Washburn Brothers Power Tech to 16-5 Run-Rule Victory

LUBBOCK, Texas – You could say that Sunday belonged to the Washburn’s. Notice the plural.

As brothers Owen Washburn and Jack Washburn both made a major impact in No. 19 Texas Tech’s 16-5 sweep-clinching victory over Texas Southern Sunday afternoon at Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field.

The elder brother, Jack got the start on the mound, while his younger brother Owen started the game in right field. Older bro, 4.1 innings pitched and a career-best eight punchouts. Younger bro, 3-for-3 with two home runs and five RBIs. Any way you slice it was a good day for the entire Washburn family.

Battling tough conditions to pitch in (winds were gusting at 30+ MPH), Washburn gutted his way through the 4.1 innings to earn his first victory as a Red Raider. Washburn closed his second start of the season allowing six hits and four runs. He threw 89 pitches.

At the plate, the other Washburn was one of many stars, as he ended up as one of six Red Raiders to finish with multiple RBIs on Sunday and hit two of the Red Raiders four home runs on the afternoon.

In the end, Owen either tied or bested the following career marks in the victory: hits (3), home runs (2) and RBIs (5).

Not be lost or forgotten about in the Sunday victory was Owen’s outfield-mate, Damian Bravo, who went 2-for-3 with two walks and three runs scored. One of Bravo’s two hits was a towering homer to dead-center that cleared the batters eye on its way toward Akron and the engineering building.

Bravo went 8-for-13 on the weekend with eight runs scored, eight RBIs and four extra-base hits. The sophomore is now hitting a blistering .531 on the season (17-of-32) with eight doubles, a home run and 13 RBIs. Bravo has struck out just four times in eight games and walked fives times.

As he did all weekend TJ Pompey also shined for Tech, as the freshman went 2-for-4 with three runs scored, a home run (his second-straight day with a homer) and two RBIs. Through his first eight games of his college career, Pompey is now hitting .441 (15-for-34) with six extra-base hits, 14 RBIs and 13 runs scored.

Pompey co-leads the team in RBIs with senior Austin Green, who also went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs on Sunday.

After the two teams traded zeros in the first two innings of the ballgame, Texas Southern (2-5) struck first, using back-to-back home runs to take a 2-0 lead into the home half of the third inning.

Needing a spark, Tech turned to Bravo who cranked a lead-off home run that soared over the 402′ sign and the batters eye in dead center.

The blast proved to be a catalyst, as Tech used an RBI single from Gage Harrelson to tie the game at 2-2 just two batters later. Harrelson also had a good day on Sunday, going 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored and driven in.

Tech ultimately took the lead for good in the third inning, when Kevin Bazzell singled home Harrelson to plate the third and final run of the frame.

Armed with a lead for the first time, Washburn looked dominant in the top of the fourth, striking out the side on just 15 pitches.

In the home half of the fourth, Tech exploded for four more runs on a two-run home run from Pompey and back-to-back free passes with the bases loaded.

Down 7-2, Texas Southern responded in the fifth, using a lead-off single and a double to pull to within four runs at 7-3. After a ground out and a walk placed runners on the corners signaled the end of the road for Jack, the Red Raiders turned to senior Josh Sanders who after allowing an RBI single recorded back-to-back ground outs to escape the jam with just two runs allowed.

The Red Raider offense seized control of the game for good in the fifth, as a two-run homer by Washburn and an RBI single from Bravo highlighted a seven run frame that gave the home side a 14-4 lead through five. Other run-producing plays in the inning included a bases loaded double by Green and an RBI ground out by Bazzell.

With the game inching towards a run-rule finish, Tech turned to freshman Mac Heuer, who allowed a two out double and a single to make the score 14-5 after six. The run was the lone that Heuer allowed in two innings pitched. The freshman closed his two innings with a pair of strikeouts and 36 total pitches.

After a lead-off walk and a fielders choice placed a runner on first with one-out, Owen Washburn put the bow on the series sweep hitting a towering blast to right-center that pushed the Red Raiders to within three outs of the run-rule victory.

In the top of the seventh, Heuer used three groundouts sandwiched between an infield single to seal Tech’s first series sweep of the season and win number six overall.

HC TIM TADLOCK:

“First of all, Texas Southern runs a class program. I thought they did a great job with the way the games went. Baseball is a little bit different from other sports in that when you’re in the position we were in this weekend, you’re not supposed to do anything extra… I thought both teams through the weekend handled that very well. I don’t think our guys said a word the whole weekend. We try to teach them to go out and respect your opponent, respect the game, and play the game the right way. I think we did that through the weekend. I think we did it in Arlington… As far as Arlington goes, we asked a lot of our guys to go play five games in six days and be on the road, but I think it was good for us. I think we got some good feedback in Arlington and I think we got some good feedback this weekend. If nothing else, just the toll of showing up each day. I was really proud of the way the guys went about it just because of the scores. Again, like it’s kind of like football. You’re not supposed to run a flea flicker, I guess, if you’re up 50 and you’re probably not supposed to pass a whole lot, right? We pretty much went up and separated balls and strikes. Got some hits and then I think on Friday, we loaded the bench pretty much in the fourth or fifth inning and that’s probably why we scored so many runs. If you look at the guys in the line that are not in the lineup, that lineup beats the ones that are in the lineup some days in intersquads. When we do that we have a chance to be very offensive sometimes. I know it’s a long answer, but some of the hardest games to manage and coach are the ones that get out of hand just because you want to be respectful with everything about the game and everything about your opponent and do things the right way.”

UP NEXT:
After eight games through the season’s first 10 days, the Red Raiders wont have another game until Friday night when Gardner-Webb make their first ever trip to Lubbock.

The three-game set begins on Friday night at 6:30 p.m.

–TECH–

Release Provided By Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics