Photo Courtesy of Big12
Arlington, Texas – In the second elimination game on Friday at Globe Life Field, the No. 2 seed Oklahoma State University Cowboys knocked off the No. 10 Texas Tech University Red Raiders with a 4-0 shutout win.
Cowboys senior southpaw starting Sam Garcia pitched lights out against the Texas Tech offense and gemmed eight innings, no walks, allowing three hits, eight strikeouts, 11 flyouts, and five groundouts.
“Ian is great. I mean, he has everything I wanted in a good catcher. He has experience and very good baseball knowledge. Me and him have really good chemistry. He knows what to fix for everything because thatʼs pretty much pitching. If you make mistakes, you have to know how to fix it, and there are many mistakes you can make,” Garcia complementing his starting catcher Ian Daughtery during the postgame press conference.
Garcia retired 17 out of 18 batters from the top of the third inning until he was taken out of the game after the top of the eighth inning on Friday.
“We have a really good relationship in that I can make those quick pitch adjustments. With his help, our defense has been unbelievable behind me. Our familiarity and how I work with everybody has been really helpful,” Garcia said.
Oklahoma State is ranked No. 19 in the country heading into the final week of the 2024 season.
Oklahoma State did not get their first run of the game until the bottom of the first inning, when designated hitter Kolin Ritchie doubled to right field, scoring shortstop Lane Forsythe to go up 1-0.
Texas Tech starting pitcher Tyler Parish entered the bottom of the seventh inning after settling down the rest of the way until he gave up two hits with a double to left field from Oklahoma State third baseman Tyler Wulfert to lead off the inning and a single to left field to first baseman Colin Brueggemann.
Texas Tech head coach Tim Tadlock came out to the dugout and called on relief pitcher Brendan Lysik to replace Parish during the bottom of the seventh.
“My goal was just to give my team a chance to win the baseball game. It didn’t matter how many strikeouts I had, whatever it took, I just wanted to have a chance to win this game today. And I felt like my mindset on the mound was on around three pitches. And I felt like I executed some today and missed some as well, and those hurt us to lead off the seventh. I gave up a double down the third baseline that hurt us a little bit but overall I just wanted to give my team a chance to win,” Parish said during the post-game press conference.
