Series Details:

Dates: Tuesday, April 5th – Wednesday, April 6th
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (20-8, 8-1)
Bad Guys: Florida State Seminoles (19-6, 7-1)
Location: Mike Martin field at Dick Howser Stadium | Tallahassee, Florida
Game Notes: Preview | PDF
TV/Stream: seminoles.com
Radio/Stream: Broadcast Affiliates

Not a lot of time for a real preview today, but Florida State is good. Very good. This should be a heck of a test for Texas Tech and if they weren’t ready for Oklahoma State this weekend, they will be ready after this two-game series. Those stats by Florida State, especially the strikeout numbers, are danged terrific. Florida State is one of the top 10 teams in the nation and with Texas Tech entering the top 25 yesterday, I hope this is a terrific series. The biggest problem for Texas Tech is that the mid-week starters have their issues (just look at the ERA’s for the two projected starters) and the pitching depth has mainly been one where head coach Tim Tadlock has leaned on a handful of guys for conference games (it seems like each starter is paired with a reliever).

Stats

Probable Starters:

Game 1: Tuesday, April 5th @ 6:00 pm EST
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: LHP Erikson Lanning (1-2, 7.32)
Florida State Starting Pitcher: RHP Drew Carlton (4-1, 3.49)
Final Score & Box Score: Florida State 10, Texas Tech 1 (Recap | Box Score)

Sort of an ugly game for Texas Tech. The offense only managed 4 hits, the defense had 2 errors, by Eric Gutierrez and Tyler Floyd, and the pitching wasn’t exactly stellar either. Starter Erikson Lanning pitched 4.2 innings and allowed 4 runs, 3 earned. Ryan Moseley pitched 0.1 innings and allowed 2 runs, 1 earned, and the rest is just sort of a mess. That’s the problem with this team is that it’s so loaded for the weekend series that the mid-week series are tough on this team in term of depth.

Game 2: Wednesday, April 6th @ 6:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: LHP Ty Damron (2-1, 6.04)
Florida State Starting Pitcher: RHP Cole Sands (3-2, 2.5
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 8, Florida State 4 (Recap | Box Score)

It was a three-headed pitching effort, led by Ty Damron, who got the start, pitching 3.1 innings, giving up 3 hits, 2 runs, both earned, with no walks and 1 strikeout. Robert Dugger pitched 1.2 innings, allowing 2 hits and 1 run with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. Dugger got the win and Hayden Howard pitched the final 4 frames, earning the save, allowing 3 hits, 1 run, walking 5 (!) and striking out 2.

Texas Tech jumped out early, knocking around starter Cole Sands, where the Red Raiders scored 5 runs right out of the gate. The first inning started out with a Stephen Smith double and the offense really didn’t look back. Stephen Smith, Tanner Gardner and Michael Davis all went 2-5 while Eric Gutierrez and Tyler Neslony were each 1-3 with 2 RBI and each had a home run, both their 5th home runs on the year.

Texas Tech now moves on to Stillwater to face Oklahoma State.