The Texas Tech baseball team is not used to losing at home this season. The Red Raiders are even less used to being shut out at Dan Law Field/Rip Griffin Park.
Braden Davis was unfazed.
The junior left-hander allowed two hits in seven scoreless innings Friday night in the Big 12 series opener, leading No. 23 Oklahoma to an 8-0 victory. The Keller graduate had eight strikeouts, mostly on off-speed pitches and breaking balls.
“We’re just trying to stay balanced with good combinations,” said Davis (6-3). “I think all of my pitches were effective against both right-handed and left-handed batters. I had to chase down a lot of batters, but I was able to get through it just by keeping the mindset that “I won’t lose this at-bat.”
Will Kirsten pitched Tech’s first four-hit shutout win at home since 2021.
“I thought Davis threw the ball really well,” Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. “I thought Oklahoma played really well. They beat us in every aspect of the game, from pitching to defense. They had tough at-bats and ran the bases well. Hats off to you.”
Oklahoma (27-17, 16-6) maintained a one-game lead in the Big 12. Tech (30-18, 12-13) lost for the fifth time in six games, falling to 22-5 at home this season.
According to the National Weather Service, Lubbock had east winds of 30 mph, 41 mph, southeast winds of 18 mph, and 33 mph in the early moments.
“It was a tough night to hit,” OU coach Skip Johnson said. “The wind was picking up. Braden was calming down. We got a few points early and got him into a rhythm. … It was tough to hit. We didn’t know how many balls we were landing. I just hit it and it didn’t reach me.”
OU’s eight-hole hitter Scott Maddler hit the first two-run double in the second inning, scoring his fifth and fourth run with a leadoff double.
Tech starter Ryan Free (5-1) pitched six innings, allowing eight hits and seven runs, with three of his five runs unearned.
Game 2 of the series on Saturday was moved up to 1 p.m., an hour earlier than originally scheduled.
Before and after the conference:Can Oklahoma baseball hold off the pursuers? | Big 12 Baseball Strength Rankings
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Tech’s only hits from Davis were a Tracer Lopez single in the second inning and a Gavin Kash double in the sixth. Tech also got singles from Kash in the eighth and Landon Stripling in the ninth.
Tech’s last shutout loss was in the 2021 NCAA Super Regionals, when they lost 9-0 to Stanford at the end of the season.
Davis has averaged a 1.44 ERA in his past four starts since giving up nine runs against Lamar on March 29 and seven runs against Oklahoma State on April 5.
“I’m really continuing the same process,” he said. “There are things I can control and there are things I can’t control. I just keep that mentality that I’m better on the mound and carry that throughout the game.”
defense was useless
Oklahoma opened the game with four runs, helped by three errors in the fifth inning. Right fielder Austin Green misread Muddler’s lead-off base hit, and the ball went over Green, resulting in a double.
Then it got sloppy. Third baseman Cade McGee committed an error on Jackson Willits’ sacrifice bunt, and second baseman TJ Pompey committed two errors.
Pompey hit John Spikerman’s ball far to the left, but he didn’t take it and threw it wildly and past the first. After that, Pompey failed to get off a sharp grounder from Bryce Madron, resulting in an error and allowing two points.
Tech was charged with a total of four errors.
