BY GEORGE WATSON l AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Twice during this season, Texas Tech has won the opener of a Big 12 Conference home series only to be crushed in trying follow with another victory.

That didn’t happen on Saturday.

For the second straight day, the Red Raiders jumped on Kansas’ starting pitching early and often, and the result gives Tech its first chance at a conference series sweep after a 7-5 victory over the 24th-ranked Jayhawks at Dan Law Field.

Tech scored all of its runs in the first four innings, including a big four-run outburst in the fourth, and held off the hard-charging Jayhawks from there. Kansas scored all its runs in the final four innings of the game and had the tying run at the plate when Tech closer Chad Bettis finally slammed the door on the KU rally.

“Obviously every club is better when they’re ahead,” head coach Dan Spencer said. “For us getting the lead was important and more important was getting a zero (on the scoreboard) in the first inning and building momentum against Kansas, cause they didn’t quit. We have some older guys who want to get to the Promised Land and play late in the year … and that’s important to them. They rose to the occasion.”

The win, coupled with the rest of the day’s action in the Big 12, vaults Tech (18-23, 9-8 in Big 12) into fifth place with 10 games remaining and equals the team’s total number of league victories from each of the last three years. The Red Raiders have not won more than nine Big 12 games since 2004, nor had they captured three conference series since 2004 until Saturday.

AJ Ramos pitched five solid innings to earn his first victory since beating Baylor almost a month ago. He scattered a run on four hits and four walks with four strikeouts over five innings, and actually finished strong after taking a line drive directly off the scar of his surgically repaired right elbow.

“It was coming at me and I barely had time to move, and it hit me right in the elbow. Of all the places it hit me directly on the scar,” Ramos said. “It kind of made me mad, really. It was like hitting your funny bone. I had no feeling in my hand.”

Like teammate Brian Cloud on Friday, Ramos was backed by plenty of offense. And like teammate Shaeffer Hall on Friday, Jayhawks right-hander T.J. Walz (4-1) struggled to keep the Tech offense down.

After Hall lasted just two-plus innings in the first game, Walz, who carried a 3.15 ERA in to the day, went just 31/3 innings, surrendering six runs on six hits and four walks with just one strikeout.

Texas Tech's Chris Richburg hits a solo home run in the third inning against Kansas Saturday evening at Dan Law Field. (Geoffrey McAllister/Avalanche-Journal)

“Those two guys have pitched well for us all year long and (Tech) has taken our two starters apart early in the game both days,” Kansas coach Ritch Price said. “We’ve worked behind in the count every time and they do a good job of getting into fast ball counts and squaring it up and being physical with the bat.”

Tech got two in the first on a two-run single by Taylor Ashby, who now has 11 multiple- games. Richburg crushed his 11th home run of the year in the third, and Scott LeJeune capped a four-run fourth with a two-run double to right.

From there, though, Kansas reliever Brett Bollman held the Red Raiders in check for the final 41/3 innings, striking out three.

That allowed the Jayhawks (24-14, 7-7) to make their comeback, beginning with a two-run home run by Buck Afenir in the sixth and a solo shot by Preston Land in the seventh. And when Robby Price doubled two outs later, Tech brought Bettis back to shut the door for the second straight day.

Bettis retired the first four batters he faced to get Tech to the ninth before running into trouble. A catcher interference call and a hit batter set up Price, who clubbed a double off the wall in right-center to pull the Jayhawks to within 7-5. But Bettis closed it down from there, getting Brian Heere on a grounder to first to end the game.

“We’re really going good right now and hopefully (today) we can come out and do the same,” designated hitter Scott LeJeune said. “We really all do believe we have a good, solid team here and as long as we do our stuff and get the wins, we’ll go places like this. We have a good team if we do things right.”

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