Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe // 05.23.09

Texas Tech Baseball

Outfield:
LF - Michael Reed (Jr.); CF - Taylor Ashby (Jr.); RF - Garrett Totten (Fr.)
Infield:
SS - Joey Kenworthy (Jr.)     2ND - Willie Rueda (Sr.);
3RD - Justin Berry (Fr.)                                  1ST - Chris Richburg (Sr.)
C - Jeremy Mayo (Fr.)
DH - Scott LeJeune (Fr.)

*Click on the score for boxscore. Texas Tech Big 12 Tournament preview (pdf).

Texas Tech Takes Down Missouri

Three runs in the eighth inning allowed Texas Tech to come back against Missouri's closer, Brad Buehler for the come-back win (recap and quotes). LAJ's George Watson has a terrific recap of the game, including this on the come-back:

Missouri turned to its own closer, Brad Buehler, to close out the game in the eighth, but Tech’s propensity for two-out hitting and a big play at the plate turned the game around quickly.

Buehler came in after a single and a fielder’s choice put the tying run on base in the eighth. But he proceeded to hit Chris Richburg and strike out Scott LeJeune to put runners at second and third with two outs.

Taylor Ashby, who was thrown out at third the previous inning trying to advance on a grounder to short, redeemed himself by poking an RBI single through the left side, scoring Kenworthy and tying the game.

Michael Reed then stepped up and poked a single to left-center. Richburg rounded third and looked to be out at the plate, but catcher Ryan Ampleman’s swipe tag hit Richburg and the ball came loose, rolling all the way to the wall down the first-base line past the Missouri dugout. That allowed Ashby to score a huge insurance run to make it 4-2.

Goosebumps just reading it.

Nate Karns (6.0 IP; 2 H; 1 R; 0 ER; 1 BB; 7 SO) was outstanding as the starter, and although the normally infallible Chad Bettis (3.0 IP; 2 H; 1 ER; 2 BB; 3 SO) gave up a run early, he was lights-out to get the win. Watson described the offensive heroes of the game above, but Texas Tech managed 8 hits, including two from Taylor Ashby (2-4; 1 RBI) and Michael Reed (2-3; 1 RBI).

Congrats to the entire team. Must win game tonight against the Aggies.

Staples: Big 12 Hardball and the official Big 12 site.