Tech Returns Home, Opens Five-Game Homestand vs. Stanford, Monday and Tuesday
LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech Baseball welcomes Stanford for a two-game midweek series this Monday and Tuesday at Rip Griffin Park.
The series will be the third matchup between the Cardinal and Red Raiders since the 2021 season, as Tech and Stanford met in the 2021 Super Regional in Lubbock as well as a 2023 midweek series in California.
The series against the Cardinal kicks off another five game homestand for the Red Raiders who enter the series 13-3 this season at Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field.
Monday’s series opener is set for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch, with the finale set for a Noon start on Tuesday.
INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (19-9) vs. Stanford (11-13)
DATE: Monday, Apr. 1, 2024
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field (Lubbock, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Jack Washburn (1-1, 6.56 ERA) vs. TBA
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (19-9) vs. Stanford (11-13)
DATE: Tuesday, Apr. 2, 2024
TIME: Noon
LOCATION: Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field (Lubbock, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: LHP Zach Erdman (0-0, 7.11 ERA) vs. TBA
1-2-3 HEADLINES:
* Fresh off a 20-game month of March, the Texas Tech Red Raiders open the month of April with a five-game homestand that includes a two-game midweek series with Stanford as well as a weekend set with new Big 12 foe Houston. Tech’s 20-game month of March is the busiest month of March that Tech has played since the 2022 season when Tech played 21 games in March.
* Texas Tech opens the third month of the season with the midweek series against Stanford. 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 feautres 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).
* The youth on the Red Raider squad was on full display in Saturday’s 3-2 victory over UCF, as 8.1 of Tech’s nine innings pitched came from Freshman. Mac Heuer threw 5.2 of those innings allowing just one run. Heuer’s classmate Parker Hutyra handled the next inning and two-thirds and didn’t allow a run. The three freshman arm that game in was Cole Kaase, who retired all three batters he faced for his first save. The success by the freshmen wasn’t limited to the mound, as Landon Stripling also drove in the game-winning run.
FIRST TIME SINCE THE SUPERS
The Red Raiders and Cardinal will meet in Lubbock for the first time since the 2021 season when Stanford traveled to Lubbock to face the Red Raiders in the 2021 Super Regionals. The Cardinal won both games of that Super Regional, defeating Tech 15-3 and 9-0 to advance to Omaha. The Supers loss to the Cardinal marks the lone time that Tech has been defeated at home in Super Regionals. The 2021 Super Regional marks the only time that Stanford has played in Lubbock.
CALI LAST, LBK THIS
This two-game series against Stanford is the return trip of a home-and-home that was scheduled last year. The Red Raiders and Cardinal will now have met in the three of the last four seasons, and four of the last five years after playing just once before, a three-game series in Wichita in 1995. The Red Raiders and Cardinal split a two-game series in the Bay area last season.
BACK AGAINST THE PAC
After facing off with Oregon State earlier in the season in Arlington, the Red Raiders will once again do battle against a member of the Pac-12 Conference in Stanford. Following this week’s two-game series against the Cardinal, the Red Raiders will see a third Pac-12 team in last May when they head to Tempe to face Arizona State in a three-game round-robin tournament that will feature a pair of matchups against Arizona State and a matchup against UNLV.
BACK AGAINST THE PAC
After facing off with Oregon State earlier in the season in Arlington, the Red Raiders will once again do battle against a member of the Pac-12 Conference in Stanford. Following this week’s two-game series against the Cardinal, the Red Raiders will see a third Pac-12 team in last May when they head to Tempe to face Arizona State in a three-game round-robin tournament that will feature a pair of matchups against Arizona State and a matchup against UNLV.
P5 at the Rip
When Tech plays host to Stanford this week for the midweek two game series it will mark the first time the Red Raiders have hosted a Power Five opponent since Iowa last March 10-12. The two games against the Cardinal will mark the first time since 2017 that Tech has welcomed a Power Five opponent to Rip Griffin Park for a non-weekend series. That season the Red Raiders hosted Arizona for a single game on Tuesday Mar. 7. The Red Raiders won that contest 13-1. The only other P5 opponent to make a midweek trip to Rip Griffin Park in the Tim Tadlock era was Arizona State in 2013. The Red Raiders defeated the 20th-ranked Sun Devils for the first home P5 victory of the Tim Tadlock Era. Ironically enough, this week’s series against Stanford will the first midweek Power Five series at home since 1991 when Tech welcomed Nebraska to Lubbock for a two game series. The 1991 Red Raider squad featured a middle infielder by the name of Tim Tadlock. Tadlock of course will be in the dugout as the skipper of the Red Raiders this week.
START OF A FIVE-GAME HOMESTAND
The midweek series versus Stanford will mark the start of another five-game homestand for the Red Raiders. The homestand is the fourth and final homestand of at least five games that Tech will play 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.
1 from 440
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 439th career win at Texas Tech in Saturday’s win at UCF, meaning Tadlock needs just one more win to become the second coach in program history to reach 440 career wins at Tech, joining his college coach Larry Hays. Tadlock has a career .660 winning percentage, the best in program history.
HEATIN’ UP ON THE MOUND
Coming off a weekend series where they allowed just nine runs in three games in Orlando, the Red Raider arms continue to shine over the last eight games, as Tech has allowed just 29 overall runs (3.6 per-game) and 26 earned runs in the last 70 innings. The Red Raiders have pitched to a 3.34 ERA over the last eight games. When you expand it out include the midweek game against ACU and the weekend series against Baylor, the Red Raiders have allowed just 45 total runs in the last 12 games (3.8/G). The 12 game ERA sits at 4.50.
WASH UNDER THE LIGHTS
After starting on the weekend for the first six weeks of the season, junior Jack Washburn did not start this past weekend against UCF and will instead throw Monday night against Stanford. And whil it will be his seventh apperance and start, Washburn has yet to pitch at night, as the Webster native threw during the afternoon in all six of his starts this season. Despite pitching in the Pac-12 for a pair of seasons at Oregon State, Washburn has never faced Stanford in his career. Washburn last started/appeared in a game last Saturday against BYU, as the righty lasted four innings and allowed just one run to the Cougars.
BRAVO. DAMIAN BRAVO.
Damian Bravo has been suburb in his second season in Lubbock, as the Sophomore has hit a team-best .426 over the season’s first 26 games. Bravo has also recorded and on-base percentage of .492 and has a team-best 31 RBIs and 16 doubles. More importantly, Bravo has driven in at least one run in 17 of his 26 games played. Bravo driving in a run has been good for the Red Raiders as Tech is an impressive 16-1 when the outfielder contributes at least one RBI. The lone contest the Red Raiders didnt win this season was Friday against UT when Bravo homered in the fourth. B
RUNNIN’ RUNNIN’
The Red Raiders have clearly been aggressive on the basepaths this season, as the club has now stolen 32 bases in just 28 games played. The Red Raiders have been caught just once, last Saturday against BYU. The caught stealing broke a streak of 28 consecutive bags to start the year. Tech is the only team in NCAA D1 with at least 30 bags stolen and fewer than two caught stealing’s. The Red Raiders started the season 28-for-28 on SBs and are the only team in the country with more than 20 bases stolen and just one 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 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.
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.
MCGEES BEEN ON BASE AND HIT A LOT
Former Freshman All-American and Gonzaga transfer Cade McGee continues to provide a different and unique approach to the lineup this season. McGee has played and started in every game yet only has recorded 88 official at-bats because he has walked 23 times and been hit by 17 pitches. When you add it up, McGee has come to the plate 128 times through the first 28 games of the season and he has reached base safely in 63 of those at-bats. His on-base percentage sits at .485.
TPs BEEN ON FIRE
Junior reliever Tredan Parish has been on fire in his last two apperances as the righty has now pitched six-straight scoreless innings and has not allowed a run in seven of his last nine apperances. Last week against SFA, Parish pitched 3.2 strong innings and recorded six punchouts to eanr his second victory of the season. On 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 18.2 innings pitched. Parish has allowed just seven walks in the 18.2 innings pitched.
WIN NO. 300
Tuesday’s midweek win over Stephen F. Austin was one for the history books, as the Red Raiders won their 300th all-time game at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park. Renovated in 2012, the Red Raiders have a 300-89 all-time record at The Rip (.771).
ONE AND ONE AND ONE
All three games this weekend in Orlando 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. The three-straight one-run contests marks 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.
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 scorless. 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 needeed 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.
HERE COMES BAZZ
After missing night 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 IUCF and now has six RBIs and two homers in his last five games played. Bazzell started just 3-for-19 in his return to action (three-games at Baylor, ACU, BYU 3/23), but has since gone 7-for-19.
UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders will welcome Houston for the first all-time Big 12 Conference weekend series between the in-state foes. First pitch on Friday night is set for 6:30 p.m.
ched base in all-six at-bats, going 4-for-4 with five runs scored, four RBIs and his first home run of the season.
Release provided by Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics
