Tech Baseball Closes Five-Game Homestand with Weekend Set vs. Houston
LUBBOCK, Texas – Fresh off a dramatic series sweep of Stanford, Texas Tech Baseball will close out a five-game homestand this weekend when they play host to the Houston Cougars at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park.
The weekend series begins on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. and will continue with a pair of afternoon games on Saturday (2 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.).
This weekend is a return to comfort and normalcy for Tech, as the Red Raiders played a pair of Thursday-Saturday series the last two weekends to accommodate BYUs campus policy prohibiting them from competing on Sundays and the Easter holiday last Sunday.
The weekend series with BYU will be the first all-time matchup between the two schools as conference foes, and the first weekend matchup since 2012 when Tech swept Houston in a three-game set.
INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:
GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (21-9, 5-7 Big 12) vs. Houston (16-12, 4-8 Big 12)
DATE: Friday, Apr. 5, 2024
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field (Lubbock, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: LHP Ryan Free (3-0, 5.74 ERA) vs. LHP Antoine Jean (2-2, 2.32 ERA)
GAME TWO:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (21-9, 5-7 Big 12) vs. Houston (16-12, 4-8 Big 12)
DATE: Saturday, Apr. 6, 2024
TIME: 2 p.m.
LOCATION: Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field (Lubbock, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Kyle Robinson (3-3, 4.38 ERA) vs. LHP Kyle LaCalameto (2-1, 4.15 ERA)
GAME THREE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (21-9, 5-7 Big 12) vs. Houston (16-12, 4-8 Big 12)
DATE: Sunday, Apr. 7, 2024
TIME: 1 p.m.
LOCATION: Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field (Lubbock, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Mac Heuer (3-2, 4.50 ERA) vs. RHP Duncan Howard (2-0, 3.05 ERA)
1-2-3 HEADLINES:
* Fresh a series sweep of Stanford, the Red Raiders close yet another five-game week this week when they welcome new Big 12 foe Houston this weekend for three games. The three series will close the first of two five-game weeks in Tech’s 19-game month of April. This weekend’s series against Houston provides a key opportunity for the Red Raiders who sit at No. 56 in the RPI as the Cougars will be the first top-75 RPI team that has visited ‘The Rip’ since Texas (Mar. 8-10).
* The season’s third month provides multiple key series and opportunities for a Tech team that is seeking a signature series win. In total, the Red Raiders will play a tough April schedule as 15 of the 19 games that Tech will play will be against Power-Five opponents. That stretch includes a midweek series at No. 1 Arkansas as well as a road series at TCU. After playing 13-of-20 games in March at home, the Red Raiders will play nine road games in April. The month features the Red Raiders longest true road trip of the season, next week’s six-game stretch on the road that includes an Apr. 9 game at ACU, a weekend series at TCU (Apr. 12-14) and a series at Arkansas (Apr. 16-17).
* For the second straight weekend the Red Raiders will go with Ryan Free in the opener, Kyle Robinson in Game Two and Mac Heuer for the series finale. After pitching each of the first seven Friday’s of the season, Robinson will pitch on Saturday for the first time and will pitch during the day for the first time since the home opener on Feb. 23. After sliding up to the Thursday role for the weekend series with BYU and pitching on his more customary day against UCF (Saturday’s finale), Heuer will start on Sunday for the first time in his career.
WEEKENDNOTES:
FIRST TIME AS BIG 12 FOES
The Red Raiders and Cougars will meet for the first time as Big 12 foes this weekend at Rip Griffin Park. The Cougars of course joined the Big 12 ahead of the start of the 2023-24 season after spending time in both Conference USA and The American Conference. The Cougars last visited Lubbock in 2012 and were swept in a three-game series.
THREE STRAIGHT WITH NEW FOES
When Tech welcomes Houston this weekend it will mark the third and final of three straight Big 12 series against the new foes in the Big 12. That stretch began two weekends ago when the Red Raiders welcomed BYU for a three-game series. The stretch continued last weekend when Tech made the long trip to Orlando to face UCF and will conclude with the Houston series. Ironically, the back-to-back-to-back series with BYU, UCF and UH will be the only three series that Tech will face any of the four new teams, as the Red Raiders wont see Cincinnati during the regular season.
HALF-WAY POINT OF B12 PLAY
Due to a late “Conference Bye Week” the Red Raiders series against Houston this weekend will be the fifth of 10 Big 12 weekend series, meaning that once Sunday’s series finale is played, the Red Raiders would be halfway through Big 12 play. The Red Raiders and Cougars are two of seven Big 12 teams that have played each of the first four Big 12 weekends. After this weekend, Tech and Houston will be two of six Big 12 teams to have played each of the first five weekends of Big 12 play, joining Kansas, UCF, TCU and BYU.
WON ONE, LOST ONE
Once again this weekends series with Houston will be the third and final weekend series with a new Big 12 foe. It will also serve as the rubber-series if you will as Tech has won one of the series (BYU) against new Big 12 foes and lost one of the series (UCF).
END OF A FIVE-GAME HOMESTAND
The weekend series versus Houston will mark the end of the final five-game homestand for the Red Raiders. this season, as Tech had four home stands of at least five games this season. The stretch included a six-game homestand against Texas Southern and Gardner-Webb, as well a five-game stretch against UT and New Mexico State and a five-game stretch against ACU, BYU and Stephen F. Austin. Following this week’s five-game at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park, the Red Raiders will head to ACU, TCU and Arkansas for a six-game roadtrip the longest of the season.
441 and Counting
HC Tim Tadlock continues to re-write the record books at his Alma Matter. Entering his 13th season as the HC at Texas Tech, Tadlock recorded his 440th and 441st career wins at Texas Tech in the series sweep of Stanford. Tadlock became the second coach in program history to reach 440 career wins at Tech, joining his college coach Larry Hays. Tadlock has a career .661 winning percentage, the best in program history.
SINGLE DIGIT HOME GAMES LEFT
Scheduled to play 29 times at Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field this season, following the three-game series with Houston, the Red Raiders will have just eight more home games left in the 2024 season, meaning that 15 of the final 23 games of the season will be on the road. Tech will have just two more home weekend series left following the Houston series: Apr. 19-21 vs. WVU and May 3-5 against OU. The series finale against OU on May 5 is the final guaranteed home game of the 2024 season.
HOME COOKIN’
The Rip has been kind to the Red Raiders this season, as after the Stanford sweep, Tech has now won five straight home games and eight of nine at home. The Red Raiders are 15-3 at home this season and have lost just one home series (to Texas) this season. In those 18 home games the Red Raiders have outscored opponents 229-117 overall as Tech is hitting .362 at The Rip this season. The Red Raiders have also hit 42 of their 51 home runs this season at home.
BRAVO. DAMIAN BRAVO.
Damian Bravo has been suburb in his second season in Lubbock, as the Sophomore has hit a team-best .436 over the season’s first 30 games. Bravo has also recorded and on-base percentage of .504 and has a team-best 32 RBIs and 16 doubles.
RUNNIN’ RUNNIN’
The Red Raiders have clearly been aggressive on the basepaths this season, as the club has now stolen 32 bases in just 20 games played. The Red Raiders have been caught just twice, two Saturday’s ago against BYU and the series finale Tuesday against Stanford. The caught stealing against BYU broke a streak of 28 consecutive bags to start the year.
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 19.1 innings thus far, allowing just 14 hits and eight runs (six earned). Sanders has now struck out 20 batters in his 19.1 innings of work. Hitters are hitting just .192 against him.
HUGETYRA
Freshman Parker Hutyra has really emerged in his first collegiate season as the freshman has allowed just one run in 10 appearances and 14.2 innings pitched. Hutyra has struck out 16 batters this season, and has not allowed a run since Feb. 21 vs. Oregon State. That stretches 13.1 innings and includes three straight key outings against BYU, UCF and Stanford. The righty has struck out nine batters in his last five-and-two-thirds innings pitched (all Red Raider wins). In fact the Red Raiders have won four straight games he’s appeared in and are 7-3 in his 10 appearances.
FOLLOWING A LOSS WITH A WIN
The Red Raiders have consistently followed losses with wins this season. The Red Raiders have yet to lose more than two games in a row this season and have lost back-to-back games just twice (at Baylor and at UCF). Following a loss this season the Red Raiders are 7-2 this season.
TPs GETTING IT DONE
Junior reliever Trendan Parish has been on fire in his last three appearances as the righty has now pitched seven-straight scoreless innings and has not allowed a run in eight of his last 10 appearances. Last week against SFA, Parish pitched 3.2 strong innings and recorded six punchouts to earn his second victory of the season. Last Friday night against UCF, Parish retired six of the seven batters he faced and did not allow a hit. Parish struck out a pair and now has 21 strikeouts in 19.2 innings pitched. Parish has allowed just seven walks in the 19.2 innings pitched.
FOUR STRAIGHT ONE RUN GAMES
All three games last weekend in Orlando and the series opener against Stanford were one run affairs. After falling 5-4 and 2-1 on Thursday and Friday, the Red Raiders rebounded for a 3-2 victory on Saturday afternoon. In the series opener against Stanford, the Red Raiders won a 10-9 game against Stanfotd. The four-straight one-run contests marked the first time since the 2021 season (Mar. 7-12) that Tech has played three straight one run games. The Red Raiders won four straight one-run contests over Texas A&M CC (4-3), Gonzaga (5-4, 5-4) and UConn (4-3).
BIG MAC BOUNCE BACK
Back in his more comfortable and customary Saturday role, Freshman Mac Heuer bounced back in a big way on Saturday afternoon pitching 5.2 innings allowing just five hits and one run, a solo home run in the third. Heuer has now struck out 29 batters in 30.0 innings pitched and walked just six. The righty has allowed just seven runs in 19.2 innings pitched on Saturday’s with four of those coming in a loss to Baylor. Heuer is now 3-1 in his Saturday starts and is a perfect 2-0 following a Tech loss in conference play. In those two starts, Mac has pitched 11.2 innings and has allowed three runs. Heuer has struck out 12 in those two starts.
HERE COMES BAZZ
After missing nine games due to illness, Kevin Bazzell is starting to return to his All-American form. Bazzell went 4-for-12 in the weekend series at UCF. Bazzell really shined against the Cardinal this week, as he went 5-for-7 with a pair of home runs and five RBIs. Bazzell, who also homered in Thursday’s series opener at UCF, now has 11 runs batted in, in his last seven games and has scored fice runs in that span. Bazzell started just 3-for-19 in his return to action (three-games at Baylor, ACU, BYU 3/21), but has since gone 11-for-26 (.423).
FRESHMEN FUNDAY
In Saturday’s series finale the freshmen on the Red Raiders roster made quite the impact, as three freshmen arms combined to fire eight-and-a-third one-run innings on the mound (Mac Heuer, Parker Hutyra, Cole Kaase). Heuer handled the first 5.2 innings allowing just a run on a solo homer, while Hutyra fired an inning-and-two-thirds scoreless. The righty struck out. After Hudson Luce got a pair of key outs, Tech turned to its final freshman of the afternoon, as Cole Kaase entered the 3-2 contest and needed just 13 pitches to retire all three UCF batters he faced in order to earn his first career save. The Red Raiders also got a clutch sac-fly from Freshman Landon Stripling in the top of the ninth that proved to be the game-winner.
A PAIR OF FIRSTS INCLUDING FREE BASEBALL
In the opening game of the series against Stanford the Red Raiders won a wild 10-9 contest that featured a furious ninth inning comeback before a clutch walk-off single from Austin Green delivered the Red Raiders second walk-off win of the season. The game featured a pair of firsts, as it marked the first time all season that the Red Raiders won when trailing heading to the bottom of the ninth (previously 0-5) and it was also the first extra innings contest of 2024. The game which went exactly four hours on the nose, was the 16th-longest game at Rip Griffin Park in history and was the first extra innings affair since last May. 19 against KU. The 11 innings marked the longest game for Tech since Mar. 5, 2023 when Tech fell to Texas A&M in 16 innings.
UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders open a busy road trip that spans the better part of two weeks and six-games on Tuesday night when they make the annual trip to Abilene for a date with ACU. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m
–TECH–
Release Provided By Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics
