The Texas Tech baseball team began Saturday, May 9, by recognizing five seniors before the last home game of the season. The Red Raiders ended the afternoon by winning their first Big 12 series since the next-to-last week of March.
Two-way player Connor Shouse went 5 for 5 with three doubles and a save, and Logan Hughes homered and drove in five runs as Texas Tech outslugged Brigham Young 15-11 to win for the second time in the three-game series.
“It’s huge,” Hughes said. “Hopefully get momentum going into the later half of the year and into the tournament.”
Linkin Garcia contributed a two-run single and a two-run triple, and Kyeler Thompson and Matt Quintanar also homered for Tech (26-25, 9-18 in the Big 12). Since winning its first two Big 12 series, Tech had lost six conference series in a row, its longest such skid since 2013.
Shouse pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth, working around a double in each inning, for his second career save. He said he had to make up for going 0 for 8 the first two games of the series.
“On top of the world,” he said after his performance in the finale. “(Thursday) and (Friday) was a rough day on offense. I had to go home, look in the mirror and say it wasn’t that good, so today I had to come out and perform for the team.”
BYU (25-25, 13-14) got three-run homers from Ryder Robinson, Ezra McNaughton and Crew McChesney and a solo shot from Parker Goff.
Tech won the opener of three-game set 2-1 on Thursday, and BYU evened the series with a 12-3 triumph on Friday.
Here are five talking points coming out of the series.
Jonny Lowe had a memorable week
Lowe (4-1) was the winning pitcher in both Tech victories over BYU.
“I think Jonny, at the end of the spring last year, felt like year two here he’d be better,” Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. “We felt the same way. He’s doing everything he can to execute pitches. I think he’s put himself in a really good position. The stuff has ticked up a little bit, which a lot of times you see.”
Lowe entered to start the seventh and gave up a leadoff homer to Goff, but retired the next three, two by strikeout.
Saturday was the stereotypical hitters’ conditions at Dan Law Field/Rip Griffin Park: Temperature in the 90s, wind blowing straight out to left at 20 mph with gusts to 30.
“I try to not let any of that affect me,” Lowe said. “Playing here at this ballpark, there’s going to be days like that all the time, so I just go out there, keep the ball down, try to execute my pitches the best way I can and hope for the best.”
Logan Hughes on a tear
The Red Raiders’ first baseman/left fielder has homered in four of the past five games, giving him team highs of 16 home runs and 67 RBIs. He hit 19 homers last year.
Though Hughes is a junior, he could go fairly high in this summer’s Major League draft, so Saturday might have been his last home game.
“Playing for Tech has been the best two years of my life,” he said. “I’ve been grateful for every moment of it and thankful for all the fans and coaches who believed in me.”
Seniors send-off
In a pre-game ceremony on the field, Tadlock presented framed jerseys to first baseman Robin Villeneuve, second baseman Tracer Lopez and pitchers Jacob Rogers, Ryan Free and Lowe.
“We probably went into today making it more about our moms and senior day than we did us,” Tadlock said. “I think sometimes that helps — make it about more than just yourself.”
Liking it in Lubbock
BYU right fielder Bryker Hurdsman has 17 home runs in a four-year career, including three on two trips to Lubbock. He homered twice in the Cougars’ win Friday.
“It’s probably coincidence,” he said. “I don’t hit a lot of homers. I feel like it’s just a fun atmosphere to play in. … They get a lot of fans. This is a really cool ballpark. Kind of just a blessing to play here, so pretty fun.”
The week ahead
Tech will go into this coming week with an inside track to the last berth in the Big 12 tournament, a 12-team bracket May 19-23 in Surprise, Arizona. Going into Saturday night, Tech was one-half game behind 11th-place Kansas State (26-24, 9-17), one game ahead of 13th-place Arizona (17-31, 7-18) and three up on last-place Houston (21-28, 5-20).
Arizona was hosting Houston on Saturday night and Sunday, and Kansas State finishes a series Sunday against Cincinnati.
In the final week of three-game conference series, Tech visits Cincinnati, Kansas State goes to Central Florida, Arizona is at Oklahoma State, and Houston hosts Arizona State.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech baseball wins Big 12 series vs. BYU: 5 talking points
Reporting by Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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