The cold weather did not stop Texas Tech from taking the field for its season opener.

The Red Raiders used a five-run scoring fifth inning to take game one of the four-game series 5-1 over Houston Baptist.

Sophomore pitcher Clayton Beeter got the win pitching six innings, recording six strikeouts, allowing two hits and one run. Micah Dallas gave up no runs or hits in his three-inning save, including five strikeouts.

The batting from senior second baseman Brian Klein and freshman third baseman Jace Jung got the Red Raiders going in the fifth. Freshman shortstop Cal Conley had an RBI-groundout which brought in freshman designated hitter Nate Rombach.

After junior centerfielder Dylan Neuse struck out, Houston Baptist catcher Matt Solomon tried to pick off freshman Dillon Carter at third base, but the throw was off, allowing Carter to make a run for it home and scoring.

Following the Carter run, Jung RBI singled up the middle bringing in Klein. Sophomore first baseman Cole Stilwell was able to reach first on a throwing error that allowed junior catcher Braxton Fulford to score.

Following the sixth inning, Dallas made an appearance to relieve Beeter and did so with success.

Pitchers

Texas Tech head coach Tim Tadlock talked about his pitchers and how they did on the mound on the cold season opener.

“Thought they both threw the ball really well,” Tadlock said. “Really proud of the way (Clayton Beeter) threw the ball, (Micah Dallas) followed it up and commanded the ball really well. Fun to watch.”

It was sort of a surprised to have a reliever at starter and starter at reliever, but Tadlock thought the arrangement worked out well today.

“We’ll let that evolve,” Tadlock said. “Really right now our pitch count is right where we need it to be today. You can extend (Beeter) a little more obviously, and he’s going to want to compete. What I mean by that is he’s going to want to start. At the same time, I think Micah will do what’s best for the team. Today worked out pretty good.”

Beeter went six innings on 68 pitches, 48 of those being strikes. He said it was a lot of fun.

“I’ve been looking forward to this this whole week,” Beeter said, “and the excitement was definitely building up the whole time.

“I just thought maybe I’d be coming out of the pen like Micah did today, going three innings or starting if I needed to. I didn’t really try to think about it much.”

“It’s just exciting being able to play out here in front of these fans and just love playing the game of baseball. It felt amazing.”

Dallas talked about the difference in being the reliever than a starting pitcher.

“As a starter, you kind of feel like you have to, I don’t know, you’re going the distance,” Dallas said, “but as a reliever I feel like you can just come in there and just shut it down and you kind of have this different swagger to you. Just you’re in there to shut down the game.”

Earlier in the week, Tadlock mentioned Dallas not starting this weekend because he had not built his innings. Dallas said it was because he was a little dinged up. The coaches went the safe route and decided to keep him off the field, and it worked out for today.

Once he got onto the mound, after the first pitch was when Dallas knew he got into a groove.

“For me after the first pitch,” Dallas said, “you know if you’re going to be there or not. It felt good.

Honestly, it’s just even when you feel like you missed your spot, it somehow goes to where you wanted to throw it. So, that’s kind of what I had today, except for one pitch clearly got away from me, but just, it gives that confidence and some swagger up there that, ‘I’m going to get you out no matter what.’”

Klein and Jung led the batting today as Jung was 2-3 at the plate with one RBI. Klein had a superb day 3-4 at the plate with an RBI as well, including a run. Sophomore right-fielder Max Marusak struggled as he struck out on all four appearances at the plate, as did Cal Conley. Freshman Dillon Carter went 1-3 on the plate and scored a run.

Texas Tech continues its four-game series at noon tomorrow facing Houston Baptist followed by Northern Colorado at the conclusion of the noon game. The series concludes on Sunday with the final weekend game at 4 p.m. against Northern Colorado.