Zane Petty

LUBBOCK, Texas – No. 22 Texas Tech defeated UT Arlington 10-1 on a chilly Tuesday night at Rip Griffin Park. Freshman pitcher Zane Petty, in his first career start, tossed five scoreless innings behind a strong defensive effort to help guide the Red Raiders past the Mavericks.

"I thought [Petty] was really good," said head coach Tim Tadlock. "I thought he commanded the ball, he's got a real out pitch. He commanded the fastball and set up the [breaking ball]."

The Red Raiders turned two double plays while Petty was dealing, growing their nation's best double-play total to 26. The freshman had two perfect innings and allowed four hits scattered over his three other frames. Petty allowed just one walk and struck out three.

Tech held a slim 2-0 lead when Petty was lifted. A battery of four pitchers carried the Red Raiders the rest of the way as Andrew Devine, Trendan Parish, Brandon Beckel and Damian Bravo logged one inning each.

A pair of four-run outbursts in the sixth and eighth innings gave Tech the lopsided win. Leading that charge was Austin Green, who was a triple shy of a cycle in a 3-for-4 night at the plate. The junior transfer hit a home run for the second consecutive game, upping his season total to four.

While Green had his third three-hit game of the season already, freshman Tracer Lopez matched Green with a career-high three hits with a pair of singles and a double.

With the win, Tech improves to 14-1 at home and 15-3 overall. Despite a colder evening for March, more than 3,700 fans packed Rip Griffin Park for "Throwback Night." Tadlock recently reached 250 career wins at home. Tuesday night's win was No. 251 as he owns a blistering .797 career winning percentage at Rip Griffin Park.

"We love our fans, we really appreciate it when they come to the ballpark, we love it when they're loud," said Tadlock. "Obviously, it's a great place to play, and it's a great place to play because of the fans. You mentioned the 250 games won, nobody is counting any of that. What you really want to do is you want to keep getting better and win the last game."

Up Next

The two-game midweek series versus UTA wraps up with a 2 p.m. first pitch on Wednesday. The Red Raiders will start LHP Zach Erdman (1-0, 1.35 ERA) while the Mavs will toss RHP Colby Diduch (0-0, 18.90 ERA).