Hitter of the Week: Braxton Fulford

It was a busy weekend for Texas Tech Athletics. The entire weekend was packed full of events everywhere around campus. The biggest of these was the start of Red Raider baseball. Yes, I might be a little bit biased. Unfortunately for the Red Raiders, opening day did not go as planned as they fell to Oregon 9-4. In Day 2, In Game 2, Oregon took an early lead with eight runs in the first inning. From there, the Red Raiders just started chipping away at the lead until they took it in the bottom of the seventh, but not without the help of Braxton Fulford.

The sophomore from Lubbock’s own Monterey High School did not see any action until Saturday afternoon. In fact, he didn’t even make it out of the dugout until the bottom of the second inning in game two of the series but boy did he make a statement. His first at bat of the season resulted in a home run, and it was just what the Red Raiders needed to get the inning moving in the right direction. That started a chain reaction that motivated a run by Gabe Holt, a home run by junior Doug Facendo which also allowed Josh Jung to score. After stalling at seven runs for a few innings, it was Fulford who once again came to the rescue with yet another home run in the sixth inning. Game two marked his first multi-home run game of his career. Overall, he reached base safely in three of four at bats Saturday. In this same game, he also made his first start at catcher.

He did struggle in game three with two strike outs while swinging, but redeemed himself with the only run of the fifth inning. Sadly, the final game of the series was cancelled due to weather. If you’re in Lubbock this week, stay warm!