On the Diamond

Softball played really well this weekend, earning a 4-3 win over No. 21 Baylor on Friday, and then dropping a heart-breaker on Saturday, 2-1. Sunday was a bad loss, 11-3 and dropping the series. They will have Kansas at home this weekend and really need a series win.

Baseball swept the series against Houston, high-scoring affairs on each day.

+ A 12-9 win over the Cougars with Josh Sanders getting the win and Gavin Kash and Kevin Bazzell each having 3-hit games and Bazzell and Damian Bravo having 3 RBI each.

+ A 15-12 win on Saturday, a win for Parker Hutyra who went 2.2 innings of 2-hit relief, but the rest of the pitchers really struggled. I suppose as long as the offense mashes . . . TJ Pompey who went 0-5 on Friday went 1-3 and had 5 RBI and Damian Bravo went 4-5 with 4 RBI.

+ A sweep with a 12-8 win on Sunday with another win for Sanders in 1.1 innings of relief work. Starter Mac Heuer only went 4 innings with 6 walks and 7 strikeouts and 4 runs. Gavin Kash hit a grand slam and was 1-5 and 4 RBI, Kevin Bazzell went 3-4 with 3 runs, and Austin Green and Drew Woodcox went 2-4 with 2 RBI each.

The team has now won 6 straight games, the last game of the UCF series, 2 against Stanford, and these 3 against Houston. They will face Abilene Christian on the road and then TCU on the road this weekend, who was swept by Cincinnati. The pitching staff is not to be trusted, but the offense seems to be in a groove right now.

On the Gridiron

Red Raider Sports’ Ben Golan reminds us of the preferred walk-on’s that will arrive in June. I didn’t remember a bunch of these guys, but did remember Adam Hill, the running back from Albany (6-2/215) who ran for 2,641 yards as a senior, but will play linebacker (he also had 103 tackles).

Dallas Morning News’ Justin Apodaca goes over the 2024 schedule.

Athlon Sports ranks the top returning running backs and Tahj Brooks is at No. 5:

After rushing for 1,538 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, Brooks became the first Texas Tech player to cross the 1,000-yard rushing mark since DeAndre Washington posted 1,492 yards in ’14. Brooks finished second in the Big 12 (conference-only games) with an average of 130.6 rushing yards a contest and (per PFF) recorded 998 of those yards after contact.