There were two statements made in Thursday morning's Big 12 Baseball Championship elimination game between Texas Tech and TCU on Thursday morning. The Red Raiders sent a message to the rest of the field that while they may be in the loser's bracket they are still very much in the hunt. The Horned Frogs on the other hand just made a statement that...well...they were here and that pretty much it.
After getting upset on Wednesday by a Baylor rally top-seeded TCU was dropped into the loser's bracket and all but looked as if they had checked out are were already moving on to an NCAA Regional. The Red Raiders bombarded them for eight runs in the first four innings and then set the cruise control as the Frogs struggled to produce offensively all morning.
Five Red Raider batters produced a combined eleven hits with four of them having multi-hit games. Eric Gutierrez and Michael Davis left the yard with Gutierrez also accounting for three RBI. Texas Tech starter Corey Taylor bumped his record to 4-0 on the year after throwing five complete innings in which he allowed just four hits. Jonathan Trip allowed one hit in three relief innings before giving way to closer Parker Mushinski who allowed the lone TCU run.
TCU becomes the first team eliminated from the championship tournament and Texas Tech will now await the loser of this afternoon's Texas/Baylor game to play in Friday's 3:15 pm elimination game.