#21 Texas Tech Red Raiders travel to Austin to face the Texas Longhorns. Preview after the jump.
Texas Tech vs. Texas 
Photo via Charles Henry @ Flickr
Series Details:
Dates: Friday, May 1st – Saturday, May 3rd
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (27-19, 10-8)
Bad Guys: Texas Longhorns (23-22, 8-10)
Location: UFCU Disch-Falk Field | Austin, TX
Game Notes: PDF
TV/Stream: LHN
Radio/Stream: Broadcast Affiliates and TuneIn App
Can’t hit, but boy can they pitch. That’s what Texas is, and you better watch out as the Texas Tech bats have gone quiet, this could get ugly for the Red Raiders, as the Longhorns have three starters with ERA’s under 3 and I can pretty much promise that these will be low-scoring affairs. The Longhorns are hitting .256 as a team, with a .349 OBP and slugging at a rate of .391. That’s not real good. The Longhorns site says that Texas is hitting .209 in Austin with an ERA of 4.90. Maybe that’s a sign of things to come. I should mention that Texas has the 3rd best pitching staff in the conference, with a team ERA of 3.12 and holding opponents to hitting .246.
As for Texas Tech, it’s just not their year. At least it doesn’t feel that way. Two TBD’s in a huge weekend series usually isn’t a good thing and if something is wrong with Cameron Smith, then I don’t know what to tell you other than this year’s version was snake-bit. Too many injuries to overcome and not enough bats.
| Texas Tech | Texas | |
|---|---|---|
| Avg | 0.277 | 0.257 |
| OBP | 0.369 | 0.349 |
| Slug | 0.411 | 0.391 |
| ERA | 3.46 | 3.12 |
| OAvg | 0.261 | 0.246 |
| SO/9 | 7.46 | 6.11 |
| BB/9 | 3.93 | 3.29 |
Probable Starters:
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: RHP Ryan Moseley (3-4, 3.28)
Texas Starting Pitcher: RHP Parker French (2-3, 2.62)
Final Score & Box Score: Texas 3, Texas Tech 0 (recap and box score)
Another game where Texas Tech left a ton on base, 13 total, and 2 more errors and you have yet another loss. No one did anything really poorly, but it wasn’t enough. Ryan Moseley pitched 6 solid innings, giving up 5 hits, 3 runs, walking 1 and striking out 5 is totally acceptable. Matt Withrow pitched the final 2 frames in relief. Texas Tech left me on base early and often, and never took advantage of it. Texas Tech left 3 on base in the 2nd, 2 on base in the 3rd and 2 on base in the 4th. They had UT’s starter on the ropes a handful of times, but could never deliver. Stephen Smith was 2 for 5 and he was your only position player with multi-hit games.
Game 2: Saturday, May 2nd @ 2:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: TBA
Texas Starting Pitcher: LHP Ty Culbreth (3-3, 2.94)
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 9, Texas 1 (recap and box score)
A much different game when Texas Tech has, what has been, an ace pitching, in Cameron Smith, and a grand slam, by Stephen Smith.
The story of the game was Cameron Smith, who pitched a complete game, giving up 7 hits, 1 run, walking 2 and striking out 6. Smith pitched 125 innings, throwing 83 for strikes (that’s really good).
This would be a scoreless game for the first five innings, both pitchers pitching shut-out ball, but Texas Tech would strike in the 6th inning, started by a Michael Davis single, followed by a Cory Raley single and a Zach Davis bunt single to load the bases. Stephen Smith flies out, scoring M. Davis, and then Tyler Neslony did the same thing, flying out to left field, scoring Raley. An Eric Gutierrez single scored Z. Davis and Bryant Burleson doubled to then score Gutierrez.
In the 7th inning, Michael Davis walked to get on base, with Raley then singling to center and Zach Davis bunted to single and then up walks Smith, who blasts a homer to right field. Texas Tech would get an insurance run later in the inning from Orlando Garcia, scoring Gutierrez, who had singled.
Game 3: Sunday, May 3rd @ 1:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: TBA
Texas Starting Pitcher: RHP Connor Mayes (1-3, 2.17)
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 5, Texas 1 (recap and box score)
Dominic Moreno was the man. Without a fully healthy Dylan Dusek and without Corey Taylor, Moreno took to the mound and pitched 6 fantastic innings, allowing 6 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks and striking out 6 in route to earning his 3rd win of the year. Dusek was able to pitch in relief and pitched 1.1 innings while Matt Custred and Matt Withrow finished out the game.
Texas Tech got on board in the 3rd inning with a Tyler Neslony sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Cory Raley, who had started the inning off with a single. In the 5th inning, Zach Davis singled, and advanced to 3rd on a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch. Eric Gutierrez singled, scoring Davis and then Bryant Burleson homered to left field, and that’s all Texas Tech would need to finish the game.