Tech Kicks-Off Season’s Longest Road Trip (Six Game) at ACU

LUBBOCK, Texas — Texas Tech Baseball will begin its longest road trip of the season on Wednesday night when it makes the short trip to Abilene for the second and final matchup of the season.

Originally scheduled for a 6:05 p.m. first pitch on Tuesday, the game was instead delayed until Wednesday due to weather.

Riding a six-game winning streak overall, the Red Raiders have now won four straight over ACU after a 9-4 victory in Lubbock back on Mar. 19.

The Red Raiders will see a familiar face on the mound starting for ACU, as projected starter Cade McGarrh transferred to ACU after spending last season at Texas Tech.

INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:

MATCHUP: Texas Tech (24-9) vs. Abilene Christian (19-13)
DATE: Wednesday, Apr. 10, 2024
TIME: 6:05 p.m.
LOCATION: Crutcher Scott Field (Abilene, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Hudson Parker (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Cade McGarrh (2-3, 3.24 ERA).

1-2-3 HEADLINES:
* The Red Raiders hit the road Wednesday for the start a crucial three-city six-game road swing that will begin in Abilene. The road trip continues through Fort Worth this weekend when the Red Raiders and Horned Frogs will do battle in a weekend set, before Tech heads to Fayetteville for a clash with No. 1 Arkansas. The Red Raiders head to Abilene riding a six-game winning streak, the longest winning streak since Tech won seven straight from Feb. 23-Mar. 5. The Red Raiders are also coming off an impressive 5-0 week that included a two-game midweek sweep of Stanford and three-game sweep of new Big 12 foe Houston for the first Big 12 Conference series sweep since the 2022 season.
* Originally scheduled to do battle on Tuesday, the Red Raiders and Wildcats will instead meet on Wednesday due to projected inclement weather in Abilene on Tuesday. The trip to ACU will be the second and final matchup between the two schools, as Tech defeated ACU 9-4 back on Mar. 19 in Lubbock.

* The Red Raiders will turn to a different face out of the bullpen to make the start on Wednesday night in Abilene as righty Hudson Parker will make his first career collegiate start against ACU. The Midland College native has not started a game for the Red Raiders this season and has made six appearances out the bullpen allowing two earned runs in his four innings pitched.

MIDWEEK NOTES:

FOUR STRAIGHT, NINE OF 10 AND 16 of 17

The Red Raiders have had success over ACU as of late, as the Red Raiders have won nine of the last 10 matchups with the Wildcats. The last ACU victory came in 2022 when the Wildcats defeated Tech 8-5 in Lubbock. The Red Raiders have won 16 of the last 17 matchup with ACU dating back to a doubleheader split in 1976.

LOTS OF FAMILIARITY

There are multiple “commonalities” on both ACU and Texas Tech rosters, meaning players who have played for both programs. ACU features a pair of Texas Tech transfers in Cade McGarrh and Nolan Foster. Foster and McGarrh just spent one season at Tech. Foster has appeared just once this season, while McGarrh has made 10 starts in the field and pitched 12.2 innings on the mound. McGarr has hit .188 in his 32 at-bats and pitched to a 1.42 ERA in his seven appearances. McGarrh has struck out 14 batters in his 12.2 innings and has pitched a scoreless appearance in five of the seven. McGarrh has also earned a pair of saves. The lone Red Raider to play for both programs is Max Huffling who spent the last three seasons at ACU before transferring to Tech. Huffling tossed 145 total innings in a Wildcat uniform pitching to a 4.59 ERA. McGarrh did not appear in the first matchup betweent the two sides, but is scheduled to be the starting pitcher for Wednesday’s matchup. Nolan Foster did appear in the first matchup between the two schools as foster allowed two runs and two hits in an inning pitched.

FEELS LIKE WE JUST PLAYED

Once Tech will play ACU on Wednesday it will mark the second meeting between the two schools in just over three weeks. Tech and ACU clashed in Lubbock on Mar. 19, 23 days ago.

FIRST ONE WAS WILD

The first matchup between ACU and Tech was certainly a wild one, as the Wildcats loaded the bases in the first inning off of starter Zane Petty. Petty, who nearly escaped the opening frame without allowing a run after striking out a pair, ended up giving up two runs (just one earned) in an inning pitched. Tech quickly answered with three runs in the first and two in the third to seize control of the game. Third baseman Cade McGee was the star of that contest for Tech as his three-run home run in the home half of the first gave Tech its first lead of the game. In that game, relievers Parker Hutyra, Hudson Luce and Cole Kaase, combined to throw six scoreless innings. Kaase was the best of the Tech relievers as he went two perfect innings with three punchouts. The Red Raiders also got a clutch two-run home run from Drew Woodcox as well as RBI singles from TJ Pompey and Davis Rivers.

DAY LATER MEANS WE’LL STAY ON THE ROAD

Originally scheduled to play ACU on Tuesday night, the Red Raiders contest was moved to Wednesday due to projected weather in the Abilene area. As a result, Tech will now stay on the road following its contest against ACU. The Red Raiders will hit the road on Wednesday morning and head to Abilene. After the game on Wednesday, Tech will spend the night in Abilene, before driving Thursday morning to Fort Worth for the weekend set against the Horned Frogs. Tech will stay in Fort Worth through Monday, where they will next head to Fayetteville, Ark. for a date with No. 1 Arkansas. The Red Raiders will finally return home from the trip one week from Wednesday (Apr. 17).

PARKER GETS THE BALL…. HUDSON THAT IS

Junior Hudson Parker will make his first collegiate start for the Red Raiders on Wednesday night in Abilene. Parker, who has made just six appearances and thrown four innings all year will be pitching for the first time since a Mar. 19 appearance against the Wildcats in the matchup in Lubbock. Parker threw two third of an inning and struck out both batters he faced. The right-hander pitched at Midland College the last two seasons and actually made a start at Odessa last April the 25. Parker went two innings and allowed just one hit and two walks. He struck out three. The start was his first and only start for Midland in two seasons.

BROUGHT OUT THE BROOMS ______________

The Red Raiders recorded a series sweep over Houston last weekend, for the program’s first Big 12 Conference sweep since the 2022 season when the Red Raiders swept Oklahoma State (May 12-14) in Stillwater. The home sweep of Houston is the first home sweep for the Red Raiders since an Apr. 8-10 series against K-State in 2022.

BRAVO. DAMIAN BRAVO.
Damian Bravo has been suburb in his second season in Lubbock, as the Sophomore has hit a team-best .452 over the season’s first 33 games. Bravo has also recorded and on-base percentage of .510 and has a team-best 39 RBIs and 19 doubles. Bravo is the only player in the country with at least 55 hits and 45 runs score this season. After hitting .565 (13-23) with three doubles, two home runs and eight RBIs, Bravo was tabbed the Big 12s Player of the Week. Bravo slugged nearly 1.000 for the weeek, and scored 12 runs.

RUNNIN’ RUNNIN’
The Red Raiders have clearly been aggressive on the basepaths this season, as the club has now stolen 33 bases in just 34 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.

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 25.2 innings thus far, allowing just 16 hits and eight runs (six earned). Sanders has now struck out 30 batters in his 25.2 innings of work. Hitters are hitting just .170 against him. Sanders pitched 6.1 scoreless innings last week, earning two wins. The righty retired his last 14 baters in a row including three perfect innings in Friday’s win over Houston. Sanders struck out 12 and walked as hitter hit just .095.

HUGETYRA
Freshman Parker Hutyra has really emerged in his first collegiate season as the freshman has allowed just one run in 12 appearances and 18.1 innings pitched. Hutyra has struck out 20 batters this season, and has not allowed a run since Feb. 21 vs. Oregon State. That stretches 16.1 innings and includes four straight key outings against BYU, UCF, and Stanford. The righty has struck out 13 batters in his last 9.1 pitched (all Red Raider wins). In fact the Red Raiders have won six straight games he’s appeared in and are 9-3 in his 12 appearances. And while Hutyra has continued to perform at a high level, he did maybe his best work of the season this week against Houston as afer 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.

HERE COMES BAZZ
After missing nine games due to illness, Kevin Bazzell is starting to return to his All-American form. Bazzell started just 3-for-19 in his return to action (three-games at Baylor, ACU, BYU 3/21), but has since gone 18-for-39 (.462) with four home runs and 14 RBIs (10 games played). Bazzell has really turned it on over the Red Raiders six-game winning streak, as the catch is now 12-for-24 over the six games with 10 run scored. His OPS is 1.392 over that stretch.

KILLER Bs
Since Bazzell has returned to form and assumed the three-hole in the Red Raiders lineup, he and Bravo have formed quite a 1-2 punch at the top of the Red Raiders lineup. The duo are a combined 25-for-52 at the plate over the Red Raiders streak and have scored 22 of the Red Raiders 67 runs.

SANDY AND PARKER
Over the Red Raiders last six games (all wins), a pair of relievers have emerged as key pieces, as Josh Sanders and Parker Hutyra have combinedd to throw 13.2 socrleess innings of relief. That includes four key apperances for Hutyra where he’s gone 7.1 scoreless and three apperances for Sanders where he has allowed just two hits in 6.1 innings. The duo have struck out 19 and walked just four batters.

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).

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 will continue the season’s longest road trip this weekend when they head to Fort Worth to clash with TCU. First pitch from Cowtown is set for 6:30 p.m. on Friday.

–TECH–

Release Provided By Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics