No. 6 Tech Evens Series With K-State After 7-4 Win

Friday, April 14

Manhattan, KS

6:30 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

30-8, 0

Kansas State

17-17, 0

Texas Tech

Kansas State

No. 6 Tech Evens Series With K-State After 7-4 Win

April 14, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Notes (PDF)

Steven Gingery improves to 7-0 behind Friday’s victory

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The No. 6 Texas Tech baseball team recorded a 7-4 victory over K-State on Friday night at Tointon Stadium, setting up a Saturday rubber match in Manhattan.

The Red Raiders (30-8, 7-4) got back in the win column after tallying their fourth-straight game with double digit hits, throwing down 13 in Friday's game. The offensive output combined with allowing only four Wildcat (17-17, 2-9) hits helped propel Tech to its quickest 30-win mark since 1999.

Sophomore lefty Steven Gingery put together another strong outing on the mound for the Red Raiders on Friday night, tossing 6.2 innings against the Wildcats. The Huntington Beach, California, native matched a season-best 10 strikeouts against K-State, raising his season total to 67, while walking only one.

Gingery had strings of 10-straight retired from the first-through-fourth innings, followed by another stretch of seven consecutive with only a homer in between to sit down 17 of 18 Wildcats between the opening frame & the sixth. Gingery has recorded a quality start in all nine of his outings in 2017.

It was his seventh win of the season, improving to 7-0, which continues to lead the Big 12. Junior LHP Parker Mushinski entered the seventh and immediately ended the inning with a strikeout, then followed up with another scoreless inning in relief before giving way to freshman right-hander John McMillon. With a 1-2-3 ninth, McMillon posted his fourth save of the year, tying the team lead with junior Jose Quezada.

At the plate, senior Hunter Hargrove and junior Orlando Garcia both notched three-hit bids, while junior Michael Davis and freshmen Josh Jung & Grant Little all had two knocks. Davis & Garcia also drove in three runs, combining for six of Tech's seven on the night.

The Red Raiders struck first in the opening frame, plating two, making it the 16^th time this year to push a run across in the first inning. Jung put the first base runner on board for Tech with a single back up the middle, then with two away, Hargrove smacked a double off the left field wall to put two in scoring position. Enter Garcia, who laced a triple that went just above the second baseman's head and traveled all the way to the wall in right-center, clearing the bases for the early 2-0 lead.

K-State got one back in the home half of the inning to cut deficit to 2-1. After a leadoff walk to Brennan, Crandall hit a single into right field, moving Brennan over to third. However, while trying to take second, Crandall was thrown out by Jung to erase the two-base threat. A grounder from Thompson at first was hit just weak enough to give Hargrove only one play at an out, allowing Brennan to cross home.

Jung led off the scoring again in the third, this time with a walk. He would be taken out of the base path on a fielder's choice by Davis, but a bloop single from Hargrove brought Davis around to third with one away. Just like the opening frame, Garcia tallied the RBI thanks to a single through the left side of the infield to give Tech a 3-1 lead.

The Red Raiders added two more in the top of the fourth again with two outs in the frame. Little got it going with an infield single in the hole between third & short and was moved over to the other corner thanks to a single from Jung to right field. Davis followed by crushing a triple off the right field wall to easily score the freshmen duo and make it 5-1.

The Wildcats struck back with a two-out run of their own, as Scudder lifted a solo homer into the wind & just over the center field fence to close the Red Raider lead to 5-2. Gingery had retired the previous 10 Wildcats before the hit, with five of the 10 via strikeout.

Sophomore outfielder Cody Farhat countered in the top of the sixth with a solo dinger of his own, crushing the first pitch he saw over the left-center field wall to put the cushion at 6-2. It was his first homer of the season and second of his career, last doing so on April 13, 2016, against Sam Houston State.

In the bottom of the seventh, K-State began the frame with a pair of extra-base hits, a triple that fell just out of reach in left field, followed by a two-run homer from Scudder to make it 6-4. The rally-killer home run would be it for the Wildcats in the inning, as a fly out and a pair of strikeouts ended the frame.

Tech launched another homer in the top of the ninth to push its advantage up to 7-4. Davis charged the third pitch to begin the frame to straightaway center field, his second in as many days. It was the third-straight game Davis had posted a dinger, while Friday marked the sixth-straight game Tech has hit at least one home run.

The series finale from Manhattan is set for a 2 p.m. first pitch on Saturday at Tointon Family Stadium.