Kilian was no slouch in his own right. In seven complete innings, the junior allowed just two runs while striking out nine hitters. But in being saddled with the hard-luck loss, Kilian suffered his first defeat since March 2nd.

Early on though, the Texas Tech hitters had their chances to put some runs on the board. In each of the first four innings, Tech had at least one runner on base but was able to score only a single run. And surprisingly, it was the best hitters in the lineup that failed to come up with the clutch hits.

In the bottom of the first, Cam Warren, the Big 12 RBI leader struck out with runners at second and third. In the third, after Gabe Holt scored on a Brian Klein sacrifice fly, Josh Jung grounded out to strand a runner second base. And in the fourth, Braxton Fulford whiffed to end the inning with two runners on base.

In all, the Red Raiders stranded eight men, which has been something that has plagued the Big 12’s highest-scoring team at times throughout this season. And against one of the best pitchers in the nation, Tech managed only four hits with no Red Raider picking up more than one.

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Meanwhile the Mountaineers got two runs in both the fourth and eighth innings and a single run in the ninth. And they benefitted for a Red Raider miscue in the outfield to get their offense untracked.

After Kilian made short work of WVU in the first three innings, Texas Tech left fielder Kurt Wilson misplayed a deep fly ball that led to a triple by Darius Hill and brought home Brandon White, who had reached base after being plunked by Kilian to start the inning. Later in the inning, a Marques Inman sac fly brought home Hill and proved to be the game-winning run.

Tech now moves on to face Kansas State in the losers’ bracket on Friday. And the question facing head coach Tim Tadlock becomes how much effort he will put into the rest of the tournament.

Had Tech beaten WVU, they would have had Friday off but now they are faced with playing every day through the remainder of the weekend if they want to win the tournament and secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. But being as the Red Raiders are already considered a lock to not only make the tournament but be a top-8 national seed, it would not seem to make much sense for Tadlock to stress his team too greatly in the hopes of winning a pointless tournament.

Tech baseball beats Kansas State. dark. Next

Though they will not try to lose on purpose in Oklahoma City, the Red Raiders will be turning their focus to bigger and more important goals and every decision Tadlock makes from here on out will be guided by what puts his team in the best position to be ready for next week’s Lubbock regional. And hopefully, they will not have to worry about facing Alek Manoah any more this season.

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