Texas Tech softball escapes with a 7-6 win over Houston

LUBBOCK, Texas (NEWS RELEASE) – Texas Tech escaped with a 7-6 win over Houston (23-25- 3-19) on Friday night. The Red Raiders (27-16, 6-12) smoked four homeruns including two from Demi Elder as she set a new career high for homers in a season with six.

Maddy Wright picked up her 10th win of the season in yet another gritty outing which saw her throw 129 pitches and record five strikeouts.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Tech opened up the game with a two-out homer off the bat of Riley Love – her 13th of the season – to take an early 1-0 lead. The Red Raiders weren’t done in the first inning, however, as Abbie Orrick reached on a five-pitch walk which brought Elder to the plate.

The first pitch Elder saw she took over the fence to record her fifth homerun of the year – a new career high for the junior outfielder.

Both teams went scoreless in the second inning before Tech added another run in the third inning with Orrick’s ninth homerun of the season.

The Cougars brought across their first run of the game in the bottom of the third to cut into Tech’s lead and make it a 4-1 game.

In the fourth, Tech got the run back as Carson Armijo scored on a wild pitch after drawing a full-count walk.

Houston did not go away as they battled back with two runs in the fourth and one more in the fifth to make it a 5-4 game heading into the sixth.

Kailey Wyckoff got Tech back on the board in the sixth with an RBI single through the right side. Wright shut down Houston’s offense in the next half inning as the Red Raiders went into the final inning up 6-4.

Elder struck again in the top of the seventh with another longball to add some insurance, her first career multi-homerun game.

The Cougars did not make the final three outs easy, as they scored two runs before the Houston runner at first base was called out for leaving early to end the game and snap Tech’s three-game losing streak.

QUICK HITS:

Demi Elder is now the seventh Red Raider to set an offensive career high this season.

Maddy Wright’s performance marks the sixth time this year she has thrown over 100 pitches in an outing this season.

Tech is now 3-1 in games where they hit four or more home runs.

This is the 16th time that a game has had the score 7-6 in program history, Tech is now 7-9 in those games.