Texas Tech baseball: Red Raiders down Mountaineers in game one

Pitching just an hour and a half from his hometown of Fox Chapel Pennsylvania, Texas Tech starter Patrick Monteverde put on a show Friday night in Morgantown. With a boisterous group of family and friends on hand to support him, the lefty tossed seven complete innings allowing no runs and just two hits while striking out 7 hitters to pick up the win in his team’s 7-2 triumph.

It was the fourth time this year that the transfer from Division II Seaton Hill has thrown seven complete innings (which is his season-high). Interestingly, in every one of his seven-inning outings this year, he’s given up no runs.

Friday’s effort was one that head coach Tim Tadlock had to be happy to receive from his Friday nigh starter. Now, Tech is sitting pretty for the remainder of the weekend given that the skipper had to use only one of his bullpen arms, Josh Sanders, who gave up two runs in two innings of work.

At the plate, it was Braxton Fulford who paced the offense. Collecting four RBI on three hits, the Red Raider catcher had a big night.

In the first inning, he opened the game’s scoring with a triple to center to score Easton Murrell. In the fifth, his two-run homer to left staked Tech to a 5-0 lead. And an inning later, his RBI single brought home Dillon Carter to push Tech’s lead to 6-0.

Tech has now won five straight games to move to 25-7 on the year and 6-4 in Big 12 play. That’s important because the team just below the Red raiders in the Big 12 standings is the Mountaineers, who are now 4-6 in league play.

It was also important for Tech to get off on the right foot in this critical conference series. Prior to this win, Tech was just 1-2 in Friday night games in conference play.

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But by brushing aside the Mountaineers to open this weekend’s series, the Red Raiders now sit just one win away from taking this road set in Morgantown, a place where it is rarely easy to win regardless of the sport.

This afternoon, Tech will try to clinch the series with Micah Dallas on the mound in what is going to be a critical start for him and for his team. With starter Brandon Birdsell likely done for the year, Dallas has to give Tech some solid starts in his place.

But last weekend against TCU, the sophomore was ineffective in his first start of the year. In fact, he gave up six runs in the first inning of a 4-inning outing as Tech fell 7-3.

The Red Raiders need to see the Dallas that they saw in 2019 when, as a freshman, the Aubrey, Texas native was his team’s Friday night starter. That year, he went 7-2 on the year with his only two losses coming in the College World Series.

If he can regain that type of form on Saturday, Tech will pick up a huge series win on their quest towards earning a national seed in the NCAA Tournament. Perhaps Dallas should try to convince Monteverde’s cheering section to hang around and root him on as well.

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