Texas Tech baseball season ends with Big 12 tournament loss to Cincinnati

Published 1 day ago• 5 minute read

Nathan Taylor made a strong seven-inning start and Quinton Coats' seventh-inning home run proved to be the difference as Cincinnati edged the Texas Tech baseball team 6-5 on Wednesday, May 21, ending the Red Raiders' season in the first round of the Big 12 tournament in Arlington.

Coats homered into the second deck, above the bullpen in left-center field at Globe Life Field. That made the score 6-3.

Tech narrowed the gap in the eighth with an RBI double from Robin Villeneuve and a pinch-hit run-scoring single from Dylan Maxcey. In the ninth, Kyeler Thompson beat out an infield single with two outs and Big 12 home-run leader Logan Hughes drove a ball to the warning track that left fielder Cal Sefcik caught for the final out.

Tech finished 20-33, its worst record and lowest winning percentage since the 1985 team went 18-33.

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No. 8 seed Cincinnati (32-23) advances to face top seed West Virginia (40-13) in a quarterfinal game at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, May 22.

Taylor (6-2) gave up three runs on five hits and struck out nine. The 6-foot-5 sophomore righthander threw 110 pitches, a career high. Kellen O'Connor got his second save, allowing two runs and three hits over the last two innings.

Villeneuve hit his 12th homer in the seventh, a solo shot off Taylor that made the score 4-2. Tracer Lopez had two hits, including a run-scoring double in the seventh that made it 5-3.

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Jack Cebert relieved Tech starter Mac Heuer (2-4) with no outs in the third inning and finished the seventh, striking out six and giving up four hits. Heuer and Cebert both were charged with three runs, each with one unearned.

Big 12 player of the year Kerrington Cross reached third on a dropped pop fly leading off the third and scored on a Jack Natili triple that chased Heuer. The ball Cross hit went off Lopez's glove as the Tech second baseman chased the pop-up near the right-field line.

The unearned run off Cebert came in the sixth when Derrick Pitts scored on a two-out throwing error by third baseman Peyton Schulze.

This week, the Big 12 announced the conference tournament will move next year to Surprise Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise, Arizona. The 10,714-seat is the spring-training home of the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.

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Texas Tech closed the gap with a two-run eighth inning. Logan Hughes drew a leadoff walk and scored from first on a Robin Villeneuve double down the left-field line. Villeneuve took third on a wild pitch and scored on Dylan Maxcey's two-out pinch single.

Cincinnati first baseman Quinton Coats homered into the second deck above the bullpen in left-center with one out in the seventh inning.

Lefthanded pitcher Kellen O'Connor comes on to start the eighth inning.

Tracer Lopez drove an opposite-field RBI double to the wall in left-center with two outs in the seventh. Coleman Ryan, on with a two-out walk, scored from first.

Cincinnati added an unearned run in the sixth when Derrick Pitts scored from third on a two-out throwing error by third baseman Peyton Schulze. Pitts had singled leading off, stolen second and moved to third on a Charlie Niehaus fly ball. Schulze fielded Kerrington Cross's short-hop grounder cleanly, but threw high to first.

Villeneuve hit a two-out homer in the sixth for Texas Tech, the senior first baseman's 12th of the season. Cincinnati starter Nathan Taylor had retired 10 of the previous 11 batters. Through six innings, Taylor's struck out eight and yielded four hits.

Cincinnati scored three in the top of the third. After Jack Natili's run-scoring triple and a pitching change, Coats lifted a sacrifice fly off Jack Cebert. Then the Bearcats loaded the bases on singles by Cal Sefcik and Tommy O'Connor and a walk to Lauden Brooks. Pitts drove home a run with a groundout, and Cebert retired Niehaus to end the inning.

Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock relieved starting pitcher Mac Heuer with Cebert with no outs in the third inning and a run across. Cincinnati leadoff batter Cross reached third on a pop fly down the right-field line that went off the glove of second baseman Tracer Lopez. The official scorer ruled it an error. Then Natili tripled off the right-field wall, putting the Bearcats ahead.

Texas Tech got on the board in the top of the third. Leadoff batter Davis Rivers hit an opposite-field double to left, moved to third on a Schulze single and scored on a Ryan groundout. The Red Raiders loaded the bases with two walks, but Taylor got Hughes to pop out and Damian Bravo to strike out.

Sefcik hit a check-swing single leading off the bottom of the second inning. He stole second and scored on a one-out single by Pitts. Heuer stranded runners at second and third.