Feb. 28, 2003

Box Score

LUBBOCK, Texas - Senior Scooter Jordan hit a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to give No. 22 Texas Tech an 8-7 come-from-behind victory over Northern Iowa on Friday afternoon at Dan Law Field.

With the win, Texas Tech improves to 11-4 on the year while Northern Iowa falls to 0-4.

Texas Tech starter Steve Gooch struggled through the top of the second inning as he allowed two runs on two doubles, one walk and one hit-by-pitch.

Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the third, Junior third baseman Clint McGill connected on his first home run of the season to pull Tech within one.

Northern Iowa pushed its lead to 3-1 in the top of the fourth when second baseman Nate Heath delivered an RBI groundout plating Brian Kobliska. Once again, Texas Tech answered in the bottom half of the inning when Cooper Fouts doubled to left field sending home Clint McGill from second to make the score 3-2.

Texas Tech grabbed its first lead of the game in the bottom of the fifth as the Red Raiders plated two runs on two hits and took advantage of one Northern Iowa defensive miscue. Tech loaded the bases with no outs in the inning and Doug Beck plated the first run on a sacrifice fly to right field. T.J. Bruce plated the final run of the inning with a single through the left side plating Cody Fuller.

The two teams traded runs in the seventh inning before the Panthers jumped out to a 7-5 lead in the top of the eighth as they scored three unearned runs on two hits and one Tech defensive error. The inning went bad from the beginning as leadoff hitter Tyson Hanish struckout swinging but advanced to first on a passed ball by catcher Cooper Fouts. Brian Kobliska sent Hanish to third on a double to right field and the Panthers quickly had two runners in scoring position with no outs. Tech retired the next two hitters on fly outs to center field allowing just one Panther runner to score. The Red Raiders should have ended the inning in the next at-bat when Nate Heath bunted to reliever Aaron Jones but first baseman Doug Beck was not there to cover first and UNI had runners at the corners with two outs. Northern Iowa took the lead when Joe Burgett's infield chopper was misplayed by shortstop T.J. Bruce and the Panthers plated Nate Heath and Brian Kobliska to take the 7-5 lead.

Tech reliever Aaron Jones held off Northern Iowa in the top of the ninth setting up a possible walk-off win situation for Tech in the bottom half of the inning.

Josh Haney led off the ninth inning with a single to right and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Clint McGill. Senior left fielder Scooter Jordan, who replaced starter Christian Colonel defensively in the top of the eighth, singled down the left field line scoring Haney from second to give Tech the 8-7 win.

Aaron Jones (2-0) picked up the win in relief for Texas Tech after he pitched the final two innings allowing three hits and no earned runs with two strikeouts. Starter Steve Gooch earned a no-decision after pitching seven innings giving up nine hits, four earned runs and struckout three. Micah Christensen (0-1) was tagged with the loss for Northern Iowa as he surrendered four hits and three earned runs in 1 2/3 innings.

Texas Tech and Northern Iowa will resume play on Saturday afternoon in a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. The two teams will play a four-game series with the finale coming at 1 p.m. on Sunday.