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Texas Tech baseball: Five heroes of Red Raiders’ regional win

By Matthew Conner

STILLWATER, OK - SEPTEMBER 25: The Texas Tech Red Raiders flag flies outside the stadium before the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys September 25, 2014 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The Cowboys defeated the Red Raiders 45-35. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
STILLWATER, OK - SEPTEMBER 25: The Texas Tech Red Raiders flag flies outside the stadium before the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys September 25, 2014 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The Cowboys defeated the Red Raiders 45-35. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

RHP – Micah Dallas

The most important game of a regional is the opener.  Immediately dropping into the losers’ bracket is almost guaranteed to end a team’s hopes of advancing as it leaves no margin for error as the losing team has to win five-straight games to advance.  Thus, we should not overlook Tech’s 11-2 win over Army on Friday, which got the Red Raiders off to a great start.

And on the mound, starting pitcher Micah Dallas was fantastic.  The freshman tossed seven innings while allowing just one run on three hits while striking out seven.

The Aubrey, Texas native carried a perfect game into the fifth inning and a no-hitter into the sixth.  In the process he moved to 6-0 on the season but more importantly, he helped save the Red Raider bullpen.

In regional tournaments where teams have to play between three and five games over the course of a weekend, teams often have to rely heavily on their bullpen.  And when starters are not capable of gong deep into games, those bullpens often have to turn to their worst pitchers to pitch high-leverage situations.

So when Dallas gave the Red Raiders seven innings in the opener, it meant that Tech only had to use three relievers on Friday.  And neither Ryan Sublette nor Caleb Freeman are among the group of relievers that Tadlock turns to in critical situations meaning the primary relievers were saved for the showdowns with No 2 seed DBU.  What’s more, both could have pitched again this weekend because they only threw one inning each against the Golden Knights.

It turned out that Tech did not have to go too deep into its bullpen in the regional.  In fact, one of the team’s top relievers, Dane Haveman, did not pitch at all this weekend.  But if the Red Raiders had been pushed to a fourth game or had been involved in a long extra-innings game, they would have been great shape because of the fantastic work of Micah Dallas in game-one.

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