Texas Tech baseball: Red Raiders drilled by Baylor in game one

Starting pitcher Patrick Monteverde had his worst outing as a member of the Texas Tech baseball team on Friday night in the Red Raiders’ 12-4 loss to Baylor in game one of their three-game Big 12 series at Dan Law Field.

Giving up seven runs in just four innings pitched, the lefty allowed eight hits and struck out only two hitters as Tech dropped yet another Friday game. Overall, Tim Tadlock’s team is just 2-3 in Big 12 play in game one of a weekend series putting the Red Raiders behind the 8-ball if they plan on winning the series.

On Friday, it was a six-run Baylor second inning that broke the game wide open. Sending 13 hitters to the dish, Baylor racked up seven hits and drew two walks to put Tech in a hole that the home team would never climb out of.

Making matters worst, Tech had to utilize six relievers just to get through the game though, of that group, only Andrew Devine is an arm Tim Tadlock typically counts on in important situations. Still, the pen could be somewhat thin for the remainder of the weekend should another Red Raider starter falter early.

At the plate, Tech was also uncharacteristically ineffective. Leaving eight total runners on base, the Red Raiders managed just eight hits.

Braxton Fulford would mash his 8th homer of the year but Tech would muster just two more extra-base hits on the evening. And the best hitter on the team, Jace Jung, would go 0-4 leaving a total of four men on base.

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But Baylor starter Tyler Thomas kept the Red Raiders off balance all night. Giving up just two runs over six innings of work, he moved to 5-2 on the season.

The loss means that yet again, the Red Raiders will not have an opportunity to earn a sweep in a Big 12 series. That puts a damper on any hopes of chasing down Texas and TCU, the two teams ahead of Tech in the Big 12 standings.

The league-leading Longhorns had their series opener at Oklahoma State postponed on Friday night due to inclement weather. Meanwhile, TCU hammered Kansas 15-1 in Fort Worth to open their series.

Tech returns to the diamond on Saturday at 2 pm. It will be imperative for starter Micah Dallas to give his team a quality effort given how much work the bullpen had to endure on Friday.

The sophomore righty is 1-2 on the year with a 3.66 ERA. In his last outing, he battled through 5.1 innings giving up four runs on seven hits in Tech’s 6-5 loss to West Virginia in Morgantown. Here’s hoping he can steady the ship for the Red Raiders because Tech now has to take two straight to claim this key Big 12 series.

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