Texas Tech Blanks East Carolina 11-0 in the Lubbock Super Regional
Texas Tech had no problem dispatching road weary East Carolina from the Lubbock Super Regional in an 11-0 two-hit rout on Sunday. The victory punched the Red Raiders' ticket to Omaha and the 2016 College World Series for the second time in the last three years.
Erikson Lanning got the series ending win holding the Pirates scoreless for seven shutout innings including six strikeouts and giving up only a pair of ECU hits in the game.
Texas Tech wasted no time lighting up the scoreboard with three runs on three hits in the first inning when they loaded the bases with no outs on hits from Tanner Gardner and Orlando Garcia. After Wolfe’s only strikeout of the game for ECU, the Southern Alamance product walked Tyler Neslony (who was drafted in the ninth round by the Atlanta Braves on Friday) with the bases loaded to bring in the first run of the game. Then Eric Gutierez’s two-run single made it 3-0.
Wolfe, who took the loss for East Carolina, was pulled for Chris Holba after facing just six batters.
In the bottom of the third inning, the Red Raiders loaded the bases for Hunter Hargrove who then laced a two-run double down the left field line to grow the Texas Tech lead to 5-0.
Holba was lifted for Matt Bridges who made an appearance for the third straight day. Bridges’ first pitch was a wild pitch that scored Gutierrez for yet another Red Raider run and a 6-0 lead. Hunter Hargrove was then tagged out at the plate trying to steal home to mercifully end the third inning.
Vineland, New Jersey freshman Denny Brady entered the game in relief of Matt Bridges to open the bottom of the fifth stanza for ECU.
Lanning retired ten straight Pirate batters before walking Bryce Harman to begin the sixth inning.
ECU’s game three futility continued when Stephen Smith singled in the bottom of the sixth and then stole second on a wild pitch by Brady. Then Orlando Garcia ripped a two-out stand-up double into right center that scored Smith as the Texas Tech lead grew to 7-0.
Neslony doubled off of ECU reliever Davis Kirkpatrick when Garrett Brooks dropped the catch as he banged into the centerfield wall in the bottom of the seventh inning. Gutierrez then doubled to score Neslony. Hunter Hargrove banged a two-out swing off the wall to score Gutierrez and the Texas Tech lead ballooned to 9-0. Tyler Floyd added to the lead with a ripped single to left field that retired Kirkpatrick for the day and made the score 10-0
Gutierrez was hit for the second time in his last at bat in Lubbock in the bottom of the eighth by ECU’s seventh pitcher of the day, Evan Voliva. With the bases loaded again, Hunter Hargrove’s fourth RBI made the score 11-0 to cap the 14-hit bombardment.
