Texas Tech Heads to Arkansas for Midweek Series at No. 2 Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Texas Tech Baseball program closes out a six-game road trip this Tuesday and Wednesday when they head to Fayetteville to face No. 2 Arkansas this Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday’s series opener will be televised live on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. with Wednesday series finale set for a 4 p.m. first pitch on SEC Network. Both games will be broadcast by ESPNs top college baseball announcing crew of Karl Ravech and Kyle Peterson.

INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:

MATCHUP: Texas Tech (26-11) at No. 2 Arkansas (30-5)
DATE: Tuesday, Apr. 16, 2024
TIME: 7 p.m.
TV: Espn2
LOCATION: Baum-Walker Stadium (Fayetteville, Ark.)
PITCHING MATCHUP: LHP Zach Erdman (0-0, 7.24 ER) vs. RHP Ben Bybee (2-0, 1.00 ERA)

MATCHUP: Texas Tech (26-11) at No. 2 Arkansas (30-5)
DATE: Wednesday, Apr. 17, 2024
TIME: 4 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
LOCATION: Baum-Walker Stadium (Fayetteville, Ark.)
PITCHING MATCHUP: TBA vs. TBA

1-2-3 HEADLINES:

* The Red Raiders close an eight-day, six game and three city road trip this Tuesday and Wednesday at Arkansas. In the first matchup between the two former Southwest Conference foes in Fayetteville since, the Red Raiders and Razorbacks will meet for multiple matchups for the first time since 1991. The Razorbacks enter the matchup this week ranked No. 2 in the D1Baseball poll, marking the highest ranked opponent the Red Raiders have faced this season. Tech has played No. 7 Oregon State, No. 9 Tennessee and No. 24 Texas previously.

* The Red Raiders will look to rebound this week in Arkansas after a tough series lost at TCU that included a pair of Saturday and Sunday losses after a 7-1 Friday win. On Saturday the Red Raiders fell 4-2 before dropping a 4-3 contest on Sunday. In both games Tech had a chance to tie or take the lead, as in both contests the Red Raiders had the first runners on base with nobody out.

* In Abilene on Wednesday night, the Red Raiders continued to swing the bats well, as the offense exploded for 21 runs, 17 hits and a school-record 9 home runs in a 21-3 run-rule win over ACU. The Red Raiders had four different players hit multiple home runs on the game. The Red Raiders became the first Big 12 squad since at least 2011 to have four players with two or more home runs in a game, while Tech’s nine total home runs are the most by a Big 12 team since OSU had 12 home runs in 2019. The Red Raiders are just the second-team Big 12 team since 2003 to hit nine or more homers in the same game.

NOTES:

FIRST TIME IN A WHILE

Former rivals dating back to the old Southwest Conference days, the Red Raiders will play Arkansas in Fayetteville for the first time since 2018 and for just the second time since 1990. As previously mentioned the Red Raiders and Razorbacks did spend time as conference foes dating back to the SWC days. Tech and Arkansas did meet every other year from 1974-1990.

BACK TO BACK IN OMAHA

Minus a 2021 matchup in Arlington, the last two matchups prior between Arkansas and Tech occurred in Omaha at the College World Series in 2018 and 2019. The Red Raiders fell to Arkansas in 2018 before rebounding for a 5-4 win over the Hogs in 2019.

FAMILIAR FACES ARE NOW WITH THEM

The Red Raiders and Razorbacks have had multiple players who have played for both schools , as former outfielder Easton Murrell began his career in Fayetteville before transferring to Lubbock to play his last three seasons. On the Tech to Arkansas side, there are a pair of former Red Raiders who have seen transfered to Arkansas as LHP Mason Molina and C Hudson White both arrived at Arkansas prior to the start of the 2023-24 season. Molina has assumed a weekend starter role for Arkansas after spending two seasons at Tech while White is one of the Razorbacks catchers. Molina has pitched to a perfect 3-0 record with 3.32 ERA while White has hit .247 in 24 games played.

SEC AGAIN

After opening the year with Tennessee, the Red Raiders will once again face a memeber school of the SEC in Arkansas. The matchup with Arkansas is the first matchup against the SEC since opening night in Arlington. The Red Raiders have also played matchups against the Big 10 and Pac-12 this season in addition to their normal Big 12 matchups.

LEAVING THE STATE

After spending the first 11 games of the season in the State of Texas, and playing 33 of the first 37 games in the State of Texas (@UNM, UCF) the Red Raiders will play a pair of games this weekend in Arkansas. The games this week begins a stretch of five of the next nine games in a state other than Texas. Following the midweek series at Arkansas the Red Raiders will return home for four games before heading to Kansas next weekend. The Red Raiders final four road series (Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma State and Arizona State) will all be outside the State of Texas.

BEEN A TRIP

Originally scheduled to play Abilene in Abilene last Tuesday (Apr. 9), the Red Raiders contest was instead postponed until Apr. 10. As a result, the Red Raiders left on Wednesday for the season’s longest road trip (eight days) of the season. After playing Wednesday night in Abilene, the Red Raiders made the short journey across I-20 and headed to Fort Worth for a weekend series at TCU. Following the series against the Frogs, Tech made the over five-hour journey on Monday to Fayetteville where they will of course play a pair of games against Arkansas before returning home to Rip Griffin Park for a weekend set with WVU. In total the Red Raiders have traveled nearly 700 miles (676) to get from Lubbock to Abilene to Fort Worth and to Fayetteville.

P5s ALL WEEK FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS MONTH

For the second time in three weeks the Red Raiders will face five games against Power Five opponents. The last time Tech played all P5 opponents in a week was the first week of April (1-7) when Tech played host to Stanford (Apr. 1-2) and Houston (Apr. 5-7). This week, the Red Raiders will play at Arkansas (Apr. 16-17) before returning home for a weekend series with WVU (Apr. 19-21). Tech went a perfect 5-0 two weeks ago against Stanford and Houston.

HIGHEST RANKED SINCE UF IN NCAAs

The Red Raiders will face the No. 2 Arkansas this week, as the Razorbacks will become the highest-ranked opponent that Tech has faced since the NCAA Regionals last season in Gainesville when Tech faced No. 2 Florida three times. The Red Raiders defeated the Gators in the “1-0” game before falling twice in the regional final.

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.

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 .457 over the season’s first 34 games. Bravo has also recorded and on-base percentage of .510 and has a team-best 39 RBIs and 19 doubles. Bravo entered the week as the only player in the country with at least 55 hits and 45 runs scored 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 week, and scored 12 runs. Bravo has a team-best 18 multiple-hit games and 10 multiple RBI games. Entering the weekend he has a six-game hitting streak.

RUNNIN’ RUNNIN’
The Red Raiders have clearly been aggressive on the base-paths this season, as the club has now stolen 36 bases in just 37 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 three times and already have stolen eight more bases than 2023.

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 18 hits and eight runs (six earned). Sanders has now struck out 33 batters in his 30.0 innings of work. Hitters are hitting just .167 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 five appearances (10.2 inning) and has allowed just four hits in those five outings. Sanders pitched 4.1 scoreless last weekend against TCU.

HUGETYRA
Freshman Parker Hutyra has really emerged in his first collegiate season as the freshman has allowed just one run in 13 appearances and 20.1 innings pitched. Hutyra has struck out 22 batters this season, and has not allowed a run since Feb. 21 vs. Oregon State. That stretches 18.1 innings and includes five straight key outings against BYU, UCF, Stanford and TCU. The righty has struck out 15 batters in his last 11.1 innings pitched. Prior to Sunday’s appearance in a loss the Red Raiders had won six straight games he’d appeared in. Overall the Red Raiders are 9-4 in his 13 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.

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 three times (at Baylor, UCF and TCU. Following a loss this season the Red Raiders are 7-3 this season.

IT HAD TO END AT SOME POINT
Entering Saturday’s contest having won eight straight overall and five straight Big 12 games the Red Raiders fell 4-2 on Saturday. Over the eight game winning streak which started with the Red Raiders sweeping Stanford in a midweek series and Houston in a Big 12 weekend set, the Red Raiders dropped back-to-back tight games at TCU.

READY FOR A HUGE WEEK AND STRETCH
The two game midweek series against No. 2 Arkansas kicks off another critical week for the Red Raiders who will return home later in the week for a three-game set with No. 22 WVU who currently resides in first place in the crowded Big 12 standings. In fact the Red Raiders after last weekends series have just four Big 12 series remaining (WVU, @KU, OU, @OSU). Each large in its own right, the four remaining series could easily decide the outcome of Tech’s season as they come against the No. 1 (WVU/OU), No. 3 (OSU) and No. 8 (KU) teams in the Big 12 standings. Arkansas and WVU both enter the week on long streaks, as Arkansas rides a 23-game home winning streak while WVU enters the weekend having won seven straight Big 12 games. Arkansas is 25-1 this season at home and has won 14 straight non-conference games. The Razorbacks 23 game winning streak is the second-longest streak in the country behind UNC (27). The Red Raiders also have a similar home streak, as Tech has won eight straight since a loss to BYU back on Mar. 21. Tech enters the week at 36 in the RPI and will face No. 6 Arkansas and No. 27 WVU this week. In addition to the five matchups this week against Arkansas (No. 2 RPI) and WVU (No. 27 RPI), the Red Raiders still have a home series with No. 20 Oklahoma as well as a road series with No. 23 Oklahoma State and No. 92 Kansas.

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders return home this weekend for a three-game series with No. 22 West Virginia. First pitch from Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park is set for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.

–TECH–

Release Provided by Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics