Don Williams column: Texas Tech beating the odds so far in Florida

In our pre-NCAA tournament breakdown of how Texas Tech could win college baseball's Gainesville Regional and why it wouldn't, two of the reasons why not were having to beat one of the nation's best teams at home and not having enough pitching to make it through a four-team, double-elimination bracket.

Either or both might still be the case.

Even though Texas Tech wounded Florida with a 5-4 victory Saturday in the winners' bracket final, someone still has to put a stake through the hearts of the No. 2 national seed.

"We're not done by any means," Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. "We know we're going to have to earn the right to win this thing."

So far, though, Tech is 1-0 against the perceived juggernaut in a noisy venue, no less. "Boy, they were loud just at the plate meeting," Tadlock said. "I thought it was really impressive." Reported attendance Saturday at the Gators' Condron Family Ballpark topped 7,300.

And pitching's not been an issue. For a team that too often this season came up short in that department — the reason Tech finished sixth in the conference and is a No. 3 regional seed — the Red Raiders are having arms rise to the occasion.

Not really a surprise when Mason Molina delivers, the way the Red Raiders' No. 1 starter did with 5 2/3 no-hit innings in a 3-2 victory Friday against Connecticut. But on Saturday, facing Florida's formidable lineup, Kyle Robinson delivered five shutout innings, Ethan Coombes threw some nasty sliders and Brandon Beckel got the last two outs in the ninth to nail down the victory.

Robinson has been something of a revelation in the postseason. Beckel is looking for redemption.

Robinson, who pitched five shutout innings and left with a 5-0 lead last week in the Big 12 tournament against Oklahoma State, threw five more quality innings and left with a 3-1 lead against Florida. Gavin Kash, with his two home runs including the tiebreaker in the eighth inning, will get much of the credit for this one and rightly so.

But Robinson's work was indispensable.

It's not out of the blue. As we've written, before the 2022 season started, Tadlock characterized then-freshmen Molina, Trendan Parish, Robinson and Brendan Lysik as "top-end guys" in terms of ability. Pitchers develop at their own pace. Now might be Robinson's time, and if so, what ideal timing on his part.

He's not the only one. After watching Josh Sanders throw a scoreless seventh, eighth and ninth against Oklahoma last week in Arlington, Tadlock and pitching coach Matt Gardner gave the ball to Sanders in the ninth to close out the win against UConn. He gave them a three-up, three-down inning for his first save.

"Again, I think we're evolving," Tadlock said, echoing on Saturday a note he sounded on Friday. "Kyle started a game last weekend, and we had a guy close a game last night that hadn't really done that. To do what we want to do, you've got to keep growing as a group and understand each day's an opportunity to do that."

Meanwhile, Beckel has put a little distance between himself and a couple of recent outings in which he gave up homers in the ninth inning of tie games against Kansas and Oklahoma State, the difference in 3-1 and 6-5 losses.

On Friday, taking over for Molina with two on, nobody out and a 3-0 lead in the seventh, Beckel allowed the inherited runners to score but minimized the damage and held on to the lead. On Saturday, when Dale Thomas' one-out triple in the ninth brought the tying run to the plate, Tadlock summoned Beckel again with mashers coming up.

The results: a groundout, a run-scoring infield single and a popout. That was against leadoff batter Cade Kurland, who has 16 homers this year, Wyatt Langford, who has 17 homers, and Jac Caglianone, who has 29.

Caglianone, in his previous two trips, had homered off Ryan Free and sent a ball to the center-field wall that Gage Harrelson reeled in.

Beckel had last pitched on back-to-back days at the Big 12 tournament — not the one last weekend, the one last year.

But as Tadlock says, do what the game tells you to do.

Facing Caglianone, a 6-foot-5, 245-pound slugger, as the potential go-ahead run in the ninth is about as hot a scenario as one could draw up for a college pitcher in 2023.

Beckel coaxed him into a game-ending popup. Which should help the confidence.

Several pitchers have contributed, which has gone a long way in why the Red Raiders are 2-0.

"It's definitely a lot easier winning the first two than losing the second or the first one," Tadlock said. "It's very hard to do it the other way, and so it definitely puts you in a good spot."

Now the Red Raiders have to keep it up. The last win they need figures to be hardest to come by.

TEXAS TECH 5, FLORIDA 4

Florida 000 102 001 — 4 8 0

Texas Tech 000 210 02x — 5 7 1

Sproat, Abner (7), Slater (8) and Riopelle; Robinson, Free (6), Coombes (8), Bridges (9), Beckel (9) and Maxcey. W—Coombes (4-0). L—Slater (9-1). Sv—Beckel (7). 2B—Florida, Langford (23), Heyman (5). 3B—Florida, Thomas (1). HR—Florida, Caglianone (29); Texas Tech, Green (12), Kash 2 (26). Records: Florida 45-15, Texas Tech 41-21.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Don Williams column: Texas Tech beating the odds so far in Florida