Clean Sweep: Red Raiders Take All 3 From Oklahoma State
The No. 9 Texas Tech Red Raiders baseball team still controls its own destiny with regard to the Big 12 regular-season championship by virtue of its three-game sweep of No. 3 Oklahoma State Cowboys in the weekend series.
Tech defeated Oklahoma State 6-4 on Sunday to cap off the sweep at O'Brate Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. As a program, Tech has now swept the Cowboys for three consecutive series in Stillwater, as Oklahoma State hasn't beaten the Red Raiders since April of 2014.
The weekend series win puts the Red Raiders (35-16, 14-7) in place to claim its fourth Big 12 regular-season championship since 2016. TCU finished conference play on Sunday with a 16-8 mark, which means Tech can win the outright title with a sweep of the Oklahoma Sooners this weekend. Winning two games of the three-game weekend series will claim a share of the title for the Red Raiders.
Chase Hampton led the way from the mound in his 10th start of the season on Sunday as the sophomore tallied a career-high nine strikeouts in five innings of work, allowing one earned run and three hits. It's his fourth straight win.
Both wins on Friday and Saturday saw the Red Raiders score with big innings of seven and five runs respectively based on grand slams, Sunday's game consisted of Tech scoring on more of a consistent basis.
Jace Jung gave Tech and Hampton a one-run lead before he even took the mound on a two-run dinger for his 38th career blast that put him in sixth place in program history. It improved the Red Raiders' record to 24-10 when scoring first.
Freshmen Owen Washburn and Hudson White hit back-to-back doubles in the second inning to add another run before Tech loaded the bases in the top of the third but could not plate more runs.
The Washburn-White combination struck again in the fifth as Washburn doubled with the bases loaded to score two before White hit a seeing-eye single to left field to put another Tech run on the board for a 5-1 lead.
Jung extended the lead to 6-1 in the sixth with the third consecutive base hit to start the inning after Easton Murrell and Cole Stilwell recorded base hits.
But the Cowboys came back with a run in the seventh and two in the eighth.
Austin Becker shut down the Cowboys and secured the Red Raider win with his first save of the season. Oklahoma State was swept at home for the second time this season, as Tech joins Gonzaga who took all three March 4-7.
Up next for the Red Raiders is a home series to close the regular season with a Thursday-Saturday set against the Oklahoma Sooners for senior weekend in Lubbock.
Thursday's first pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. from Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park.
You can follow Timm Hamm on Twitter at @IndyCarTim
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