Jace Jung Puts Exclamation Point on Texas Tech’s Sweep of Kansas State
Texas Tech baseball got their first Big 12 sweep of the season after beating Kansas State 6-3, 14-0 and 7-6 over the weekend. The Sunday capper was an emphatic come-from-behind victory that saw both Zac Vooletich and Jace Jung hit home runs. Jung's was a two-run walk-off bomb that ended the game and the series.
Jace Jung is hitting .388 and getting on base more than 50 percent of his at-bats in 2022. He's got 10 home runs and 40 RBIs and if he isn't the best hitter in the Big 12, it's pretty dadgum close. If the season ended today, I'd bet that Jung would repeat as the Big 12 Player of the Year. He's also got an argument to be the best 2b in the country, the Golden Spikes Award winner, and a top 5 draft pick this summer in the MLB Draft.
He's just that good, but Jung isn't the only reason the Red Raiders are a great team.
Both Andrew Morris and Brendan Birdsell are pitching incredibly in Big 12 play. This weekend against Kansas State, Birdsell and Morris combined for 13 innings, 21 Ks, 7 hits and only three earned runs. The bullpen on Friday and Saturday was also really dang good, with Bridges, Parish, and Clarke facing the remaining batters without surrendering a run.
Parish also pitched the final two outs of the top of the 9th on Sunday before Jung's walk-off home run.
The Red Raiders are stilling trying to figure out their Sunday starter and need to get their bullpen and left fielder healthy, but a consensus top 10 national ranking and a 7-2 record in the Big 12 through three series is pretty dang good.
The Red Raiders are ranked 4th according to d1baseball.com, which is widely considered the go-to poll for college baseball.
The Red Raiders play Oklahoma on Tuesday in a non-conference game in Amarillo before heading to Fort Worth this weekend for a series against TCU.