Texas Tech baseball is in Norman for a weekend series against Oklahoma with all games being on ESPN+. As always, follow Keith at Red Raider Dugout for updates through the weekend.

• Friday, April 14 @ 6:30 p.m.: LHP Mason Molina (3-2, 4.02 ERA) vs. LHP James Hitt (2-0, 4.25 ERA)
• Saturday, April 15 @ 4:00 p.m.: RHP Trendan Parish (2-0, 4.60 ERA) vs. TBA
• Sunday, April 16 @ 2:00 p.m.: TBA vs LHP Braden Carmichael (1-0, 3.00 ERA)

Pop Isaacs announced on Twitter that he would return for his sophomore year, this makes the second player, Robert Jennings being the other, who announced they would return for 2023-24. This is good news and Isaacs is going to get better and this is going to sound crazy, but I think Isaacs needs to work on his fitness as he would start out on fire, but fade. He expends so much energy because he’s a high-energy player, but he has to work on sustaining that intensity.

Year 2.. West Texas , let’s do it 🤞🏽 pic.twitter.com/8g4cvrWowI

— Pop 🏀 (@poppop_5) April 13, 2023

Sachse outside linebacker Cheta Ofili (6-4/220) committed to Texas Tech on Wednesday. Ofili had offers from North Texas, Arkansas State, Texas State, Vanderbilt, Tulane, SMU, Ole Miss, California and Purdue. A true rush end, long, lean and fast. Red Raider Sports’ Ben Golan spoke with Ofili on his commitment:

“From the start I knew Texas Tech was the right fit for me but I just wanted to keep my options open, see what’s it like. But Texas Tech, they showed love from the start. There wasn’t a day that they wouldn’t hit me up to see how I was doing. And just like the environment, all they was telling me over there, it’s just overall (a great place).”

Lubbock Avalanche Journal’s Don Williams with the news that Texas Tech is going to add an LED lighting system and new artificial turf:

The Tech University System Board of Regents approved both projects in February, and Tech athletics said in an announcement Thursday that both will be completed in time for the 2023 season. The lighting system will cost about $1.2 million and the turf installation between $900,000 and $1 million, according to Tech senior associate athletics director Jonathan Botros. Philanthropic gifts to the athletic department will be used to fund both.

The new lighting system will be designed by Musco using its Total Light Control technology. It enables Tech to flash choreographed patterns set to music during pre-game, between quarters and after touchdowns.

Red Raider Sports’ Jarrett Ramirez has the quotes from the media scrum with inside linebackers coach Josh Bookbinder and Jesiah Pierre. Here’s Bookbinder on some of the younger players, but there’s a lot there:

“Ben Roberts is a guy that’s stepped up and taken a lot of reps for us, Ben’s a redshirt freshman. And then the other young guy taking a lot of reps right now is Wes Smith. He’s from Midland, he actually played special teams quite a bit last year, did not redshirt and this will be his sophomore year.”