Red Raiders Head to Lawrence for Weekend Set at KU

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Fresh off a weekend sweep of WVU, the Texas Tech Red Raiders return to Big 12 action this weekend when they head to Lawrence for a weekend series with the Jayhawks.

 

Needing just one win to record No. 30 on the season, the Red Raiders enter the weekend having won eight straight series over the Jayhawks.

 

INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:

 

GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (29-14 12-9 Big 12) at Kansas (22-15, 9-9 Big 12)
DATE: Friday, Apr. 26, 2024
TIME: 6 p.m.
LOCATION: Hoglund Ballpark (Lawrence, Kan.)
PITCHING MATCHUP: LHP Ryan Free (5-0, 5.10 ERA) vs. RHP Reese Dutton (7-2, 3.05 ERA)

 

GAME TWO:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (29-14 12-9 Big 12) at Kansas (22-15, 9-9 Big 12)
DATE: Saturday, Apr. 20, 2024
TIME: 2 p.m.
LOCATION: Hoglund Ballpark (Lawrence, Kan.)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Kyle Robinson (4-4, 3.76) vs. RHP Dominic Voegele (5-2, 2.89 ERA)

 

GAME THREE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (29-14 12-9 Big 12) at Kansas (22-15, 9-9 Big 12)?
DATE: Sunday, Apr. 11, 2024
TIME: 1 p.m.
LOCATION: Hoglund Ballpark (Lawrence, Kan.)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Mac Heuer (4-3, 5.27 ERA) vs. TBA

1-2-3 HEADLINES:

* With just three conference weekends left and just four total weekends left in the 2024 regular season, the Red Raiders close the final weekend of April up in Lawrence when they clash with KU for three games. Friday’s series opener is set for a 6 p.m. first pitch while Saturday’s middle game is set for a 2 p.m. start. The Red Raiders and Jayhawks will close the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

 

*Tech enters the weekend with the most overall victories in the Big 12 Conference (29) and with the second-most Big 12 wins in the conference. Following the weekend sweep of the Mountaineers a pair of Red Raiders earned Big 12 weekly honors as Austin Green was tabbed the conference’s Player of the Week while Gonzaga transfer Cade McGee was selected as Newcomer of the Week. McGee homered in four of five games last week against No. 2 Arkansas and WVU, while Green went 10-for-20 with 10 RBIs.

 

* The Red Raiders enter the third-to-last Big 12 weekend with a lot to play for, The Red Raiders will head back home to close out the home schedule next week against UTRGV (Apr. 30) and Oklahoma (May 3-5), before closing the regular season with back-to-back road series at Oklahoma State and a weekend in Tempe against Arizona Stats (Twice) and UNLV. Both the Sooners and Cowboys are ranked in this week’s D1 Baseball Top-25 poll.

 

WEEKEND NOTES:

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE

It’s hard to believe but this weekends series with the Jayhawks marks the seventh of 10 Big 12 weekends that the Red Raiders will play in 2024. In fact, following the weekend series with KU the Red Raiders will have just 10 games remaining: UTRGV (Apr.), Oklahoma (May 3-5), Oklahoma State (May 10-12), Arizona State (May 16-17) and UNLV (May 17). The Red Raiders, TCU and BYU are the only three times that have yet to see their conference bye weekend.

 

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.

 

LOOKING TO WIN THE WEEKEND AGAIN

The Red Raiders enter the weekend having won eight straight series overall against Kansas and have won three straight series here in Lawrence. The Red Raiders are 3-1 all-time in weekend series in Lawrence under head coach Tim Tadlock, including a weekend sweep in May of 2016. The last time the Red Raiders lost the series to the Jayhawks was the 2014 season when the Red Raiders were swept by the Jayhawks.

 

LOOKING TO TURN IT AROUND ON THE ROAD

The Red Raiders enter the weekend having lost all three Big 12 road series they have played. That includes a series loss at Baylor (Mar. 15-17) as well as weekend setbacks at both UCF (Mar. 28-30) and TCU (Apr. 12-14). In conference play the Red Raiders are 9-3 at home and just 3-6 on the road. Maybe the most unique part of the Tech losing the three road weekends is the fact that the Red Raiders were victorious on Friday night in both the Baylor and TCU series. In Waco, the Red Raiders fell twice on Sunday after rain suspended Saturday’s contest int he fourth inning. Against TCU, the Red Raiders fell 4-2 on Saturday and 4-3 on Sunday.

 

ROAD HAS BEEN A WHOLE DIFFERENT BALLGAME [LITERALLY]

In the three Red Raider weekend series against BU, UCF and TCU the Red Raider pitching staff has pitched to a 3.45 ERA and have held opponents to just a .234 batting average against. In the weekend series at TCU, the Red Raider arms has their most successful weekends as they allowed just eight earned runs in 25 innings pitching to an ERA of 2.88. The strong work also included 5.2 shutout innings for the Tech bullpen that struck out five and walked just one. The weekend in Orlando the Red Raiders also found success as the Red Raiders allowed just nine runs in 25.2 innings (five SP, four bullpen.) and pitched to a 3.16 ERA. In Waco, Tech had its weakest pitching performance of the three series as the arms combined to pitch to a 4.32 ERA. That weekend did however include a shutout in the Friday night game against Baylor.

K-ROB LIKES THE ROAD

Junior Kyle Robinson who is slated to pitch on Saturday afternoon against KU has liked the road in 2024, as the right-hander has pitched to a 2.33 ERA in three road starts. Robinson has pitched 19.1 inning in that span and has allow just five runs. He has struck out 15 batters and held opponents to a .217 batting average against on the road.

 

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.

K-ROB ALSO GETS A NATIONAL NOD

Junior Kyle Robinson fresh off a career-performance that featured the righty throwing seven strong innings where he retired 16 of the final 19 batters he faced and recorded a career-best nine strikeouts. After allowing a run in the second, Robinson did not allow anything after that frame.

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 19 batters in his last 15.0 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

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 wasn’t 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).

 

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.

 

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.

 

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders return home for a midweek contest against UTRGV. First pitch from Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park is set for 6:30 p.m.

–TECH–

Release Provided By Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics