Peyton Powell homered and drove in runs in three consecutive innings, leading No. 22 Texas to a 9-7 comeback victory over No. 17 Texas Tech baseball on Sunday afternoon and a win of the first Big 12 series of the season.
Texas (9-6, 2-1) took two of three from Tech (11-4, 1-2).
Powell homered in the fifth inning, doubled home the go-ahead run that made it 7-6 in the sixth and lifted a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Jack O’Dowd drove in two runs in the rally with a double and a sacrifice fly.
Cade McGee, Gavin Kash, T.J. Pompey and Tracer Lopez homered for Tech, and Texas’ Max Belyeu homered and went 4 for 5 with three runs batted in.
The Texas rally started after back-to-back homers by Pompey and Lopez leading off the fourth made the score 6-3.
Three takeaways:
Texas’ Will Gasparino, Texas Tech’s Gavin Kash collide, stirring emotions
As the fourth inning ended, tempers flared as Texas’ Will Gasparino collided with Gavin Kash, knocking down the Texas Tech first baseman. The contact came at the end of a groundout to second base and wasn’t easy to avoid. Kash hadn’t cleared the basepath, and Gasparino’s 6-foot-6 and a 60-grade runner on the 20-80 scouting scale, according to MLB Pipeline.
Players from both teams came out of the dugout, but the situation didn’t escalate.
Fans heartily booed Gasparino when he came to the plate three times afterward.
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The Red Raiders played some outfield defense
Tech center fielder Gage Harrelson went above the wall to the right of center field to take away what would have been a tying home run by Peyton Powell in the third inning. Harrelson gave a demonstrative celebration afterward. Fans gave Harrelson an ovation as he approached the dugout at the end of the inning, and he doffed his cap.
Texas designated hitter Rylan Galvan started the fourth with a liner to right that right fielder Austin Green caught just before he crashed into the wall.
It was not a great day for the bullpen
Texas erased a 4-2 deficit by scoring in four consecutive innings. Trendan Parish took the brunt of it.
Parish came in with a 1.35 earned-run average and was previously unscored upon at home this season in 4 2/3 innings, but was charged with five runs on four hits in 1 1/3 innings. One of the runs was unearned because a three-run sixth started with an error on shortstop T.J. Pompey.
