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Texas Tech baseball: Taylor Floyd sparkles in relief as Red Raiders beat DBU

By Matthew Conner

OMAHA, NE - JUNE 26: A general view of a baseball on the field during batting practice before game one of the College World Series Championship Series between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Oregon State Beavers on June 26, 2018 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
OMAHA, NE - JUNE 26: A general view of a baseball on the field during batting practice before game one of the College World Series Championship Series between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Oregon State Beavers on June 26, 2018 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /
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Saturday, the Texas Tech baseball team picked up a 3-2 win over Dallas Baptist thanks to the relief work of pitcher Taylor Floyd who carried his team to the championship bracket of the Lubbock Regional.

The sign of a great team is its ability to win games in a variety of ways and that’s exactly what the Texas Tech baseball team has done in the first two games of the Lubbock Regional.  Saturday night, the Red Raiders used stellar pitching and one big inning at the plate to beat Dallas Baptist 3-2 only one day after pounding out 16 hits in an 11-2 win over Army.

Reliever Taylor Floyd picked up the win to move to 5-3 on the year.  Working the final 4.1 innings of the game, the junior from Frisco did not allow a run or a hit while walking just one Patriot after entering the game with a 1-run lead.  And if Floyd was ever in any trouble, he had only himself to blame as he plunked two DBU hitters.

In fact, hit batters factored heavily into the story of this game.  After replacing starter Caleb Kilian in the bottom of the fifth, Floyd beaned DBU third baseman Jackson Glenn, the first hitter he faced, to load the bases.  But the righty worked out of the jam by inducing a ground-out from right fielder Evan Sandmann to preserve a 3-2 lead.

And an inning later, Floyd hit center fielder Luke Bandy to lead off the inning.  And with Bandy on third and only one out, Floyd also hit Andres Sosa but the home plate umpire ruled that Sosa made no effort to avoid being hit and ruled the pitch a strike resulting in a key strikeout for Floyd on a call that was upheld by video review.  After the next hitter, Augie Isaacson, grounded out, DBU’s best threat against Floyd was extinguished.

At the plate, Tech was able to push three runs across in the top of the second.  Cam Warren got the scoring started with a two-run homer to left, his second of the regional.  Later in the inning, catcher Braxton Fulford drove home DH Cole Stilwell with an RBI single for what would prove to be the game-winning run.

But Tech failed to knock DBU starter Jordan Martinson out early as he was able to work out of the third by striking out Gabe Holt and benefitting from a break when Fulford was picked off of first base by DBU catcher Herbert Iser to end the inning with no further damage.

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Martinson was able to battle back from a shaky start and give his team 6.1 innings while giving up just the three runs on seven hits over the course of 115 pitches.  His ability to go deeper into the game than it looked like he would after the first two innings could be key for DBU because the Patriots only had to use two pitchers Saturday meaning their bullpen should be relatively fresh for Sunday when they will have to beat both Florida and Texas Tech to force a winner-take-all game with the Red Raiders on Monday.

And thanks to Floyd, the Red Raider bullpen is in equally as good of shape despite the fact that their top starter was not at his best. For Kilian, it was a shorter start than Red Raider fans have come to expect as it was the first time he has failed to pitch at least five innings in his last eleven starts including Saturday.

Still, he was able to keep DBU from putting any runs on the board early.  In the first, DBU stranded a pair of runners when Sandmann was thrown out while trying to bunt for a hit with two outs.  In the third, Kilian struck out Jimmy Glowenke with a runner on third to work out of another jam.

Next. Tech baseball pounds Army. dark

The Red Raiders moved to 21-11 all-time in home NCAA Tournament games and will await the winner of tomorrow’s elimination game between Dallas Baptist and Florida, which eliminated Army with a 13-5 win earlier on Saturday. Tech needs just one win to advance to the Super Regional round and they showed Saturday against Dallas Baptist, they are capable of getting that done in a variety of ways.

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