Omaha, Neb. – No. 5 Texas Tech held on to eliminate No. 1 seed Florida with a 3-2 victory Tuesday, earning the school’s first win at the College World Series. Timely defense and a big hit from the Big 12 Player of the Year kept Texas Tech’s season alive.
The Red Raiders got the scoring started in the top of the fourth. Big 12 Player of the Year Eric Gutierrez, who finished with two hits, crushed his 13th homerun to the bullpen beyond the left field wall to give Texas Tech (47-19) a 2-0 lead, after Cory Raley reached on an infield single. Raley also finished with two hits for the Red Raiders.
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Texas Tech’s Davis Martin (10-1) tied a career high with seven innings pitched. Martin held Florida to three hits while striking out three. When the Gators did get runners on base, Martin’s defense kept the Gator’s off the board. Florida (52-16) put runners on first and second in the fifth but Martin induced a ground ball double play to end the inning. The Gators then loaded the bases in the sixth with one out. J.J. Schwarz hit a chopper back to Martin and Martin threw home for out number two but Tyler Floyd’s throw to first to complete the double play hit Schwarz in the back as he was running to first. Schwarz was deemed to be out of the baseline when he was hit with the ball and was called out on the play ending the threat and giving Texas Tech its nation-leading 81st double play of the season.
Texas Tech got an insurance run in the top of the ninth thanks to two Florida errors on the same play. Gutierrez reached on a ground ball to third after the throw was offline. Tyler Neslony, who had advanced to second, headed to third. The throw from Peter Alonso to third skipped by Jonathan India and allowed Neslony to score Texas Tech’s third run of the game.
Florida’s comeback bid in the bottom of the ninth began with a single by Buddy Reed. On a 2-2 count in the next atbat, Alonso, who went two for three on the day, launched a ball to the left field bleachers to make it 3-2 with no outs. But Texas Tech’s Hayden Howard settled down and got the next two outs on a strikeout and pop up to second. With two outs, India hit a line drive to left field and looked to leg out a double but was thrown out at second after a strong throw by Neslony to end the game.
Alex Faedo (13-3) was solid for the Gators outside of the homerun in the second inning. Faedo scattered seven hits over seven-and-two-thirds innings while striking out nine Red Raiders.
With the loss, Florida becomes just the third No. 1 National Seed to go 0-2 in the College World Series. The last time this happened was also to Florida in 2012. With No. 3 Miami’s elimination yesterday, the ACC and SEC are winless at the College World Series for the first time since 1984 when neither conference had a team reach Omaha.
Texas Tech will play the loser of TCU/Coastal Carolina on Thursday at 7 p.m.
