How Texas Tech's comeback victory Thursday night ended a quarter-century of futility

ARLINGTON — The Texas Tech baseball Twitter account lists the five years in which the Red Raiders have won a Big 12 championship and the four seasons in which the Red Raiders have reached the College World Series.

Oddly enough, a list of years in which Texas Tech started 2-0 at the Big 12 tournament would be much shorter. It had happened once, in 1998, and the Red Raiders finally have done it again.

The Red Raiders needed an improbable comeback Thursday night to end a quarter-century of Big 12 tournament futility. Three run-scoring singles with two outs in the ninth, the last by Kevin Bazzell, allowed No. 6 seed Tech to squeeze past No. 7 seed Oklahoma 10-9, making Red Raiders' fans at Globe Life Field giddy.

On too many Fridays at the Big 12 tournament, Tech teams have driven home. This team now has a day off until playing one of the two bracket finals at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

"Maybe we'll get a sandlot game together somewhere," Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. "Maybe we can round some guys up to play. Maybe head over towards Dallas and get nine or 10 guys to play us. These guys like playing, so maybe that's what we should do. If we can't round up a game, I don't know, maybe we'll just watch baseball."

Scores, pairings: Big 12 baseball tournament results, schedule

As for how a program can win Big 12 regular-season championships and games at the College World Series, yet make one early exit after another from the conference tournament, Tadlock doesn't have a definitive answer.

His players are amateur, not pros, he reminded. Maybe some teams have won one tournament game and felt a little too good about it, he suggested. Though Tadlock didn't say so, some of his teams were so solidly positioned for the NCAA tournament, how much they won at the Big 12 tournament mattered little.

Nevertheless, never starting 2-0 in 23 consecutive Big 12 tournaments is an oddity.

"I can't explain it," Tadlock said. "I mean, I can explain in our time here. We make a lot of decisions on what's best for individuals. A lot of times this time of year, what's best for individuals sometimes gives you information for down the road to maybe get in position to win the whole thing. ... But '98's a long time."

If not for a spirited comeback, the topic would have remained for a year longer.

After a sloppy start, Tech trailed 5-0 in the fourth inning and 9-5 in the seventh. Dylan Maxcey started the comeback with a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh.

After Gavin Kash grounded out to start the ninth, six of the next seven batters reached. With Tech down to its final out, Tracer Lopez came through with an RBI single and Nolen Hester delivered the tying single. Then an infield single by Gage Harrelson loaded the bases for Bazzell, who was 0 for 9 in the tournament with a walk.

His grounder to Wallace Clark was too hot for the Sooners' third baseman to field cleanly. The ball glanced off Clark's glove into shallow left field as Lopez came home with the winning run, touching off a celebration that moved through the infield into right field.

"We're never out of it," said Maxcey, who also doubled twice. "We have guys that can put it out of the ballpark at any time. But we also have guys who can go up there, have good ABs (at-bats) and pass it from guy to guy."

With the lead, Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson pulled out the stops trying to keep it. Maxcey homered off Will Carsten, who has four saves this season. The three-run ninth came off Braxton Douthit, who leads the Sooners in starts with 14.

"We're trying every man up when you're in a game like that," Johnson said. "That's why I burned Douthit, to see if he could finish the game. I knew he had a breaking ball. That's what you try to throw against those guys. And tip your hat to them. They hit some breaking balls and hit a changeup to take the game 10-9."

TEXAS TECH 10, OKLAHOMA 9

Oklahoma 120 213 000 — 9 7 2

Texas Tech 000 410 203 — 10 17 1

B. Carmichael, Pierce (6), Carsten (7), Douthit (8) and E. Carmichael; Fast, Coombes (4), Rogers (5), Blessie (6), Free (6), J. Sanders (7) and White. W—J. Sanders (3-1). L—Douthit (4-6). 2B—Oklahoma, Mackenzie (9), Clark (7); Texas Tech, Maxcey 2 (7), Green (13). HR—Texas Tech, Maxcey (4). Records: Oklahoma 31-25, Texas Tech 39-19.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: How Texas Tech's comeback victory Thursday night ended a quarter-century of futility