Texas Tech completed the midweek sweep of Grand Canyon, winning 11-6 on Wednesday afternoon at Rip Griffin Park. Five no-hit innings to begin the game and five quick runs scored over the first two innings paved the way for the wire-to-wire Red Raiders' victory.

"To turnaround and play a night game and then a day game takes a little bit of fortitude to get ready and the preparation," said head coach Tim Tadlock. "I was really proud of them coming out and doing that today. It's not really normal college baseball to turn around that quick unless it's a tournament setting. I think that was good for us."

Wednesday's Noon first pitch started in a similar fashion to Tuesday night's victory by having a productive first inning scoring three runs. Last night, the Red Raiders plated four runs in the opening inning en route to their 6-1 win.

Tech increased its lead to 5-0 in the second inning behind back-to-back two-out RBI base hits and held a sizable lead for the remainder of the game outside a brief close contest after the top half of the sixth inning. Grand Canyon closed the gap to 6-4 with three runs but Tech answered with three runs in the home half to balloon the lead back to five, 9-4.

Grand Canyon scratched a run across without a hit in the third aided by a leadoff error. The Lopes broke being no-hit in the top of the sixth after starter Zane Petty (4.0 IP) and Jase Lopez (1.0 IP) combined to keep the game clean. Tech worked quick 1-2-3 innings in the first, second and fourth with Petty on the bump while Lopez went three-up, and three-down in his one-inning appearance.

"Anytime a guy gets to four innings and doesn't give up a hit he's usually throwing the ball pretty good," said Tadlock of Petty's start. "He's definitely going to keep coming. He's really diligent about what he does week-to-week and I'm excited about his future."

Josh Sanders, the second of four bullpen arms used on Wednesday, allowed the first three batters to reach base in the sixth inning utilizing a combination of a hit-by-pitch, single and a walk. All three scored which allowed the Lopes to close the gap to a 6-4 Red Raiders lead. The first two were put-out RBIs while the third run was scored due to an infield error before the inning was closed.

Thanks to Gavin Kash, Tech got the three runs back with one swing as he knocked the first of two home runs on Wednesday in the bottom of the sixth inning with two aboard. In fact, the final five runs scored in the game-two matinee were each care of the long ball. Hudson White smashed a 456-foot solo home run in the seventh and Kash hit his second bomb in the eighth, a solo shot.

Kash owns 19 home runs for the season (in 39 games), which places him solo sixth for the most hit in a single season by a Red Raider. Looking back to last season, 14 was the most hit by a Red Raider (Jace Jung/Kurt Wilson) while in 2021, 21 was the top mark set by Jace Jung, which ranked No. 4 in Texas Tech history. Joe Dillon owns the program record of 33 knocked in 1997.

"[Kash] understands you have to show up each day," added Tadlock. "He's showing a lot of maturity for a young guy to turn around from the weekend till now, even just the accolades he got over the weekend, deal with that, and understand today's a new day, yesterday was a new day. Pretty special kid when you can do that. Not all of them can do that at this level."

Up Next
Texas Tech will have Thursday off before welcoming Baylor in for a three-game series over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday's game will be nationally broadcasted on ESPNU with Clay Matvick and Mike Rooney in the Rip Griffin Park broadcast booth.