The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Tech
Baseball drops Big 12 series to Texas Tech, 4-2
03.17.2013 | Baseball
March 17, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas - Jonny Drozd threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings in relief Sunday as the Texas Tech Red Raiders beat the Texas Longhorns, 4-2, to win the Big 12 series at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. It's the first time Texas Tech has beaten Texas in a three-game series since 2002 and the first time the Red Raiders have won a series in Austin since 2001.
Jared McCrummen picked up his third save for Texas Tech (14-8, 2-1), who scored four unanswered runs. Nathan Thornhill took the loss for Texas (12-7, 1-2) despite tying a career high with seven strikeouts. He allowed three runs on five hits in six innings with no walks. The Longhorns stranded eight runners on the afternoon and was unable to score twice when they had the bases loaded in the first and seventh innings.
Madison Carter drew a one-out walk in the Texas half of the second before freshman designated hitter Ben Johnson belted his second homer of the season with the two-run shot to left for the 2-0 lead. The Red Raiders responded with two runs in the top of the third as Jake Barrios and Brett Bell both singled. A Thornhill wild pitch moved the runners to second and third. Bryant Burleson singled home Barrios and Devon Conley laid down a safety squeeze to tie the game.
Conley singled in the top of the sixth and stole second to put himself into scoring position as Jarrard Poteete, who hit a solo home run in Friday's 1-0 victory, singled home Conley for the go-ahead run. Barrios delivered again in the seventh with a triple to center off Ty Marlow, scoring on a passed ball charged to Jacob Felts for the insurance run.
Carter and Weston Hall singled with one out in the Texas seventh before Johnson hit a ground ball right back to Drozd, whose throw to second pulled shortstop Tim Proudfoot off the bag to load the bases. Drozd got out of the jam by inducing a ground ball from Taylor Stell for the 1-2-3 double play.
Texas plays seven of its next eight games on the road, beginning on Tuesday at Houston with a 6:30 p.m. start. The game will be broadcast on AM 1300 The Zone. Gametracker live stats will be available on TexasSports.com with live Twitter updates @Texas_Baseball.
Notes: Texas pitchers have a 2.51 staff ERA through 19 games, allowing opponents to hit just .226...Ben Johnson is tied for second on the team currently with a .348 batting average and leads the team with a .696 slugging percentage...the Longhorns have committed only 14 errors through 19 games for a .981 fielding percentage...pitcher Ty Culbreth made his season debut for Texas, striking out the only batter he faced.
TTU 002-001-100---4-7-1 TEXAS 002-000-000---2-7-0
Records: Texas (12-7, 1-2), Texas Tech (14-8, 2-1) WP - Drozd (3-1) LP - Thornhill (1-2) S - McCrummen (3) T - 2:42 ATT - 6,373
Withrow, Drozd (3), McCrummen (8) and Randolph. Thornhill, T. Marlow (7), Duke (7), Cox (7), Culbreth (8), Hollingsworth (8) and Felts.
Post-Game Quotes
Texas head coach Augie Garrido
On today's loss: In the beginning, I said that this season will be determined and our team is going to evolve as a result of the adversity that we face. Though that was an easy thing to say, as all teams in baseball will face adversity, it is how the teams evolve that matters. Today was a difficult day, they outplayed us. However, in 2002 we lost the first series, we lost the second series; we were 2-4 to start, we lost the championship on the last day in this ball park against a fifth-ranked team, but we won a national championship. That goes to show that how we respond to each game, each loss will determine a lot about whom we become. This game is all about who you become from the middle part of the season to the end that stands for most teams.
On the series: This series was very disappointing, but what can we do about it but learn from it.
On the overall game: I thought innings one and two, seven and eight were well played by us on offense. I thought the other innings, we got satisfied with playing pepper with the infielders and putting the easy rollers in play, we did not make adjustments. But in the seventh and eighth, when they saw that they were up by two runs, they turned it up a notch and started squaring the balls off. We cannot play that way, we have to take that next step in baseball maturity and play all nine innings.
Junior pitcher Nathan Thornhill
On reaching a career high 7 strikeouts: I do not worry about my own personal numbers, what matters is the wins and the losses of the team. We lost a tough one today, it was not a terrible game but we know that we can do better.
On losing the series: You never want to lose a series especially to start the conference play, but we realize that is the first series of play. We are going to learn from it and move on to Minnesota, build our confidence, and play.
