Offense Leads Red Raiders Past Air Force

Game One

Bo Blessie opened on the mound for the Red Raiders against the Air Force Falcons but his time was cut abruptly short after recording just one out and loading the bases. Blessie was quickly pulled after exhibiting control issues in his pitches and an attempt at keeping a base runner on first. Josh Sanders was brought in and shut the Falcons down to get out of the first inning.

The Red Raiders started the scoring for the day in the bottom of the first inning but the Falcons quickly answered putting up 3 in the top of the second. Hudson White tied up the game with a two-run home run in the Red Raiders half of the inning to bring the score to 3-3. The Red Raiders took the lead in the bottom of the fifth after an RBI double from Nolen Hester. The Red Raiders would go on to put two more runners across the plate to go up 6-4 heading into the sixth inning. The Falcon’s half of the sixth was shut down with a standout performance from Brandon Beckel on the mound. Three more runs came around for Tech winning the game 9-4 with a three up three down close out from true freshman Damian Bravo. 

Game Two

True Freshman Jacob Rogers got his first collegiate start against the Falcons in game two of the midweek series. Game two looked vastly different for the Red Raiders compared to game one of the series. The bats quickly got hot, in just the bottom of the first inning the Red Raiders put up four runs and batted around the order to go 4-0 heading into the second inning. The Falcons were able to push a run across in their half of the second inning but the Red Raiders answered back loudly in their half with three home runs, a solo home run for Kevin Bazzell, followed by a two-run home run from Drew Woodcox and capped off with a back-to-back home run from Gavin Kash, putting the Red Raiders up 8-1 at the end of the second inning.

Tech continued to put up unanswered runs through the third inning going up 11-1 until the Falcons were able to get the best of Garrett Crowley scoring a two-run home run in the top of the fourth inning. Jase Lopez was then brought in to successfully get the Red Raiders out of the inning. The Red Raiders went on to score in all but the bottom of the seventh inning while only allowing two more runs to cross the plate for the Falcons taking game two 18-5.

Overall

Pitching suffered in game one, with a short turnaround after a lengthy four-game series the arms were tired. The freshmen arms in the bullpen looked remarkably well in this series, with Jacob Rogers going for three innings allowing just two hits with one run and recording three strikeouts in his first collegiate start. Damian Bravo closed out game one of the series on the mound to turn around and play in the lineup and center field in the later innings of game two.

Pitching was powerful in relief in both games of the series, Jase Lopez recorded 3 strikeouts while allowing only one hit in just 1.2 innings on the mound and Brandon Beckle had a stand-out performance in relief in game one going for two innings, allowing no hits or walks and recording four strikeouts. True freshman Zach Erdman also had an impressive performance in relief going 3 innings in game one giving up no runs on just two hits and recording two strikeouts. Offensively game two looked much better than game one as Tech scored in all but one inning but even when bats seemed to be heating up slower than they had in previous games the Red Raiders were still able to capitalize and pull off the midweek sweep. The series was not without the errors that have plagued the Red Raiders this season with one in game one and two in game two but they are fewer in number. Overall a solid pair of midweek games to have under their belt as the Red Raiders now look to head to Houston to play in the Shriners College Classic.