No. 4 Tech clinches series sweep with walk-off blast

Sunday, April 10

Lubbock, TX

12:30 p.m. CT

Texas Tech Athletics

27-8, 7-2

Kansas State

15-16, 1-8

Kansas State

Texas Tech

No. 4 Tech clinches series sweep with walk-off blast

April 10, 2022 | Baseball

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By: Matt Burkholder

LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 4 Texas Tech baseball team rallied on Sunday, scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth, to defeat Kansas State 7-6 at Rip Griffin Park. Sophomore sensation Jace Jung provided the walk-off home run (watch) to seal the comeback bid that clinched Tech's first Big 12 series sweep since 2019 (vs. Oklahoma).

Trailing 6-4, and down to their last three outs, the Red Raiders (27-8, 7-2) only needed three at-bats to score the go-ahead run. Zac Vooletich set the stage, as he had the most timely of first home runs of the season, leading off the frame with a solo shot (watch) over the left-field wall using the first pitch he saw to cut the deficit to one.

Cole Stilwell followed Vooletich with a single through the middle, his third single on the day, to represent the game-tying run at first base, and Jung due up.

Jung entered the at-bat with one hit in the series, and struck out against the very pitcher he was facing during the last at-bat in the seventh, but he was done being denied. Working a 2-2 count, with both strikes being five foul balls, the eighth pitch was the pitch Jung was waiting for as he launched it over the right-center field fence. The game-winner was his team-leading 10th home run of the season.

Not much was going in favor of the home team until the theatrics in the bottom of the ninth. Kansas State tacked on an insurance run in the top of the ninth, rattling off three hits, starting with a double that eventually scored to make it a 6-4 contest.

Texas Tech's offense was not subdued by any stretch, tallying 12 hits through the first eight innings. A pair of inning-ending double plays in the third and fourth innings put a halt to any runs scored in bunches. Tech scored one run on three hits in each of those two frames.

K-State jumped on Sunday starter Chase Hampton for a lead-off home run in the second inning, and again in the third inning. He was lifted after three innings and three earned runs in favor of Mason Molina. Trailing 3-0 heading into the home half of the third, Parker Kelly led off with a double and was later pushed across thanks to a Vooletich sac fly to close the gap to 3-1 after three completed.

Both teams scored once in the fourth, keeping it a two-run deficit, 4-2. The Wildcats added their fifth run in the fifth inning as a passed ball allowed a runner to score. A leadoff double and single started the base runner movement.

The Red Raiders scored two in the bottom of the seventh using a pair of RBI singles from Stilwell and Ty Coleman. Dalton Porter came around to score using Stilwell's single (watch), having drawn a walk earlier, while Coleman's hit (watch) brought Vooletich home, who reached base earlier with a single to make it a one-run game, 5-4, before the wild ninth inning.

Stilwell led Texas Tech on Sunday with three hits, while reaching base in four of his five plate appearances. Stilwell finished the series against KSU going 7-for-12 (.583) from the dish. Vooletich, Coleman, Owen Washburn and Hudson White each joined Stilwell as multi-hit batters, recording two apiece.

Quotable
Head Coach Tim Tadlock
On the back-and-forth battle on Sunday…
"It was fun. I really think we enjoyed that game from start to finish. Just a classic college baseball game, a lot of strikes being thrown, really good defense by both teams, really good pitching by both teams when it counted, and some really good at-bats throughout the game. Obviously, the ball going out of the park was pretty exciting. I think I blacked out for a while, I was a little fired up."

On Jace Jung…
"What you really want him [Jace Jung] to do is go pitch to pitch, compete pitch to pitch and kind of just let the results speak for themselves. He had some good at-bats throughout the game and that one [in the seventh] I guess he just missed that one in the middle of the plate. It is hard to predict if a guy is going to hit the ball over the scoreboard, but it helps to have a pro sitting there in the three-hole for sure…. He works really hard at his craft and he's pretty diligent with pitch to pitch for the most part, he's just like all of them, we all want to get hits. He really tries to do everything he can to help his team. All great hitters love hitting in big moments like that, and a lot of it has to do with how they prepare. They feel like they are prepared for that moment. It's awful fun when the ball goes out of the park."

Up Next
Texas Tech is back on the road for their next six games, starting with a neutral site contest against Oklahoma in Amarillo at the home of the Double-A Amarillo Sod Poodles. The game will go down as a nonconference contest despite being a Big 12 foe. The Red Raiders and Sooners hook up for its three-game Big 12 series over the final weekend of the regular season, May 19-21.