By Ty Parker
The No. 13 Texas Tech baseball team secured the series win over No. 22 Michigan with a 10-3 win Friday evening at a windy Rip Griffin Park.
The Red Raiders (14-5, 1-2) pounded out 14 hits and recorded double-digit runs for the second straight day on their way to the win. Reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Week Caleb Kilian put together another strong outing to collect his second-consecutive win.
Five Red Raiders posted multi-hit games, led by senior Cameron Warren’s 3-for-4 day. Sophomore Cody Masters, junior Brian Klein and freshmen Tanner O’Tremba and Max Marusak added two-hit efforts.
Kilian gave Tech six strong innings, striking out a season-high six batters while giving up just two runs, one earned, on five hits. Over his last two starts, Kilian has thrown 13.0 innings and has a 0.69 ERA with 10 strikeouts to two walks.
Tech led 2-0 before the Wolverines (14-6) were able to push across a run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly and another in the fifth on an RBI single. With the go-ahead run on second, Kilian got out of the frame with a pair of ground balls to Jung, who made two backhanded plays going to his right for the final outs of the inning.
The Red Raiders retook the lead in the sixth with five runs, and found plenty of separation with three more in the seventh. Tech’s first four batters in the sixth reached base with O’Tremba and Warren recording base knocks that put Tech up 5-2. Marusak made it 6-2 with an RBI triple, then later scored on a groundout from sophomore Gabe Holt.
In the seventh, Warren added another RBI single before sophomore Braxton Fulford smashed a two-run double to the gap in left center that gave Tech a 10-2 advantage.
The Red Raiders have outscored the Wolverines 21-5 and outhit the blue and maize 25-14 for the series. Warren has led a balanced Tech lineup in the series, hitting .571 with two doubles, two walks and three RBI. Klein and Marusak are right there with four hits each, while six Red Raiders have multiple RBIs for the weekend.
The Red Raiders will aim for the series sweep of the Wolverines on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game can be seen on FOX Sports Southwest Plus or heard through the Texas Tech Sports Network.