Series Details:
Dates: Friday, April 8th – Sunday, April 10th
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (21-9, 8-1)
Bad Guys: Oklahoma State Cowboys (19-9, 4-2)
Location: Allie P. Reynolds Stadium | Stillwater, Oklahoma
Game Notes: Preview | PDF
TV/Stream: Friday – FOX Sports Southwest Plus | Saturday – None | Sunday – FOX College Sports
Radio/Stream: Broadcast Affiliates
A big series for both teams. Oklahoma State has a terrific pitching staff, but their hitting lags behind signicantly and as noted below, I think even Oklahoma State knows that it isn’t up to par. Texas Tech is on a bit of a roll, sweeping Oklahoma and Kansas State, while splitting two games at Florida State, they’re looking really good. The pitching could be better, but I think Tim Tadlock and pitching coach Ray Hayward have done a masterful job of figuring out how to make this staff work, which is unique to how things worked compared to last year.
And to give an idea as to how important this series is, Baseball American’s Teddy Cahill previewed the series. The whole article is good, but here’s a bit:
On the other side, Texas Tech has been relying on an all-freshman rotation of Davis Martin (4-0, 1.65), Steven Gingery (3-1, 2.96) and Ty Harpenau (0-0, 5.91). The righthander Martin shows the best stuff of the group, topping out at 94-95 mph, but all three have shown the ability to command the fastball and uncommon feel for the craft given their ages. They’ll deal with an OSU offense that’s endured some slow starts and injuries—star shortstop Donnie Walton was limited last weekend after fouling a ball off his foot but should be back to speed by Friday—but nonetheless is second to Tech in the league in home runs (24) and ranks fourth in scoring (5.6 runs per game).
“Certainly, I would’ve told you that I envisioned a more complete offensive package than what we’ve seen to this point,” Holliday said, “but we have had some guys be really clutch. . . . It’s just a matter of getting everybody going at the same time and putting consistent weeks, consistent weekends together throughout conference play and handling some of the better pitching we’re going to see.”
Stats
| Avg | .292 | .241 |
| OBP | .396 | .356 |
| SLG | .441 | .386 |
| ERA | 4.11 | 2.33 |
| OAvg | .261 | .222 |
| SO/9 | 7.24 | 8.53 |
| BB/9 | 4.07 | 4.23 |
| FLD% | .970 | .971 |
Probable Starters:
Game 1: Friday, April 8th @ 6:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: RHP Davis Martin (4-0, 1.65)
Oklahoma State Starting Pitcher: RHP Thomas Hatch (2-0, 1.84)
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 5, Oklahoma State 1 (recap | box score)
Pretty terrific win on a couple of levels. Davis Martin took the hill and pitched really well, going 4.1 innings, giving up 7 hits, 1 run, walking 1 and striking out 6, and in a surprise (at least for me) Ryan Moseley may be back as he pitched the final 4.2 frames, earning the win, giving up just 1 hit, walking 3 and striking out 4. That’s your win right there. Two pretty dominant pitching performances as both Martin and Moseley both threw 60% of their pitches for strikes.
Oklahoma State struck first in the first inning scoring a run while Texas Tech didn’t answer until the third inning playing a little small ball, an Orlando Garcia walk started the inning, a single, a sacrifice bunt to move Garcia to third and a Stephen Smith ground out scored Garcia. But Texas Tech wouldn’t break the game open until the 7th inning where Tyler Neslony walked to start the inning and Zach Davis pinch ran for Neslony, while Garcia bunts to move Zach along. Michael Davis came up with a huge single to score Zach. Tyler Floyd bunted to get on base and moving Michael along, while a Stephen Smith ground out advanced the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Trey Ochoa singles to left field scoring both Michael and Floyd.
Tyler Floyd was 3-3 on the day, while freshman Trey Ochoa came up huge for Texas Tech, going 1-4 with 2 RBI. By the way, Ochoa is 5’6″/150. Michael Davis was 2-4 with an RBI.
Game 2: Saturday, April 9th @ 3:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: LHP Steven Gingery (3-1, 2.96)
Oklahoma State Starting Pitcher: RHP Trey Cobb (3-4, 2.78)
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 8, Oklahoma State 2 (recap | box score)
Another solid pitching performance by freshman Steven Gingery, who went 4.0 innings, giving up 5 hits, 1 run, walking none and striking out 4. Robert Dugger got the win, going 3.1 innings and giving up 4 hits, 1 run, walking none and striking out 3. Hayden Howard pitched the final 1.2 innings without a blemish and striking out 1. That’s 8 strikeouts and no walks on those pitchers. Pretty good day.
The Texas Tech offense jumped on Oklahoma State early and nibbled all day, scoring runs in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th innings. Cory Raley was 4-5 on the day with 4 RBI. Stephen Smith was 2-4, scoring a run, Tanner Gardner was 2-3 with an RBI and scoring 2 and Tyler Neslony was 2-4.
Game 3: Sunday, April 10th @ 1:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: RHP Ty Harpenau (2-1, 5.96)
Oklahoma State Starting Pitcher: RHP Jensen Elliott (3-1, 1.82)
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 15, Oklahoma State 5 (recap | box score)
Sweep!
Another good pitching performance by Ty Harpenau, who earned his first win of the year, going 4.2 innings, allowing 5 hits, 5 runs, 3 earned, walking 3 and striking out 1. Harpenau hasn’t pitched great, so this was a good start for Harpenau. Ryan Shetter only recorded 1 out, but allowed 3 hits and a run in doing so. Hayden Howard pitched the final 2.0 innings, allowing 4 hits, 1 run and walking none while striking out 1.
That’s only 7 innings because Texas Tech flipping run-ruled Oklahoma State.
The offense recorded 18 hits, 14 RBI and it was the meat of the order that produced big time. Michael Davis was 3-4 with 7, yes 7, RBI, but check out these stats:
Cory Raley: 3-5 with 2 RBI, including a home run
Tyler Neslony: 3-5, scoring 3 runs
Eric Gutierrez: 3-4, scoring 3 runs
Kholeton Sanchez: 2-3, 2 RBI