By Justin Laney
KTXT Sports Staff
Texas Tech was back on the diamond on Tuesday in Tempe, Arizona as they defeated their first Top 10 non-conference opponent on the road since 2001 defeating No.10 Arizona State, 8-4.
Scott LeJeune paced the Red Raider offense on Tuesday as he went 2-for-4 with two doubles and scored two runs.
Right handed pitcher David Paiz (0-0, 1.12 ERA) had yet another efficient start for No. 26 Texas Tech (10-3) as he logged three innings, allowing one run on two hits, and recorded eight strikeouts.
ASU shortstop Drew Stankiewicz tallied the game’s first run as he started off the Arizona State (8-3) offense with a one out triple. Jake Peevyhouse then quickly drove him in on an RBI groundout to second base.
Andre Wheeler pitches at a Tech home game. Photo By Joshua Koch.
Unfortunately for the home team, that’s all the production they would get for a while as Tech pitching shut down the Sun Devil offense in the middle innings.
Arizona State starting pitcher, Matthew Dunbar was efficient in his three innings of work, allowing no runs on two hits, fanning four Tech batters.
Trailing 1-0, LeJeune led things off in the fourth inning on a double down the right field line. Reid Redman then laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance LeJeune to third base that was followed by a Bo Altobelli RBI single tying game up at 1-1.
Kevin Whitehead added another run as he roped an RBI double down the right field line, plating Altobelli extending Tech’s lead to 2-1.
Tech’s middle relief pitching was solid as John Neely (2-1, 4.32 ERA) entered the game in the fourth inning with a one run cushion and kept the highly touted ASU offense in check. Neely went three innings, allowing one run on three hits.
Tech then added a pair of runs in the fifth and sixth innings to extend the lead to 4-1.
ASU pitching woes continued in the seventh inning as Tech took advantage of the Sun Devils inaccuracy on the mound, which opened the floodgates for the Red Raiders.
The four-run seventh inning helped put away Arizona State as Tech put together an 8-1 lead and would not look back as the Red Raiders defeated Arizona State, 8-4.
Andre Wheeler (1.2 IP), Jerad McCrummen (1 IP), and Ben Flora (0.1 IP) finished off the game for Tech, helping the squad improve to 10-3 on the season.
The Red Raiders are back in action this weekend as they head to Fort Worth to take on future Big 12 foe, No. 18 TCU, in a three game set. First pitch on Friday is slated for 6:30 p.m. at Lupton Stadium.
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