Series Details:
Dates: Friday, April 15th – Sunday, April 17th
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (26-9, 11-1)
Bad Guys: San Diego State Aztecs (10-20, 4-8)
Location: Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park | Lubbock, Texas
Game Notes: Preview | PDF
TV/Stream: TexasTech.TV
Radio/Stream: Broadcast Affiliates
I really don’t know how much baseball this team will be able to play this weekend. I’m guessing that today won’t be a problem, but it might be a problem tomorrow and certainly on Sunday. Either way, this is a bit of a strange weekend because Texas Tech playing a non-conference opponent during what is normally conference play.
In any event, San Diego State isn’t a very good team right now, sitting at a 4-8 record in conference play and 10-20 overall. Meanwhile, Texas Tech is flat out rolling. Texas Tech is 20-3 over their last 23 games. The three losses were to Baylor (still won the series), UNLV (split the two-game series) and Florida State (split that two-game series as well). The hitting has been outstanding, 2nd in the Big 12 to TCU and the pitching has stayed right around that 4.00 ERA, but when you’re a team that scores as many runs as they do, it doesn’t matter. As an aside, the run differential between runs scored and runs allowed for Texas Tech is +107 (272 runs scored and 165 runs allowed). TCU is sitting at +145 and no other Big 12 is even close. The next closes team to TCU and Texas Tech is Oklahoma State, who is sitting at +48.
Stats
| Avg | .303 | .275 |
| OBP | .406 | .344 |
| SLG | .463 | .385 |
| ERA | 4.01 | 5.01 |
| OAvg | .259 | .291 |
| SO/9 | 7.28 | 6.42 |
| BB/9 | 3.91 | 2.84 |
| FLD% | .973 | .961 |
Probable Starters:
Game 1: Friday, April 15th @ 12:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: RHP Davis Martin (4-0, 1.70)
San Diego State Starting Pitcher: RHP Harrison Pyatt (0-2, 3.54)
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 3, San Diego State 1 (recap | box score)
A ridiculously clean game, played in under 2 hours and seeing how Davis Martin pitches, that’s not a huge surprise. He gets after it. Martin earned his 5th win of the year going 6 innings, giving up 9 hits, 1 run, walking none and striking out 1. Martin threw 61 of his 90 pitches for strikes. Hayden Howard earned his 5th save of the year, pitching the last 3 innings without giving up a hit or walking anyone and striking out 4.
San Diego State scored first in the 5th inning, but Texas Tech responded, on a Stephen Smith single to center scoring Orlando Garcia and Eric Gutierrez. Texas Tech would score one more run in the 6th inning on a Michael Davis single that scored Gutierrez again. Stephen Smith was 2-4 with those 2 RBI. Tyler Neslony and Gutierrez were 1-3, while Garcia was 1-1 with 2 walks.
Game 2: Saturday, April 16th @ 12:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: LHP Steven Gingery (2-1, 3.79)
San Diego State Starting Pitcher: LHP Marcus Reyes (0-3, 6.60)
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 10, San Diego State 0 (recap | box score)
Ryan Shetter gets his first start of the year and did wonderfully, earning his 3rd win of the year, going 5.2 innings, allowing 3 hits, no runs, 1 walk and striking out 2. Parker Mushinski came in relief, going 1.1 innings, allowing a hit and striking out 1. Jacob Patterson went the final 2.0 frames, allowing 2 hits, walking 1 and striking out 1. Collectively, that’s just 6 hits, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts.
A huge day for Stephen Smith, going 3-5 with 4 RBI, including a home run. Eric Gutierrez was 2-4 with an RBI and a home run. Cory Raley was 2-5 and Michael Davis was 4-5 with an RBI and scoring 3 runs.
Game 3: Sunday, April 17th @ 11:30 am
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: RHP Ty Harpenau (1-0, 5.88)
San Diego State Starting Pitcher: RHP Cody Thompson (1-5, 5.86)
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 7, San Diego State 2 (recap | box score
Ty Harpenau got the start, but he didn’t pitch all that long, going on 3 innings, walking 3 and striking out 1. Robert Dugger only pitched 1.2 innings, but he allowed the only two runs. Ryan Moseley pitched 3.1 innings on the day, not allowing a hit, walking 2 and striking out 1, while earning his 4th win of the year. Dalton Brown pitched the final frame, allowing just a hit, a walk and a strikeout. Stephen Smith continues to roll. It seems like he’s hitting everything at the top of the order. Smith went 3-4 with a walk and Tanner Gardner was 3-4 with a run and an RBI. Michael Davis was 2-3 with 2 runs and 2 RBI. Tyler Floyd was 2-3 with 2 runs scored and an RBI.
That’s 9 straight wins for this team. Over the past 23 games, this team is 20-3. This week is a two-game series with New Mexico, in Albuquerque, and then hosting Texas on the weekend.