Texas Tech Baseball Takes Two of Three Against Texas

Texas Tech Baseball's trip to Austin proved fruitful in keeping their NCAA Tournament hopes alive. The Red Raiders won the final two games of a three game series against Texas (24-24, 9-12) to improve their record to (29-20, 12-9). Texas Tech now finds themselves in fourth place in the Big 12 Conference and will most likely improve their RPI from 85th.

Texas won the Friday night game, 3-0, as Parker French pitched 7 2/3 shutout innings to earn the win.  The Red Raiders managed seven hits and three walks against French but were unable to push any of their runners across the plate.

In the Saturday game, Stephen Smith hit his first career grand slam and Cameron Smith (pictured) pitched a complete game for Texas Tech as the Red Raiders beat the Longhorns 9-1.

Smith's grand slam occurred in the top of the seventh inning with one out. The four runs scored were the first ones of the game, busting open a scoreless tie.

In Cameron Smith's complete game on the mound, he gave up one run, seven hits, two walks and struck out six.

Finally, in the Sunday game, Texas Tech prevailed over Texas 5-1 as Dominic Moreno pitched six innings to earn the win.

The Red Raiders scored one run in the third, three runs in the fifth and their final run in the sixth. Bryant Burleson hit a two-run home run in the fifth as he went 2-for-5 in the win.

The Longhorns missed a golden opportunity in the bottom of the eighth to put multiple runs up on the board.  Matt Custred came into the game to pitch for Texas Tech with one out and two men on base. Custred walked the first hitter he faced to load the bases and then he struck out Brooks Marlow for the second out of the inning.  Custred then walked Bret Boswell, which forced in a run.

The Longhorns lineup started over as leadoff hitter Ben Johnson came up for Texas with the bases still loaded. Johnson worked a full count and then took strike three looking on a pitch that appeared to be below his knees. He was promptly ejected from the game as he threw a tantrum at home plate following the strike out.

The ninth inning came and went with neither team scoring any runs as Texas Tech wrapped up the four-run win.

The Red Raiders have the next week off for finals before starting their final series of the season at West Virginia on May 14.