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Texas Tech baseball: Bryce Bonnin pitches Red Raiders to Super Regionals

By Matthew Conner

BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 17: Baseball gloves sit on the field before a baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards at on August 17, 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 17: Baseball gloves sit on the field before a baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards at on August 17, 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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The Texas Tech baseball team is headed to the Super Regionals thanks to a 3-0 win over Dallas Baptist Sunday night in Lubbock.

When Bryce Bonnin decided to transfer from the University of Arkansas following his freshman season, he did so because the coaching staff in Fayetteville did not believe that he was good enough to be a starter. Sunday night, he continued to prove them wrong by tossing seven scoreless innings in the Texas Tech baseball team’s 3-0 win which propelled the Red Raiders to the Super Regionals for the second-straight season.

The righty from Mont Belvieu, Texas struck out seven hitters while walking just two and scattering three hits to move to 6-1 on the season.  It was his fourth-consecutive start of at least 5.0 innings and the eighth such outing in his eleven starts as a Red Raider.

Reliever John McMillon worked the final two innings, allowing only a two-out single in the ninth, to pick up the save.  Firing fastballs that hit 98 mph on the stadium scoreboard, the junior from Jasper recorded five of his six outs via strikeouts.

It was a third-straight dominating pitching performance for the home team, which swept its way through the regional round of the NCAA Tournament for the second-consecutive year.  For the weekend, Tech allowed only four runs and 18 hits with only just of those hits going for extra bases.

And it turned out that the Red Raiders needed its pitching staff to step up because for the second-straight day, DBU was able to keep the Tech lineup in check…with one huge exception.

Senior first baseman Cam Warren drove in the game’s only runs with a 3-run line drive homer to left field in the bottom of the first inning.  It was the third homer of the regional for the Big 12 regular season RBI leader who drive in a combined seven runs in the three games against Army and Dallas Baptist.

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But outside of Warren’s 2-3 performance, the Red Raiders managed just four hits against four Patriot pitchers.  Cole Reeves started and took the loss.  Normally a reliever, Reeves was solid as he went 4.0 innings while allowing only the three first-inning runs.

In two games against the lethal Texas Tech lineup, the DBU pithing staff did its job.  Limiting the Red Raiders to a combined 12-59 at the plate, the Patriots allowed the Red Raiders to hit just .203, almost a hundred points below their season batting average as a team.

But the Red Raider pitching staff was able to carry the load.  DBU hit just .188 in its two games against the Raiders, down 94 points from their season average.  Low scoring games are going to be increasingly common as the NCAA Tournament progresses meaning the Red Raiders may have to follow the formula of the past two games in next weekend’s Super Regional against either UCONN or Oklahoma State.  The Huskies and Cowboys will play a winner-take-all game Monday.

Next. Floyd, Red Raiders beat Dallas Baptist 3-2. dark

Fortunately for the Red Raiders, it appears like their starting rotation, which was the team’s biggest question mark as the season began, is more than capable of meeting the challenge that is postseason baseball.  Even if one of those starters is a player that another program thought was expendable.  And if he continues to pitch the way he did Sunday, Bryce Bonnin will prove to be one of Tim Tadlock’s greatest finds.

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