Thursday, May 26
Arlington, TX
7:30 p.m. CT
Texas Tech Athletics
3
vs
6
Oklahoma
No. 8 Tech faces elimination after loss to No. 22 OU
May 26, 2022 | Baseball
ARLINGTON, Texas – No. 8 Texas Tech fell to No. 22 Oklahoma 6-3 Thursday night on day two of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship at Globe Life Field. The loss gives the Red Raiders a date with Kansas State on Friday at 7 p.m. in an elimination game while the Sooners will have the day off and wait for the winner on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
The Red Raiders have won the first two games of the Big 12 Championship once in the history of the tournament, back in 1998, their only Big 12 tournament win. If Tech is to emerge victorious in 2022, it will need to win four straight starting Friday night. Tech defeated Kansas State in its Big 12 Championship opener on Wednesday and the Wildcats staved off elimination earlier on Thursday by defeating West Virginia in its first elimination game.
Sooners' starter Jake Bennett limited the Red Raiders to two hits and one run on Thursday while striking out a career-high 12 and walking two in a career-long outing. Over the final 1 and 1/3 innings, the Sooners' bullpen allowed two runs and two hits, as Tech finished with four hits – one better than its season-low three.
Dillon Carter plated Hudson White in third with a deep sacrifice fly to centerfield, nicking Bennett for his one earned run. White connected for a leadoff single, stole second base and then advanced on a ground out before Carter brought him home.
Tech doubled its hit total in the ninth, starting with a two-run home run smacked by Kurt Wilson, his 14th of the season as a walk followed by a fielder's choice put one baserunner on ahead of the 435-foot bomb. Zac Vooletich hit a pinch-hit single before Oklahoma closed out the game.
Outside of a three-hit, three-run second inning, Tech starter Andrew Morris allowed just two other hits to the Sooners, one being a bunt single, in his 6 and 2/3 innings outing. Morris struck out eight and walked three. In the seventh, Morris left two runners aboard – via a hit-by-pitch and walk – that the bullpen could not keep from scoring as he was charged for five runs in the game. A third run was scored in the seventh due to an error on a failed pickoff attempt giving the Sooners their sixth run.
Quotable
Texas Tech Head Coach Tim Tadlock
On what made Oklahoma's pitching so tough…
"It starts with Skip [Johnson], obviously their head coach is their pitching guy and does a great job with the pitchers. You take a guy like [Jake] Bennett, I don't know if he even started for them last year in the midweek, maybe he did, but you take a guy like that and he's in the top five in the league in probably every category and you can see that he's come a long way, you could see the kid had to step back a few times and really it looked to me like he would kind of regroup and make a pitch and Bennett was ahead in the count today, some of that was our doing, swinging at maybe some balls, we might have helped him a hair early and never really got the pitch count where we needed to get it but again, I think you know, you're talking about a guy in his third year of college and that's what it's supposed to look like when you get a left-hander like that they're supposed to get better.
Up Next
Tech will face Kansas State at 7 p.m. CT on Friday in an elimination game at the Big 12 Championship.
The winner gets Oklahoma at 12:30 p.m. CT on Saturday and must defeat Oklahoma twice that day to advance to Sunday's winner take all Championship Game.
The Red Raiders have won the first two games of the Big 12 Championship once in the history of the tournament, back in 1998, their only Big 12 tournament win. If Tech is to emerge victorious in 2022, it will need to win four straight starting Friday night. Tech defeated Kansas State in its Big 12 Championship opener on Wednesday and the Wildcats staved off elimination earlier on Thursday by defeating West Virginia in its first elimination game.
Sooners' starter Jake Bennett limited the Red Raiders to two hits and one run on Thursday while striking out a career-high 12 and walking two in a career-long outing. Over the final 1 and 1/3 innings, the Sooners' bullpen allowed two runs and two hits, as Tech finished with four hits – one better than its season-low three.
Dillon Carter plated Hudson White in third with a deep sacrifice fly to centerfield, nicking Bennett for his one earned run. White connected for a leadoff single, stole second base and then advanced on a ground out before Carter brought him home.
Tech doubled its hit total in the ninth, starting with a two-run home run smacked by Kurt Wilson, his 14th of the season as a walk followed by a fielder's choice put one baserunner on ahead of the 435-foot bomb. Zac Vooletich hit a pinch-hit single before Oklahoma closed out the game.
Outside of a three-hit, three-run second inning, Tech starter Andrew Morris allowed just two other hits to the Sooners, one being a bunt single, in his 6 and 2/3 innings outing. Morris struck out eight and walked three. In the seventh, Morris left two runners aboard – via a hit-by-pitch and walk – that the bullpen could not keep from scoring as he was charged for five runs in the game. A third run was scored in the seventh due to an error on a failed pickoff attempt giving the Sooners their sixth run.
Quotable
Texas Tech Head Coach Tim Tadlock
On what made Oklahoma's pitching so tough…
"It starts with Skip [Johnson], obviously their head coach is their pitching guy and does a great job with the pitchers. You take a guy like [Jake] Bennett, I don't know if he even started for them last year in the midweek, maybe he did, but you take a guy like that and he's in the top five in the league in probably every category and you can see that he's come a long way, you could see the kid had to step back a few times and really it looked to me like he would kind of regroup and make a pitch and Bennett was ahead in the count today, some of that was our doing, swinging at maybe some balls, we might have helped him a hair early and never really got the pitch count where we needed to get it but again, I think you know, you're talking about a guy in his third year of college and that's what it's supposed to look like when you get a left-hander like that they're supposed to get better.
Up Next
Tech will face Kansas State at 7 p.m. CT on Friday in an elimination game at the Big 12 Championship.
The winner gets Oklahoma at 12:30 p.m. CT on Saturday and must defeat Oklahoma twice that day to advance to Sunday's winner take all Championship Game.
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