Texas Tech Seeks Win No. 30, Tadlock No. 450, Tuesday vs. UNM
LUBBOCK, Texas – Fresh off a dramatic doubleheader sweep of No. 22 WVU that clinched another weekend sweep, the Texas Tech Baseball program will close out a four game homestand on Tuesday afternoon when they welcome the University of New Mexico for a midweek contest.
First pitch from Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park is set for 2 p.m.
The Red Raiders enter the midweek contest having won 11 straight home games overall, and with a win can record the 30th victory of the season and the 450th all-time victory of head coach Tim Tadlock’s career.
Tech won the previous matchup against UNM this season back on Mar. 5, when the Red Raiders used a bases clearing triple from Dylan Maxcey to close out an 11-8 win.
INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (29-13) vs. New Mexico (19-19)
DATE: Tuesday, Apr. 23, 2024
TIME: 2 p.m.
LOCATION: Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park (Lubbock, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Hudson Parker (0-0, 4.82 ERA) vs. RHP Josh Barnhouse (2-2, 9.11 ERA)
1-2-3 HEADLINES:
* Riding an 11-game winning streak at Rip Griffin Park, the Texas Tech Baseball program returns to action on Tuesday afternoon when they close out a four-game homestand with a midweek contest against UNM. The Red Raiders will seek win 30 on the season and the 12th straight home victory dating back to a Mar. 21 loss to BYU.
* The Red Raiders enter the midweek contest with UNM fresh off a doubleheader and weekend sweep of previously ranked No. 22 WVU in which Tech trailed for just one half inning of a possible 27 innings (T2 on Sunday). After a dominate wire-to-wire 15-2 victory, the Red Raiders won 6-4 on Sunday in wire-to-wire fashion chasing the Big 12s ERA leader Derek Clark. Entering the game with four straight complete games, Clark was tagged for a season-high five runs and 12 hits. The Red Raiders closed out the weekend sweep with a 3-1 victory in Sunday’s night cap in which Kyle Robinson went 7 innings and struck out a career-high nine.
* The victories vaulted the Red Raiders back into the Big 12 race as well as the national-hosting race, as Tech’s RPI rose to 28 after the weekend sweep of the Mountaineers. The Red Raiders sit just a game-and-half behind UT and WVU for second place. As part of the weekend success, a pair of Red Raiders earned Big 12 weekly awards as Austin Green (Player) and Cade McGee (Newcomer) were honored by the league.
NOTES:
FIRST MATCHUP WAS WILD
The Red Raiders raced out to an early 7-0 during the first matchup between the two schools back on Mar. 5. before New Mexico rallied with four runs in the second, three runs in the third and a run in the fifth to take an 8-7 lead. In that contest, Dylan Maxcey provided the big hit, a pinch-hit bases clearing double that flipped an 8-7 UNM lead into a 10-8 Tech lead. The Red Raiders got six strong innings from Zane Petty, Jacob Rogers, Ryan Free and Trendan Parish allowed just three hits and a run. Petty pitched two innings to earn his first win of the season while Rogers added two scoreless in relief. Free and Parish each pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth.
LOOKING FOR 12 STRAIGHT AT THE RIP
The Red Raiders enter Tuesday’s matchup against New Mexico riding a pair of wining streaks at Rip Griffin Park. Overall the Red Raiders have won 11 straight home contests dating back to a Mar. 19 setback against BYU. Since then, the Red Raiders have defeated BYU (twice), SFA Austin and swept series from Stanford (2), Houston (3) and WVU (3). So far this season the Red Raiders are 21-3 this season at The Rip. The Red Raiders have won 12 straight home non-conference games dating back to a May 6th contest against Sam Houston State last season.
TEN STRAIGHT AT HOME vs. UNM SINCE 2015
The Red Raiders have won 10 straight home contests against UNM dating back to the 2015 season when Tech fell 7-6 to the Lobos at home. Since then, Tech has defeated UNM in 2016 (14-10) in the regular season and the Lubbock Regional (4-3), before winning a pair in 2017: 7-2 and 12-4. In 2018, Tech won 7-2 in Lubbock, before using a 6-4 victory in 2019. After not playing in 2020, Tech beat UNM 10-4 in 2021 and 28-2 and 11-4 in 2022. Last season the Red Raiders won 6-3 over the Lobos.
IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
It’s hard to believe but after this weekend’s series with WVU, the Red Raiders have just five more home games remaining at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park. The Red Raiders following Tuesday’s contest against UNM will face UTRGV on Apr. 30 before closing the home schedule with OU May 3-5. Following the game Tuesday against UNM the Red Raiders will play 9 of their final 12 on the road.
BREAK FROM THE P5 FOR A DAY
Tuesday’s contest with UNM will break a streak of eight straight game against Power Five opponents overall and a span of eight straight home games against Power Fives. Tuesday will be the first overall mid major game that Tech will play since an Apr. 9 matchup at ACU. The last time the Red Raiders played a mid major at home was Mar. 26 against SFA. The Red Raiders have played 13 of 14 games this month against P5 opponents. That stretch began with a two game series against Stanford (Apr. 1-2) and also includes a home weekend against Houston (Apr. 5-7), a weekend set at TCU (Apr. 12-14), two games at No. 2 Arkansas (Apr. 16-17) as well as the weekend set last weekend against No. 22 WVU (Apr. 19-21).
CLOSE LOSSES HAVE BEEN THE NORM
Texas Tech saw a streak of four straight losses and three-straight one-run losses snapped last weekend against WVU. Prior to the games against WVU, the Red Raiders had fallen 4-3 (at TCU) last Sunday before falling 9-8 and 5-4 in the two game series at Arkansas. In fact when you open up to include Tech’s last six losses, five have come by a singular run, and the other loss was by just two runs. Tech’s last six losses have come 6-5 at UCF (Mar. 28), 2-1 at UCF (Mar. 29), 4-2 (Apr. 13) at TCU, 4-3 (Apr. 14) at TCU and a pair of 9-8 and 5-4 losses at No. 2 Arkansas early in the week.
20 at ‘The Rip’
The Red Raiders with Sunday’s game one victory over WVU earned their 20th victory of the season at home. It marked the 10th consecutive season (minus the 2019, COVID-19 shortened season) that the Red Raiders have won at least 20 games at home in a season. The Red Raiders have now won 21 games at home overall with five home games remaining. With four more home wins, the Red Raiders could win 25 games at home for the second straight season and for the fifth time in six seasons. The lone season where Tech did not win 25 or more home games in that stretch was 2022. The span dates back to the 2017 season and excludes the 2019 COVID-19 shortened season.
W = 450 & 30
The Red Raiders with a win on Tuesday can reach a pair of milestones for head coach Tim Tadlock who enters the game with 449 total wins at Tech, meaning with a win Tadlock could reach 450 wins in his Tech career. The Red Raiders will also reach 30 total victories on the season for the 10th straight complete season (minus the 2019 COVID-19 season). The last time Tech failed to reach 30 wins came in 2013, Tadlock’s first season.
BROUGHT OUT THE BROOMS AGAIN
The Red Raiders have now won eight straight Big 12 home games including a pair of sweeps against Houston and WVU. The Red Raiders have swept back-to-back Big 12 Conference series for the first time since the 2016 season. The Red Raiders eight straight Big 12 home wins are the most Tech has rattled off in a row since the 2014 season.
MCGEE AND GREEN HONORED
After going a combined 18-for-40 with six home runs and 19 RBIs, Tech’s Austin Green (Co-Player of the Week) and Cade McGee (Newcomer of the Week) were honored by the Big 12 Conference on Monday.
The honors are the first for both Green and McGee this season and the third and fourth overall weekly awards. Freshman TJ Pompey was named the league’s newcomer of the week the week of Feb. 26 while Damian Bravo took home player of the week honors for the week on Apr. 8. Green started his week in style against No. 2 Arkansas going 5-for-5 against the top-ranked Arkansas pitching staff. For the week, Green went 10-for-20 with four doubles, a pair of home runs and 10 RBIs against a pair of nationally-ranked opponents, while McGee homered four times and drove in nine in the five game week. He also scored five runs and drove in a run and has hits in all five games.
GREEN IS COMING ON
Austin Green has been on fire as of late, as the switch-hitting outfielder went 10-for-20 last week against No. 2 Arkansas and No. 22 WVU. Green hit four doubles, a pair of homers and drove in 10 runs to earn Big 12 Co-Player of the Week. Green is now 18-for-his last 36 at the plate and has scored 10 runs and driven in 13 runs. On Tuesday night against No. 2 Arkansas he went 5-for-5 finishing a triple shy of the cycle. Green has raised his average from .284 to .341 the last eight games.
NINE IN SEVEN BRINGS SCHOOL RECORD
The Red Raiders slugged a school-record nine home runs in the victory over ACU, as four different Red Raiders hit multiple home runs (Cade McGee, Gavin Kash, TJ Pompey and Drew Woodcox). Tech became the first Big 12 Team since 2019 to sock nine home runs as the four players with multiple home runs are the most by a Big 12 team since at least 2011.
BRAVO. DAMIAN BRAVO.
Damian Bravo has been suburb in his second season in Lubbock, as the Sophomore has hit a team-best .421 in his 37 games played. After leaving the series finale in Fort Worth and missing the two midweeks at Arkansas and Friday’s opener against WVU, Bravo returned to the lineup for both ends of the DH on Sunday. Bravo leads the Big in average hits and doubles.
RUNNIN’ RUNNIN’
The Red Raiders have clearly been aggressive on the base-paths this season, as the club has now stolen 40 bases in 42 games played. The Red Raiders went until Mar. 23 against BYU without a caught stealing as the Red Raiders went 28 consecutive stolen base attempts with out a caught stealing. Tech has been caught stealing just five times and already have stolen 12 more bases than 2023 (28).
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 30.0 innings thus far, allowing just 20 hits and eight runs (six earned). Sanders has now struck out 36 batters in his 32.0 innings of work. Hitters are hitting just .177 against him. Sanders pitched 6.1 scoreless innings two weeks ago , earning two wins. The righty retired his last 14 batters in a row including three perfect innings in Friday’s win over Houston. Sanders struck out 12. Sanders has not allowed a run in his last seven appearances (12.2 inning) and has allowed just six hits in those seven outings. Sanders pitched 4.1 scoreless two weeks ago against TCU.
HUGETYRA
Freshman Parker Hutyra has really emerged in his first collegiate season as the freshman has allowed just three runs in 15 appearances and 22.0 innings pitched. Hutyra has struck out 24 batters this season, and hallowed his first run since Feb. 21 vs. Oregon State last weekend against WVU. That span stretched 18.1 innings and included five straight key outings against BYU, UCF, Stanford and TCU. The righty has struck out 17 batters in his last 13.0 innings pitched. Prior to the Sunday appearance in the loss to TCU the Red Raiders had won six straight games he’d appeared in. Overall the Red Raiders are 10-5 in his 15 appearances. And while Hutyra has continued to perform at a high level, he did maybe his best work of the season last week against Houston as after throwing 45 pitches in nearly three scoreless innings, Hutyra entered in a four-run game and fired a scoreless ninth to close out a series sweep. The right-hander suffered the loss due in large part to a pair of errors at Arkansas on Tuesday, marking the first time all season he received a decision that wasnt a win.
PITCHING HAS BEEN GOOD
The Red Raiders have improved on the mound the last 10 games, as the Red Raider arms have pitched to a 3.95 ERA the last 10 games. Over the last two Big 12 series (at TCU and vs WVU) the Red Raiders have pitched to an ERA of 2.60 including a 2.33 ERA this weekend against WVU. This weekend against the Mountaineers the Red Raider bullpen went nine innings in the three games and allowed just two runs. The pen struck out 14 batters and walked just four. The success wasnt just limited to the relievers as the Red Raider trio of Free, Robinson and Heuer combined to allow just six runs in 18 innings pitched. That included seven one-run innings from Robinson who set a new career-high in strikeouts with nine. The last two weekends the Red Raiders have struck out 48 batters in 52 innings pitching to a 2.60 ERA. In the last 12 Big 12 Conference games (excluding Houston where winds exceeded 30 MPH) the Red Raider arms have pitched to an ERA of 2.92. The Red Raiders currently lead the Big 12 in ERA in Conference Only games (4.75).
UP NEXT:
Tech hits the road for another important Big 12 weekend at Kansas. First pitch from KUs Hoglund Ballpark is set for 6 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
–TECH–
Release Provided By Andrew Stern
