No. 16 Baylor Outlasts Red Raiders on Pink Day

Saturday, April 7

Lubbock, TX

4 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

21-17, 0

Baylor

23-9, 0

Baylor

Texas Tech

No. 16 Baylor Outlasts Red Raiders on Pink Day

April 07, 2018 | Softball

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Lady Bears take the series with a 2-0 victory Saturday.

By: Ty Parker, Texas Tech Athletics Communications

LUBBOCK, Texas – Baylor's Gia Rodoni struck out 14 batters in a complete-game effort as the No. 16 Lady Bears picked up the series win with a 2-0 victory over Texas Tech softball on Saturday on Pink Day at Rocky Johnson Field.

After the two teams combined for 20 runs in the series opener Friday night, runs came at a premium on Saturday with the Red Raiders (21-17, 1-7) and Lady Bears (23-9, 2-3) squared at 0-0 through five innings before Baylor broke through with RBI singles in the sixth and seventh.

Tech's Kassidy Scott (6-5) was impressive, giving up two runs on seven hits with a pair of strikeouts in her fourth complete game of the season and 12^th of her career.

"(Kassidy) did a great job, and I thought she threw really well," head coach Adrian Gregory said. "We went to school on video, and said 'on different counts, how can we work smarter and not harder,' and I thought she did a really good job on locating, throwing better in counts and making them hit pitcher's pitches."

Junior Jessica Hartwell continued her hot hand at the plate with a pair of singles to finish 2-for-3 on the day, but those were the only hits Rodoni (13-6) would allow. Hartwell is 5-for-6 with three home runs and a walk this weekend to improve her average to .565 in Big 12 play.

Baylor opened the scoring in the sixth on an RBI single from Maddison Kettler. With runners on first and second and two outs, Kettler hit a single to left field that was quickly cut off by senior Kaylee Strickland and fired in to Breanna Russell who relayed home, but the runner was ruled to slide safely around the tag.

The Lady Bears added an insurance run in the seventh on a single to left from Kyla Walker. Baylor got the inning started on a one-out walk from Nicky Dawson, who eventually advanced to third before Walker brought her home with a two-out hit.

"I keep telling our kids 'the pursuit is right, don't lose sight of the journey,'" Gregory said. "Of course, everybody wants to be hyper focused on the product. You want the gold, but at the same time you can't lose sight of the process being right. Some plays didn't go our way today, and some plays didn't go our way yesterday. You can't forego the process when you don't get one or two things to go your way. Our process is right, and Baylor's a good team. They're a good ball club, and they are ranked where they are on purpose. We are playing with them and we expect to win every day."

POST-GAME NOTES

The Red Raiders wore pink jerseys and pink socks on Saturday in honor of the annual Strikeout Cancer game, which is aimed to raise cancer awareness.
The 1:31 game time marks the fastest seven inning game for Tech since Feb. 26, 2017 against Gardner-Webb.
Tech held Baylor to its lowest scoring output against the Red Raiders since 2014.
Saturday was just the third time Tech has been held scoreless this season.

UP NEXT
Texas Tech closes its six game home stand with the series finale against No. 16 Baylor on Sunday at 12 p.m.

For updates and info on all things Texas Tech softball, follow @TexasTechSB on Twitter and Instagram, and stay tuned to TexasTech.com.