Texas Tech had a successful weekend against Maine for their season opener. The Red Raiders outscored the Black Bears 49-15 on the series, including three double digit games and two double digit wins. There were a lot of positives to take away from the weekend, and one really bad negative. But first, let’s discuss the Chutes and Ladders of this past weekend:

Ladders:

• Josh Jung — Everybody expected Jung to be the best positional player for the Red Raiders this year, and he lived up to that this weekend. Josh hit .588/.650/1.176 with 10 RBIs and seven runs scored, with always superb defense. The most impressive part was the power. He hit three HRs, got robbed of a fourth due to high winds and could’ve had a couple more if they stayed fair. Jung had six HRs all of last season.
• Grant Little — Jung was obviously the player of the weekend, but Grant wasn’t that far behind. The sophomore hit .538/.684/1.077 with six RBIs and eight runs scored. He had four extra base hits and two stolen bases as well.
• Gabe Holt — We told y’all about his guy for a while. Now that y’all have seen him for a weekend series, it’s time to get on the hype train. Power? Holt had a HR and three other extra base hits. Speed? Holt went 3-3 stealing bases. Contact? He hit .500/.579/.938 with six RBIs and five runs scored. Defense? No errors on the weekend. He’s good folks.
• John McMillon (Pitcher) — In his first career start, McMillon went 5.0 IP, seven strikeouts and just two hits allowed. Although he walked four batters and allowed two runs (only one of them earned), I’m sure a lot of people will take that out of a Sunday starter.
• Cody Farhat — Farhat didn’t lose a step from his first team All-Big 12 selection last season. The center fielder made a lot of plays in the outfield looks easy. He almost robbed a home run from Jeremy Pena, but it bounced off his glove. He also hit .308 with six RBIs and five runs.
• Cameron Warren’s Bat — After struggling a lot last season, Warren opened his season by batting .500/.737/.875 with three RBIs and four runs scored. Good start to the season for the junior.
• Home Runs — This weekend the Red Raiders hit seven home runs, just under two home runs a game. That’s on pace for nearly 100 home runs on the season. Although this likely won’t keep pace, it’s a good start for a team that hit under one home run per game last season.
• Bullpen Pieces — Dylan Dusek and Ty Harpenau did a great job replacing Gingery in Game 2. Jose Quezada, Caleb Kilian and Caleb Freeman also did a nice job. All these guys allowed zero runs in multiple innings pitched, except for Dusek who just allowed one in 2.2 innings.

Chutes:

• Connor Beck — The senior had a rough weekend in right field. Beck batted .133/.278 with two runs and two RBIs. On the bright side, Beck had a 1.000 fielding percentage. With the competition that we expect at right field this season, it’s not the best start for him.
• John McMillon (Batter) — Although McMillon did well on the mound, he under performed at the plate. Like last year, McMillon struck out in his two at-bats. However, maybe he can improve some, as he did have a HBP and walk in his final plate appearance.
• Ryan Shetter — In his lone appearance out of the bullpen, Shetter struggled to find the strike zone. However, he only ended up allowing one run and got out a jam. He’ll have a chance to redeem himself today against New Mexico State.
• Erikson Lanning — Lanning was the lone starter to struggled his weekend. After Tech took a 10-0 lead, Lanning let up six runs in the third inning and did not complete the inning. Only four of those were earned due to an error on Michael Davis, but that’s not something you want out of your starter.
• Cameron Warren’s Body — Even though it gives you a free base, a hit by pitch usually means a ball in the 80’s or 90’s to the body. For Warren this past weekend, it meant six balls to the body. Ouch. This includes four HBPs on Sunday. If striking out four times is a Golden Sombrero, is four HBPs a Golden Spur?
• Brian Klein — In his two starts, Klein failed to record a base hit until his second to last at-bat. He reached base two other times, including a bases loaded walk.

Notes:

• Steven Gingery left Game 2 in the third inning. After striking out an opponent, he motioned to the dugout to take a look at him. We learned Monday that he tore his UCL and his out for the season. And seeing that he was a projected first round pick before the injury, that is likely the last we’ll see from Gingery in a Tech uniform.
• Eight players started every single day for the Red Raiders: Cameron Warren, Gabe Holt, Michael Davis, Josh Jung, Grant Little, Cody Farhat, Connor Beck and Clay Koelzer. Others getting starts were Brian Klein, John McMillon and Braxton Fulford.
• Gabe Holt was definitely had the most impact as a newcomer, but others did well also. KC Simonich recorded four RBIs and two hits in his first three at-bats, Kurt Wilson threw 1.1 innings and recorded a run, and Braxton Fulford recorded a triple and scored two runs. Richard Gilbert, Nick Candelari and Ryan Sublette did well too.
• Jeremy Pena from Maine is quite a player. He went .294 with two RBIs and five runs scored, which includes a home run and great defense. Not bad playing against a Top 5 team in the country.

Around the Big 12:

In baseball news around the Big 12, some teams had great weekends, while others did not:

• Texas — The Longhorns went 2-1 during the weekend, which includes a walk-off win, where they hosted Louisiana Lafayette. The Ragin Cajuns weren’t as good last year as year’s past, but still a solid team. Probably wanted to do better, however
• TCU — The Horn Frogs defeated the Sun Belt regular season winner 2-1, but they had struggles as well. They had to come from behind late to win their opener, and fell in 12 innings after being behind by five runs in Game 3 and blowing a two run extra inning lead.
• Oklahoma — The Sooner only wen 1-3 this past weekend while playing some quality. They defeated ranked Indiana before falling to future Tech opponent South Alabama in extras, former CWS champs Coastal Carolina in extras and a blow out against Virginia Tech.
• West Virginia — The Mountaineers fell to Jacksonville in a stunner over the weekend. Although Jacksonville won the Atlantic Sun last season, they didn’t make the NCAA tournament and were not supposed to win this series.
• Baylor — The Bears went 2-1 against a Houston Baptist squad that finished fourth in the Southland Conference. The big story was Cody Bradford allowing just one hit in eight innings, including eight K’s.
• Oklahoma State — The Cowboys traveled to San Marcos and were able to pull out a win against Texas State. The Bobcats finished below .500 last season and nearly took the series against Oklahoma State, but at least outscored the Cowboys on the weekend.
• Kansas — The Jayhawks hosted Murray State and took two out of three from the Racers. Murray State finished below .500 last season and scored the same amount of goals as Kansas this series.
• Kansas State — The Wildcats were swept by Indiana, South Alabama and Coastal Carolina over the weekend. Some good teams, two of the games weren’t really close and you expect to at least win one. Not a good weekend for Kansas State.

Bonus: Music Selection:

For some reason, I like finding out the walk-up and warm-up songs to Tech’s players. It gets a little insight to what they like and the right song can not only pump up the hitter, but the crowd. Here are some walk-up and warm-up songs I took away from the weekend:

Personal Favorites: My favorites are The Pretender and Good Life. Both songs were big around the time I started liking modern music and I was a huge fan of both of those songs. And considering both Warren and Farhat are just a couple years younger than me, it makes sense for them too.

Josh Jung and Steven Gingery didn’t change their songs. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it (I like both those songs by the way). Jose Quezada stays with a early to mid 2000’s pop with a Gwen Stefani song (Fergie last year), and Grant Little and Brian Klein not surprisingly stay with a rap and christian song, respectively.

If you have any questions you would like me to answer, don’t be afraid to ask below.