To sum it up shortly, Texas Tech had a great Tuesday. The Red Raiders won a pair of games, 15-11 and 13-3, against Abilene Christian at Rip Griffin Park, completing a series that seemed destined never to be finished.
The two wins could not have contrasted each other greater. The first was a contest that resumed in the fourth inning with ACU batting as the home team with the lead while the second ended in a seven-inning run-rule.
The first game was the resumption of the April 25 contest suspended in the fourth inning at ACU because of lightning. The two teams waited two weeks between at-bats before the Wildcats returned to play leading 6-0 with one out and a runner on second base.
Brendan Girton was inserted into the lineup to start Tuesday's game on the mound seeking the final two outs of the fourth to end an inning ACU had poured in six runs in the frame back in Abilene. ACU scored three more runs over the fifth and sixth innings, advancing its lead to 9-0 after six innings were completed.
Tech scored 15 unanswered runs, starting with eight in the top half of the seventh and seven more in the top half of the eighth. It was the largest comeback in a game since erasing a 9-0 deficit against UTRGV on May 1, 2019, which was won 19-11. ACU scored a pair in the bottom of the ninth, but the damage was done as the Red Raiders clinched a 15-11 victory that will go down officially as a road win.
"There's 27 outs in the game," said head coach Tim Tadlock. "And, you know, we're not easy to get out. When guys are moving on the right pitch and really just letting the next guy do their job, passing the baton, call it what you want, keeping the line moving. We can be really tough to pitch to and I think we showed that tonight. Probably had some breaks along the way."
In the next game, which was a make-up game for the original April 4 date in Lubbock that was postponed due to extreme wind in the region, the offense kept the momentum from the previous contest by opening a 6-0 lead after the first two innings en route to a run-rule victory. It was a streak of 21 runs over five innings of baseball, looking back to the previous game.
ACU closed the gap to 6-3 after the top of the third, but Jacob Rogers steadied the game out of the bullpen over the next three innings holding ACU hitless as did Ryan Free in the top of the seventh to set up the bottom of the seventh walk-off win.
"[Rogers] fastball was really good tonight," said catcher Hudson White. "I think it's 92-94. He has a lot of life behind his fastball and if you can command your fastball and you have the type of life he has, you'll get a lot of people out."
The work by the bullpen allowed the Red Raiders to score the final seven runs. It was Nolen Hester that hit the walk-off two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to end it. Prior to Hester providing the walk-off hit, his third hit of the contest, it was White providing the power in game two going 4-for-4 with six RBIs.
"I thought we did a great job," said Hester. "It's just the same mindset and plan, either starting the game in the fourth inning, or starting the game zero to zero. We know we just got to walk out there and hit the ball really well to win every day and I think that's exactly what we did."
Up Next
After five games in five days at Rip Griffin Park, the Red Raiders travel for their last Big 12 road series of the season at West Virginia. Tech returns home for senior weekend, May 18-20, with Kansas coming to town.
