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TEXAS TECH at No. 12 West Virginia
Morgantown, W.Va. | Monogalia County Ballpark
From May 12 to 14, 2023
Texas Tech Game Notes (PDF) | West Virginia Game Notes (PDF)
STARTERS
The final regular season road trip has arrived, and it’s a big one. Bigger by far, but in the Red Raiders’ position in the Big 12 tournament and RPI rankings as they travel to West Virginia. The Mountaineers will provide a tough challenge heading into Friday’s matchup, holding on to first place in the Big 12 standings and ranked 18th in the RPI. All of this is a great opportunity for the Red Raiders to rise in the RPI and shake up the Big 12 rankings with a successful weekend.
Coverage will be provided by ESPN+. The lone broadcast booth from Morgantown will be with Lanny Frattare providing play-by-play throughout the weekend. Using the ESPN app, all broadcasts can be accessed from any desktop or laptop computer, personal cellular device, and television streaming service. Subscription to the subscription service can be found at ESPNPlus.com.
The Texas Tech Sports Network broadcasts the game to more than 46 affiliates across the state of Texas and New Mexico, as well as on the varsity app. Geoff Haxton will have the call with Jamie Lint.
Change of schedule
It was announced Thursday afternoon that Friday’s series opener will begin at 4 pm ET/3 pm CT due to possible rain on Friday evening. It was originally slated to launch at 6:30 pm ET/5:30 pm CT.
Texas Tech nationally
Texas Tech held on to the same three picks this week as it did last week after falling out of the D1Baseball poll at Kansas State 1-2 weeks ago.
- Baseball America: No. 15 (-)
- NCBWA: No. 24 (-)
- American Coaches: No. 25 (-1)
The Big 12 D1Baseball recognizes its major rankings, so when a ranking is needed, Texas Tech is the same as the conference in those situations.
Scheduled pitching matches
- Friday, May 12: LHP Mason Molina (4-2, 4.22 ERA) vs LHP Ben Hampton (5-1, 3.95 ERA)
- Saturday, May 13: RHP Trendan Parish (3-1, 4.65 ERA) over RHP Blaine Traxel (6-4, 3.32 ERA).
- Sunday, May 14: TBA vs RHP Robby Porco (4-1, 7.60 ERA)
Discussion of RPI
As of the Week 10 poll (released April 24), Texas Tech is ranked No. 14 in the D1Baseball poll but No. 66 in the RPI entering its final road series at Kansas State (April 28-30). The Red Raiders dropped that series 1-2 and fell from the rankings but rose to No. 61 in the RPI. After that trip, Texas Tech added four wins and one loss to its resume and jumped to No. 51 in the RPI. A big weekend and a high RPI before starting a weekend series against No. 18 ranked West Virginia.
Why the focus of RPI? The RPI, (Ranking Percentage Index) is heavily factored into the NCAA Tournament selection process at the end of the season when selecting the 64 participants and 16 regional hosts.
- Texas Tech has gone to six-straight regionals and will look for its seventh straight trip in 2023.
KA$H SMASH
Texas Tech Gavin Cash He is having a historically good season for hitting home runs. The sophomore became the sixth Red Raider in program history to hit 20 home runs on April 21 against Baylor. Cash, who finished last, hit his 22nd home run of the season to move into third place in program history for single-season homers, tying him with Jess Jung 21 hits in the 2021 season
- Cash’s 22 home runs are the most by a Red Raider since Joe Dillon hit a streak of 33 in the 1997 season.
High flying disaster
Entering Friday’s game, Tech was ranked atop several national divisions. (NCAA stat report after games played Wednesday, May 10):
group
- No. 4 in Sacrifice Flies (35)
- Number 4 in hits (561)
- Number 9 Doubles (114)
- No. 5 in runs (454)
- No. 6 Walking (303)
- No. 10 in On-Base P.C. (.426)
- No. 10 in runs per game (9.1)
Individual
Happy graduation weekend
three red robbers, Derek Bridges, Dillon Carter And T ColemanTo begin this weekend, they will celebrate their respective graduations at Monogalia County Ballpark instead of United Supermarkets Arena. Bridges and Carter Coleman were at Tech for their college careers when they transferred from Texas A&M. Bridges is an accounting major, Carter is an agricultural education major and Coleman is a university studies major. Bridges is in his third season, Carter in his fourth. Coleman is in his second season at Tech and fifth year overall.
Senior Day is fast approaching.
It’s May, which means the end of the regular season is fast approaching. Senior Day will be held on Saturday, May 20, in the Red Raiders’ regular season finale against Kansas at 2 p.m. Tech will celebrate its six-member senior class prior to the game, which includes Bo Blesse (2nd year at Tech/Midland College/Midland, TX); T Coleman (2nd year at Tech/Texas A&M/Midland, TX); Ethan Combs (1st year at Tech/Lubbock Christian/Roswell, NM); Garrett Crowley (2nd year at Tech/Fordham/Queens, NY); Nolan Hester (1st year at Tech/Wofford/Mount Pleasant, TX) and Zac Voletic (2nd year at Tech/Navarro College/San Antonio, TX).
History of the Texas Tech-West Virginia series
- Friday’s meeting is the 34th between the two programs.
- The head coach of TTU Tim Tadlock and WVU head coach Randy Mazzee, both in their first seasons at the helm of their respective programs.The first head-to-head matchup between the two schools was in the Mountaineers’ 2013 Big 12 season opener.
- In a closely contested series, Texas Tech broke a 15-15 all-time tie last year in Lubbock by winning two of three, 17-16, heading into this weekend’s matchup.
- Tech has won five of the last six seasons against WVU, dating back to 2016.
- Tech is 16-11 in regular season games against WVU.
- Tech is 1-5 against WVU in games played during the Big 12 postseason tournament.
- While Tech has never lost a home series to the Mountaineers; The games at West Virginia State were a different story as the Red Raiders went 7-8 in those games and claimed just two of the five all-time series.
- In West Virginia’s first season in the Big 12 between the two programs in 2013, the matchup was at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston, W.Va., which is approximately 165 miles from WVU’s campus in Morgantown.
- The two played for the first time in 2011. It’s at the newly built Monogalia County Ballpark in 2015. Tech is 6-6 all-time in that building and won their last series played in 2021.
2022 Texas Tech-West Virginia flashback
The Red Raiders and Mountaineers had to wait an extra day to end their series last season when Friday night’s matchup was postponed due to inclement weather and pushed back to a Saturday doubleheader on April 23. The season begins with a two-star complete game in the upcoming MLB draft to dispatch West Virginia, 7-5 and 12-2 (8 inn. run-rule), and win the series in Saturday’s doubleheader. Andrew Morris (fourth round) and Brandon Birdsell (Fifth Round) The dominant performances since 2009 marked the first time since 2009 that Texas Tech had thrown back-to-back complete games. It was a weekend of highs and lows for the Red Raiders as West Virginia responded on Sunday. The final was a 5-4 contest with Texas Tech in the ninth inning. The top half of the 9th inning saw the Mountaineers explode for 10 runs, using eight hits, one of which was a huge hit, in a 15-4 win.
Big 12 Championship
The 2023 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship will be played at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, May 24-28. Visit for information on availability and tickets Big12Sports.com.
–tech–
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