With the Big 12 saves leader already inserted in the game for West Virginia, Texas Tech baseball coach Tim Tadlock felt he had no margin for error with the Mountaineers batting in the ninth inning of a tie game.
So, with the go-ahead run at third, one out and a 2-0 count, Tadlock called for two intentional walks, loading the bases to set up an inning-ending double play. The strategy backfired as No. 19 West Virginia scored six runs and beat the Red Raiders 12-8 in a Big 12 series opener on Friday, April 10, at Dan Law Field/Rip Griffin Park.
Matthew Graveline hit a tiebreaking two-run single off Heeryun Han (0-2), who failed to retire any of the six batters he faced. Jorden Espinoza got a strikeout, but then gave up a bases-loaded walk and a three-run double, making it 12-6 as fans streamed to the exits.
The two batters Han intentionally passed were cleanup hitter Sean Smith and Armani Guzman. Smith hit a two-run double in his previous at-bat, and Tadlock said Guzman has a propensity to bunt home runners from third.
“We got the 2-0 count on Smith,” Tadlock said. “Just really felt like, ‘OK, put him on and set up the double play.’ Guzman, I think he’s got 17 bunts on the year. Most of the time when it’s first and third, he’ll push bunt the guy in. Kind of managing the game there to not give up a run, and it kind of got us.”
Tech (19-14, 5-8 Big 12) is 1-6 in its past seven conference games. The Red Raiders and the Mountaineers (23-7, 9-4) will play again at 12:05 p.m. Saturday, two hours earlier than originally scheduled with the National Weather Service forecast calling for an 80-100% chance of rain from 4 p.m. through the evening.
Tech scored two in the ninth via an RBI double from Tracer Lopez and a run-scoring single from Caden Ferraro. That came off David Perez, who has a Big 12-high six saves.
“If you know you’re going to come in and score two, you’d just let him drive the run in — Smith,” Tadlock said of the thought process in the top of the ninth. “But at the time, with Perez in, he’s been really good this spring and I felt like we needed to keep it [a tie game] right there.”
Tech was working with a shorter bullpen than usual. Logan Bevis was ill and unavailable, and Tadlock decided not call on his two-way players. Left-hander Jesse Rusinek played a full game in right field, and left fielder Connor Shouse batted in the eighth, tying the score 6-6 with a groundout. Though summoning Shouse was discussed, Tadlock said his staff wasn’t sure he’d have an adequate warmup.
“If I’m guilty of something in 34 years,” Tadlock said, “I believe in our guys and if they’re in uniform, we’re going to believe. We gave the ball to Han with a tie game, and he didn’t hold up his end of the deal, simple as that.”
That wasn’t the end of the ugly ninth.
Ferraro’s RBI single in the bottom of the inning put runners at the corners and got the potential tying run to the on-deck circle. But WVU pitcher Carson Estridge picked off Kyeler Thompson at third base to end the game.
Tadlock called it “a third-base coach’s worst nightmare.”
“When a team will run a pickoff to third base, you have to really be alert over there,” Tadlock said. “You have to make sure your guy’s close to the base. … Kyeler obviously made a move towards home when the [pitcher] lifted. He shouldn’t be. His run doesn’t matter right there. … It’s a good baseball play, but it’s not a baseball play that should work.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Dissecting a Texas Tech baseball 9th-inning meltdown vs. West Virginia
Reporting by Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
