Texas Tech Baseball Opens Five-Game Homestand Tuesday vs. Abilene Christian
LUBBOCK, Texas — Looking to rebound after a long and tough weekend in Waco, the Texas Tech Red Raiders return home to the friendly confines of Rip Griffin Park on Tuesday night to host a midweek contest against Abilene Christian.
Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. contest against the Wildcats will open a five-game homestand as the Red Raiders welcome in BYU this weekend (Thursday-Saturday) before playing host to Stephen F. Austin a week from Tuesday.
After a 2-0 shutout win over the Bears on Friday night, Tech struggled through multiple weather delays and thick humid air to manage just nine hits and three runs over the final two games of the series. The weekend in total included a pair of 75+ minute delays including a nearly three hour delay on Saturday afternoon before the contest was suspended until Sunday due to persistent rain.
Tech enters the homestand with a 9-2 record at Rip Griffin Park this season, and a perfect 8-0 record against non-conference foes.
INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (14-6) vs. Abilene Christian (13-8)
DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 2024
TIME 6:30 p.m. (CT)
LOCATION: Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field (Lubbock, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Zane Petty (2-0, 7.80 ERA) vs. Rolando De La Cruz (0-1, 7.71 ERA)
1-2-3 HEADLINES:
* The Red Raiders return to the friendly confines of Rip Griffin Park this week for another five-game homestand when they welcome Abilene Christian for a mid-week contest. The homestand also includes a weekend series with BYU and a midweek against Stephen F. Austin.
* The Red Raiders are hoping it’s home-sweet-home this week as after hitting just 16-95 (.168) in wet and humid Waco over the weekend. So far this season the Red Raiders have scored 160 runs in 11 home games (14.5/game) and are hitting .384 at Rip Griffin Park with 76 extra-base hits. The Red Raiders managed just two extra-base hits and 16 total hits in Waco.
* Tuesday’s starter Zane Petty will look to again record a strong Tuesday night midweek start, as the righty is coming off a career-night where he tossed six innings of two-run ball against New Mexico State. After beginning the season in the Red Raiders weekend rotation Petty will now have appeared in the last three midweek contests. After allowing just one run in two innings at New Mexico, Petty fired the six innings of two run ball with seven strikeouts. He now has nine punchouts in his last eight innings in the mid-week.
MID WEEK NOTES:
BRAVO. DAMIAN BRAVO.
Damian Bravo has been suburb in his second season in Lubbock, as the Sophomore has hit a team-best .440 over the season’s first 20 games. Bravo has also recorded and on-base percentage of .505 and has a team-best 29 RBIs and 14 doubles. More importantly, Bravo has driven in at least one run in 15-of-19 games. Bravo driving in a run has been good for the Red Raiders as Tech is an impressive 14-1 when the outfielder contributes at least one RBI. The lone contest the Red Raiders didnt win this season was two Friday’s ago against UT when Bravo homered in the fouth. Bravo sits second in the Big 12 in RBIs behind Brady Day of Kansas State.
DYLAN TO THE MAX
Catcher Dylan Maxcey has seized his opportunity for extended playing time with Kevin Bazzell sidelined. Maxcey led the Red Raiders in batting average over the week ending in 3-10, as the catcher hit 5-for-12 with four runs scored a homer run and seven RBIs. Maxcey drove in three runs in the win over New Mexico last Tuesday when he pinch-hit. In Saturday’s win over Texas, Maxcey drove in four runs and hit his second home run of the season. In the midweek against NM State, Maxcey went 4-for-8 with three runs scored and three RBIs. Since Bazzell has gone down, Maxcey is 13-for-37 (.351) with two home runs and 13 RBIs. Maxcey drove in a key run in Friday’s 2-0 win at Baylor and has now caught eight straight games and 10 of the last 11 games. Of the last 70 innings that Tech has played, Maxcey has caught 67 of those.
TWO WITH 25
The Red Raiders currently have two players in Damian Bravo and TJ Pompey with at least 25 RBIs. Pompey recorded his 25th RBI in the win over NM State. Bravo has driven in 29 runs this season through the first 17 games. Bravo leads the Big 12 in RBIs, while the duo are the only two players in the Big 12 to each record 25 RBIs.
ROLLIN’ IN THE DEEP
Another pitcher who changed his warmup song in 2024 was senior Josh Sanders, who will now warmup to Adelle’s Rolling in the Deep. So far it seems the warmup song is working for Sanders, as the righty has pitched 14.2 innings thus far, allowing just 10 hits and five runs (three earned). Sanders has now struck out 16 batters in his 14.2 innings of work. Hitters are hitting just .185 against him. Sanders had a strong opener to the series as the righty needed just 25 pitches over two innings of work to record his first save of the season. The righty did allow an eanred run on Sunday as he saw a six inning scoreless streak snapped in the loss to Baylor.
MCGEES BEEN ON BASE AND HIT A LOT
Former Freshman All-American and Gonzaga transfer Cade McGee continues to provide a different and unique approach to the lineup this season. McGee has played and started in every game yet only has recorded 58 official at-bats because he has walked 19 times and been hit by 15 pitches. When you add it up, McGee has come to the plate 92 times through the first 20 games of the season and he has reached base safely in 59 of those at-bats. His on-base percentage sits at an eye-popping .532.
LOOKING TO BOUNCE BACK
After falling in a weekend series to Baylor, Tech returns to the friendly confines of Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field for the next five games that includes singular games against in-state foes in ACU and SFA as well as the first all-time series against BYU. The Rip has been kind to the Red Raiders as Tech is 9-2 this season so far at home. In the weekend series at Baylor the Red Raiders managed just 16 hits over 95 at-bats (.168) and two extra base hits (a homer from Drew Woodcox and a double from Dylan Maxcey). The Red Raiders had been scoring at an elite clip as the team saw a streak of 12 straight games with at least seven runs snapped over the weekend. After scoring 207 runs over the first 17 games, Tech mustered just five in the weekend in Waco. The good news for the Red Raiders is that Rip Griffin Park has produced strong offensive results as Tech has banged out at least seven runs in all 11 home games and double-figure hits in at least eight home games. So far this season the Red Raiders are hitting .384 at home with 28 home runs and 147 RBIs. Tech has outscored opponents 160-76 at home this season an average of 7.6 runs per game.
WOODYS BIG WEEK
Junior outifielder Drew Woodcox had one of the best weeeks of his Tech career last week as the outfielder saw action in three of the five games. Woodcox recorded at least one hit in all three contests he played in as he went 5-9 (.555) with two home runs and three RBIs. Woodcox also excelled on the defensive end as he played a strong outfield making six putouts including a highlight reel catch in Wednesday’s win over New Mexico State. Woodcox is now hitting 10-24 (.417) this season with four home runs and 10 RBIs.
MLB BREAKOUT
In conjunction with the MLB, MiLB has created the Spring Breakout which features 25 of the best prospects from each of the 30 teams in baseball. When the rosters were announced, the Red Raiders were well represented as seven different former Red Raiders will represent their organization in the event. The list includes: Dru Baker (Rays), Brand Birdsell (Cubs), Hunter Dobbins (Red Sox), Braxton Fulford (Rockies), Chase Hampton (Yankees), Jace Jung (Tigers) and Patrick Monteverde (Marlins). Jace Jung was one of the stars of the Spring Breakout as the lefty hit two homers for the Tigers in the victory over the Phillies and was named to the MILB Pipeline First Team All-Spring Breakout.
FEELING PETTY
Tuesday’s starter Zane Petty will look to again record a strong Tuesday night midweek start, as the righty is coming off a career-night where he tossed six innings of two-run ball against New Mexico State. After beginning the season in the Red Raiders weekend rotation Petty will now have appeared in the last three midweek contests. After allowing just one run in two innings at New Mexico, Petty fired the six innings of two run ball with seven strikeouts. He now has nine punchouts in his last eight innings in the mid-week.
UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders welcome BYU this weekend for the first all-time series between the two schools as conference foes. The series begins on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. followed by another night game (6:30) on Friday. The series concludes on Saturday with a 2 p.m. contest.
–TECH–
Release Provided By Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics
