Texas Tech Run-Rule Streak Hits 7 with BYU Sweep
Texas Tech hasn’t trailed after the bottom half of an inning in now 73 straight innings. They reached that mark Saturady after completing their seventh consecutive run-rule victory, sweeping BYU in Lubbock.
The streak was in jeopardy early in game three of the series after BYU took a 1-0 lead in the first and had Tech down two outs in bottom half before Mia Williams delivered a two-run home run to put the Red Raiders in front. Light work for the slugger that is up to 14 long bombs on the season now.
BYU was not done however with two runs in the second, but once again Texas Tech responded again in the bottom half to take the lead for good and extend the streak to 70 innings at the time.
“I think I would go to battle with this team every single day,” junior third basemen Taylor Pannell said. “I love the way we fight back. Coach Glasco says we’re the best comeback team in America, and even when we’re down early, we trust that we’re going to respond.”
Behind both a top-five offense and pitching staff in the country, Texas Tech has now run-ruled seven straight opponents, starting with a sweep of Iowa State last week, followed by a midweek win over ACU, and finishing BYU the same way in three games. On the season, they’ve recorded 27 run-rule wins in 40 games, including 11 in 15 Big 12 games.
Four everyday hitters are batting over .400, with Kaitlyn Terry at .525, fourth in the country. The Red Raiders have already set a program record with 82 home runs and scored 405 runs, just two shy of last season’s total. Some wonder if they would prefer to play more innings, but this team is all business and focused on a common goal of winning it all in June. Stats don’t matter when they can get rested for a postseason run instead.
“I think the quicker the game is done, the better,” Pannell said. “We want to end it when we get the chance, and it saves our pitchers and gets us ready for postseason. It also helps us physically, not having to play extra innings over and over.”
Even with the results, Glasco has kept the focus on execution.
“We have to be attacking,” he said. “We want to be aggressive to a fault. What makes us better at our very best is when nobody can predict what we’re going to do, and we’re playing that hard-nosed style every inning.”
As a top two team, and perhaps soon to be the top team in the country, many of these games are about competing with themselves. Something they continue to show they can do.
“My job as a coach is to find everything wrong,” Glasco said. “We can’t ever be satisfied just because we win. We have to seek perfection every single night and keep pushing, because that’s what it’s going to take later in the year.”
A lack of adversity could trip up a team with lofty goals.
Seven straight run rules. Seventy-three innings without trailing at the end of an inning. But they’re still playing like there’s more to clean up.
“We have to learn while we win,” Glasco said. “It’s easier to learn when you lose, but we don’t have that right now. So we have to be intentional about getting better even when things are going well.”
Oh and don’t worry they added a little history into the mix this series too when NiJa Canady added another milestone in the series opener, recording her 1,000th career strikeout, becoming one of just two active pitchers in college softball to reach that mark.
Next up they hit the road for three week’s starting with Utah next Friday for a three game series followed a trip to Arizona State with midweek clashing around the state of Texas mixed in. After being at home for a bit the team is ready to test itself on the road.
“I think traveling is so fun. It’s a way we get to bond on the road,” said Pannell. “When we’re at home, we love playing in front of our fans, but when we’re away, it’s just us, and we get really close together.”
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