Texas Tech Baseball Falls to Texas 14-3

The Texas Tech Red Raider baseball team fell to the Texas Longhorns Saturday afternoon 14-3 to drop two games of their three game series.  Light hitting and faulty pitching doomed the Red Raiders, as the Longhorns out hit the Red Raiders in the game 19 to 5.

Shortstop Tim Proudfoot was the only Red Raider with more than one hit as he finished the game with two, including a solo homer down the right field line in the bottom of the first inning that gave Tech a 1-0 lead.

Early on in the game, the Red Raiders received two unlikely opportunities to produce runs, but they were unable to convert.

The first was in the bottom of the second inning.  With one out, and men at first and second, it appeared that Brennan Moore hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.  As the Longhorns cleared the field, Tech Head Coach Dan Spencer ran out to first base umpire Mike Morris to argue the play.  Spencer asked Morris to get "help" on the out at first as he argued that Texas 1B Alex Silver pulled his foot from the bag.  After a conference between Morris and home plate umpire Dale Luker, Morris changed his call from 'out' to 'safe' on the back-end of the double play.  As the call was reversed the Longhorns came back out on the field defensively and Texas Head Coach Augie Garrido argued with the umpires (pictured). So, with two outs, Jamodrick McGruder came up to bat with Kevin Whitehead on third and Moore at first.  McGruder worked a 3-2 count on Texas starter Ricky Jacquez, but he struck out looking on a pitch at the knees.

The second unlikely opportunity for Tech came in the bottom of the fourth inning.  At this point, the Longhorns had knocked around starting pitcher John Neely for four runs in the top of the fourth and they had a 4-1 lead.

With one out, Kevin Whitehead drew a walk. Then Bryant Burelson hit a grounder to Texas 2B Brooks Marlow. Instead of throwing the ball to second to get the force, Marlow got in the middle of the baseline and tried to tag Whitehead. However, Marlow missed Whitehead and he then threw the ball to first to get Burelson out.  After throwing the ball, Marlow never got out of Whitehead's way in the baseline and the first base umpire ruled obstruction and awarded Whitehead second base. With new life, Jordan Lopez came up with two outs and Whitehead on second, but he was unable to convert, striking out on five pitches.

The Longhorns ended up hitting the Red Raider bullpen hard; scoring at least one run in each of the final four innings of the game. Dan Spencer used seven pitchers in the game for the Red Raiders.

John Neely picked up the loss for Texas Tech, going four innings. Ricky Jacquez earned the win for Texas.

The loss dropped Texas Tech to 18-15 overall and 3-9 in Big 12 play.

The Red Raiders return to the diamond from home Wednesday April 11 with a 3 p.m. first pitch against Dallas Baptist.

The Fan's Robert Snyder contributed to this report