Texas Tech rallies past Gonzaga 8-4 on opening day

Austin Green and Gavin Kash got their first taste Friday of what it's like to be cheered by the home crowd in a Texas Tech baseball game.

Brendan Girton rediscovered what it's like to dominate opposing hitters in that same stadium.

Green and Kash homered in their Tech debuts and drove in the Red Raiders' first seven runs. Girton threw six innings of scoreless, one-hit relief as 22nd-ranked Tech rallied to beat Gonzaga 8-4 on opening day at Dan Law Field/Rip Griffin Park.

Green, a transfer second baseman from Weatherford College, launched a tying three-run homer in the third inning that made the score 4-4. Kash, a transfer from Texas, greeted a reliever with a two-run shot in the fifth that made it 6-4 and added a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Green also had an RBI on an error that scored Tech's first run in the bottom of the first.

Kash played in front of Tech's most energized crowds last year, but from the other side in a Tech-Texas series. Tech shortstop Kurt Wilson beat the Longhorns in back-to-back games with a steal of home and a grand slam.

Now he's swapped burnt orange for scarlet and black.

"Dan Law's definitely a fun place to play and has great fans," Kash said. "Even last year, it was rowdy. It was a fun series, and now coming here this year, it's been great. I mean, just the first game and we had that many people show out already. It's exciting for the year."

Tech's opening-day lineup featured five newcomers and a returning redshirt from a team that went 39-22, losing in the final of the NCAA Statesboro Regional. Leadoff-hitting left fielder Nolen Hester, a Rockwall-Heath graduate who played the past four years at Wofford, tacked on an insurance run with an eighth-inning double.

Girton didn't pitch past March 20 last season because of a muscle strain, but he pitched lights-out in his 2023 debut. The junior righthander from Shattuck, Oklahoma, entered with no outs in the third inning and bridged it to the ninth on 84 pitches. He walked two and struck out six, finishing his day by getting pinch hitter Sam Canton looking on a 94-mph fastball for a three-up, three-down eighth.

"Fastball command's obviously probably the biggest thing," Girton said. "But if you land breaking-ball stuff, that obviously really helps, especially whenever it's early in the count. They don't know what to expect next. So I think that's what was working."

Gonzaga, 37-19 last season, has made the past two and four of the past seven NCAA tournaments. Bulldogs cleanup hitter Brian Kalmer chased starter Kyle Robinson with a two-run homer that made the score 4-1.

Girton came on and held the line in a way the Red Raiders are accustomed to seeing. Girton pitched high-leverage innings in relief his first two years, but the injury sidelined him for the last 2 1/2 months last season. He was close to returning near the end of the season, but never got into a game at tournament time.

"The only reason I probably didn't come back at the end of last season was just because we're in regionals, and I was throwing in intrasquads and I just wasn't landing the soft stuff well," he said. "But my arm was all there, so I'm not worried about that at all. I've basically been back since early June."

Tech reliever Josh Sanders worked around an error, one of four by the Red Raiders, in a scoreless ninth.

Girton said he wanted to give his team a chance, because he knew Tech had the bats to rally. Green started the comeback, tying it with his home run off the scoreboard in right-center. A switch hitter from the small East Texas high school of New Diana, Green batted cleanup for the Red Raiders.

"Austin's a kid that's always hit. No big surprise there," Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. "He knows the strike zone, is a baseball player. He showed up in a big moment today."

Kash's homer proved to be the game winner. The Red Raiders' new first baseman is a 6-foot-3, 210-pound sophomore from Beaumont Kelly and a left-handed hitter. He was productive in all four plate appearances with a walk, a single, the homer and the sacrifice fly.

"If you have a good approach, it works out," he said. "I feel like my approach today was really good, and I really tried sticking to it."

Kash was generally regarded as the top prep first base prospect in Texas coming out of high school. As a freshman last year at UT, however, he mostly sat behind unanimous national player of the year Ivan Melendez. After he decided to transfer, Kash played on the National Baseball Congress champion Santa Barbara Foresters with future Tech teammates Robinson, Kevin Bazzell and Hudson White.

"That's kind of how it all got started," Tadlock said. "What I mean is, he was leaving (UT). We've gotten most of our guys through relationships, and I would say that one's no different."

The two teams play again at 1 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday and 11 a.m. Monday.

TEXAS TECH 8, GONZAGA 4

Gonzaga 202 000 000 — 4 6 2

Texas Tech 103 020 11x — 8 10 4

Wild, Haas (5), Nelson (8) and Samperi; Robinson, Girton (3), J. Sanders (9) and White. W—Girton (1-0). L—Haas (0-1). 2B—Texas Tech, Hester (1), Bazzell (1), T. Lopez (1). 3B—Gonzaga, Apodaca (1). HR—Gonzaga, Kalmer (1); Texas Tech, Green (1), Kash (1). Records: Gonzaga 0-1, Texas Tech 1-0.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech rallies past Gonzaga 8-4 on opening day of baseball season