For the second straight day the Texas Tech baseball team got a solid outing from its starting pitcher en route to a 3-1 victory over Kansas Saturday at Dan Law Field. In the two games against KU Friday and Saturday, Tech starters allowed one run in 16 1/3 innings.
"I think that's good for our pen," Tech pitcher Colt Hynes said. "We're trying to keep those guys arms fresh. I think we get hurt a lot of time late in series, not being able to close it out because we have guys hanging."
Hynes (3-4) pitched 7 1/3 innings Saturday allowing one earned run on eight Kansas hits.
"I felt good," he said. "It felt good to get some momentum going. I feel like that's what I've been struggling with is having a good outing and then struggling the next one so that was good to get that going."
Tech (24-16, 7-9 Big 12) scored all of its runs in the bottom of the second highlighted by a triple from No. 8 hitter Doug Thennis that plated Taylor Ashby and James Leverton. Thennis later scored on a ground out by Kyle Martin.
"It takes a lot of the pressure off of us hitters," Thennis said of the team's recent pitching success.
"They're coming out here pitching quick innings staying ahead and getting ahead. We just gotta put up a couple of runs and they're going to hold it down."
Kansas (19-25, 5-12 Big 12) got its only run in the top of the third when Robby Price doubled home Matt Berner who had doubled earlier in the inning.
Despite only scoring four runs in two games, Tech coach Larry Hays said he saw some positives from his team.
"We're lucky our six, seven, eight guys got some hits," Hays said. "I think we had one from the middle of our order. I really liked our defense. A day like today you got to pitch and play defense because runs are hard to come by and you don't want to give anything away."
Hynes, who struck out eight, said he was motivated by the effort of AJ Ramos who pitched a complete game shutout Friday night. Hynes said he and Ramos had the same approach against the Kansas lineup.
"We had the same game plan," Hynes said, "just changing speeds. They have trouble seeing the changeup so we tried to work that in today. Other than that it was pretty much the same approach."
Tech tries for the series sweep when the teams face off Sunday at 1 p.m. at Dan Law Field.
"A series sweep would be huge for us," said junior infielder Doug Thennis. "We got the first two right there. Now we're just concentrating on getting the win tomorrow. We have to take it game by game and hopefully win by win."
