No. 5 Tech Blanks Sam Houston State, 6-0

Saturday, June 3

Lubbock, Texas

9:30 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

45-15

Sam Houston State

41-21

Texas Tech

Sam Houston State

No. 5 Tech Blanks Sam Houston State, 6-0

June 04, 2017 | Baseball

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

The Red Raiders advance to Sunday’s regional championship scheduled for 6 p.m. CDT.

LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 5 Texas Tech baseball team cruised to the catbird seat of the 2017 NCAA Lubbock Regional after notching a 6-0 victory over Sam Houston State during the winner's bracket game on a weather-delayed Saturday night in the Hub City.

After the two hour and 18 minute stint, 4,732 of the Lubbock faithful filled the stands of Rip Griffin Park and lifted Tech to championship round. The Red Raiders advance to face the winner of an elimination matchup between Arizona and Sam Houston State Sunday at 6 p.m. CT.

The Red Raiders (45-15) matched their fifth-highest win total in school history with the 2014 squad and tuck away their 45th victory of the season.

Junior outfielder Tanner Gardner and senior outfielder Ryan Long took the crowd to Souvenir City three times on Saturday night with Gardner doing so twice during the first and fifth innings. Gardner sparked a nine-hit attack for the Tech offense going 3-for-5 with a career-high tying four RBIs.

Sophomore left-hander pitcher Steven Gingery picked up his 10th win of the season versus the Bearkats. The Huntington Beach, California, native posted 6.0 shutout innings where he was touched up for just a pair of hits and two walks. Gingery piled up eight strikeouts and has tossed back-to-back scoreless starts twice this season, last doing so in road games at Wichita State (March 25) and at Oklahoma (April 1).

The eight strikes put Gingery over the 100-strikeout threshold at 107, the first Red Raider to do so since Chad Bettis registered 102 punch outs in 2010. His 107 Ks also marked the most strikeouts by a Tech pitcher since Monty Ward rung up a school-record 151 batters in 1998.

The victory lifted Gingery to 10-1 for the season and made him the 13th Red Raider hurler to reach the 10-win plateau. Last season, teammate and then-freshman Davis Martin recorded 10 wins. Texas Tech has had pitchers register at least 10 wins during back-to-back season on 10 instances.

The Red Raiders struck first in the opening frame thanks to a two-run homer from Gardner. After Little doubled down the left field line to begin the game, Gardner smacked his third dinger of the year onto the track behind the right field wall for the early 2-0 advantage.

Saturday's contest was the 23rd time this season that Tech has platted runs during the first inning. The Red Raiders have won 20 of 23 games when accomplishing the feat.
In nearly the same fashion as Gardner's homer, Long sent a line drive solo shot over the fence in right field to push the Tech lead to 3-0 during the fourth inning. It was Long's fifth long ball of the year.

Gardner had everyone seeing double in the fifth when he demolished another two-run blast over the trees in right field to extend the Tech lead to 5-0. He drove home Jung, who reached on an error earlier in the frame. For Gardner, it was second two-dinger performance of the season. All four of his homers have come since May 18.

The scoring wasn't done as the Red Raiders rebuilt the inning courtesy of a Michael Berglund double which was roped down the right field line. The two-bagger scored Long from first base to make it 6-0.

Jose Quezada and Dylan Dusek preserved Tech's seventh shutout in postseason play and second during the 2017 campaign. Quezada fanned five over his two frames whereas Dusek worked around a one-out single in the ninth.

Tech pitchers combined to amass 13 strikeouts which was the eighth time in the last 10 games that the staff has piled up at least 10 Ks.

The Red Raiders will play for a spot in next week's NCAA Super Regional round and take on the winner of the elimination game between Arizona and Sam Houston State. Sunday's first pitch is slated for 6 p.m. CT on ESPN3 and the Watch ESPN app.