Series Details:

Dates: Tuesday, March 1st – Wednesday, March 2nd
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (6-2, 0-0)
Bad Guys: New Mexico State Aggies (5-2, 0-0)
Location: Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park | Lubbock, TX
Game Notes: Preview | PDF
TV/Stream: None
Radio/Stream: Broadcast Affiliates

New Mexico State hosted Towson in Las Cruces for the first three games of the season, winning all three games: 8-5, 17-3 and 9-8. They then hosted Maine for a 4 game stretch where they split the series to go 2-2. I have no idea as to the quality of these wins so the stats might be a bit inflated for New Mexico State. And Texas Tech’s may be a bit inflated too since they won 3 of 4 from Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, Texas Tech is coming off of a pretty good little weekend where the Red Raiders finished 2-1 in the Shriners College Classic, beating two top ten teams, Houston and Louisiana, while losing to No. 18 Arkansas.  All things considered, Texas Tech did well, and for the most part, showed that they’ve got a pretty nice pitching rotation as well as a decent bullpen. The offense is also proving to be a resilient as well as efficient.

Stats

Probable Starters:

Game 1: Tuesday, March 1st @ 6:30 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: LHP Erikson Lanning (1-0, 0.00)
New Mexico State Starting Pitcher: Steven Butts (0-0, 0.00)
Final Score & Box Score: New Mexico 7, Texas Tech 6 (Recap | Box Score)

Texas Tech was down 3-0 before they ever got to bat as starter Erikson Lanning had a rough first inning, and then turned around in the 4th inning and gave up 3 more runs where he finished with a final line of 4 innings, giving up 6 hits, 6 runs, only 5 earned walking 2 and striking out 3. Lanning started out the 5th inning and promptly gave up a double, a single, another double and then was replaced. Robert Dugger, Parker Mushinski and Ryan Shetter pitched in relief, giving up only 1 run (part of that 5th inning) were overall pretty good.

New Mexico went all out to win this game and burned through 6 pitchers to get the win. This worked because New Mexico didn’t allow a hit for the final 3.2 innings.

Cory Raley and Eric Gutierrez both had two hits, Gutierrez had 3 RBI. Offensively, Texas Tech only had 8 hits and 5 RBI, that’s because New Mexico State had 4 errors (and still won the game!) while Texas Tech had 2 errors.

Game 2: Wednesday, March 2nd @ 2:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: TBA
New Mexico State Starting Pitcher: TBA
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 14, New Mexico State 2 (Recap | Box Score)

Welp, Steven Gingery may have earned himself a good look for a rotation spot after he whipped up on New Mexico State. Gingery pitched 5.1 innings, giving up 2 runs, both earned, 4 hits, walking 1 and STRIKING OUT 12. Seriously. Gingery had a rough start in his first game out, but that’s one heck of a recovery. Hayden Howard pitched 2.2 innings, giving up just 2 hits and Jacob Patterson pitched the final frame.

And the bats were alive. Texas Tech had four players hit home runs, and Tyler Neslony went ahead and hit 2 all by himself. Orlando Garcia was 2 for 4 with a home run and 3 RBI. Neslony was 4 for 4 with 2 home runs and 4 RBI. Eric Gutierrez was 3 for 5 with a homer and 2 RBI and Tanner Gardner was 3 for 5 with a home run, an RBI and 3 runs scored.