Texas Tech University Athletics
Notes for the NCAA Regionals
June 21, 1999 | Baseball
May 18, 1998
LUBBOCK, Texas--Big 12 Conference Tournament champion Texas Tech (18-11 Big 12, 43-18) will enter the NCAA Atlantic I Region in Miami as the No. 4 seed. Texas Tech will play No. 3 seed North Carolina (39-21) in game one at 12 noon ET in Miami. The Red Raiders are winners of nine of their last 10 games including four of five wins at the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
Other schools at the Miami Regional include No. 1 seed Miami, Fla., No. 2 seed South Carolina, No. 5 seed Florida International and No. 6 seed Bowling Green.. South Carolina and Florida International play at 3 p.m. on Thursday while Miami and Bowling Green play at 7 p.m. at Mark Light Stadium (capacity 5,000). The Red Raiders' road headquarters in Miami will be at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami, Fla. Address for the hotel is 100 Chapin Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33131-2035. The phone number is (305) 577-1000 and the fax number is (305) 577-0384.
There will be a press conference on Wednesday at the University of Miami Administrative Center beginning at 3 p.m.
Bard named Big 12's Most Outstanding Player
Sophomore catcher Josh Bard was named the Big 12 Conference Tournament Most Outstanding Player in leading Texas Tech to the Big 12 Conference Tournament championship. See Bard's statistics later in this packet.
Texas Tech Head Coach Larry Hays
Texas Tech head coach Larry Hays has a 1,156-621-1 overall career record while his record at Texas Tech is currently 461-240-1. See Hays' bio page in the Texas Tech baseball media guide for more information.
Several Red Raiders earn All Big 12 Honors
Several Texas Tech players were honored by the Big 12 Conference's coaches on the All Big 12 Conference squad. Josh Bard-C, Shane Wright-RHP and Keith Ginter-2B were all named to the First Team. INF-Kevin Jordan, SS-Jason Huth and CF-Ryan Ruiz were selected to the Second Team while RHP Monty Ward was named Honorable Mention.
Ryan Ruiz is on Fire!
Ryan Ruiz had an amazing weekend against Kansas State. He finished the weekend with a .714 batting average and had 10 hits in 14 at-bats. He scored eight runs and had two sacrifice bunts. His games included a 4-6, three run, three RBI and home run performance on Sunday, a career high 5-5, three run and RBI on Saturday and a 1-3 with two runs on Friday. Ruiz, the team's No. 2 slot hitter has been on a hot streak since the Oklahoma series. He has now vaulted into the team lead in batting average and has raised his average .049 points in the last six games from .346 to .395. He has gone 19-31 in those last seven games for a .612 batting average.
Brad Ralston makes his pitching return
Junior Brad Ralston made his first appearance Saturday vs. Kansas State since April 14 against Abilene Christian. Ralston has sufferered from a shoulder injury has On Saturday he entered the game with two outs and the score 6-5 with two runners on base. He threw one pitch and the batter grounded back to himself for the final out and his third save one the season. He injured himself in a start at Oklahoma State on March 29, 1998. Since then he pitched one game against Abilene Christian and gave up four hits and six runs (three earned) in 1/3 inning. Ralston is Texas Tech's career save leader.
Keith Ginter: The "Walking" Machine
Texas Tech leadoff hitter and third baseman Keith Ginter has broken several bases-on-balls records this year. Against Oklahoma last weekend, Ginter broke the Big 12 season record for bases on balls. Against Kansas State, he broke the Texas Tech record for season bases on balls. Ginter eclipsed Stubby Clapp's record of 66 walks in 1996. In addition, Ginter has a chance to become Texas Tech's career bases-on-balls recordholder after only two years at Texas Tech. He is currently in third place on that list with 116 total walks. The record his held by four-year star Clint Bryant with 140
For the season, Ginter has 71 hits and 65 walks. He has a .536 on-base percentage and has scored 80 runs (16 percent of TTU's runs). When leading off innings, Ginter gets on base 63.8 percent of the time (51-80). When he gets on base, Texas Tech scores 80.4 percent (41-51) of the time. That shows you how important Ginter is to the Texas Tech offense.
Shane Wright approaching several Texas Tech records
Shane Wright threw six complete games including five for wins in a row. Now, he's threatening to break several Texas Tech records. He is tied for the season victory record with 12 wins along with Red Raider greats Mark Brandenburg and Matt Miller. He is one career complete game (15 CG) shy of tying the record of 16 by Mark Brandenburg. He needs only one more complete game to tie the record for season complete games (12, held by Mark Brandenburg in 1992) and he is currently in third place for most innings in a season with 134.2. The record is 147.1 held by Mark Brandenburg in 1991.
Wright selected for USA Baseball tryout
Shane Wright has been selected to tryout for the USA Baseball team as of Friday. He will join teammate and roommate/sophomore catcher Josh Bard as soon as the season ends in Tucson, Ariz. The two will tryout for one of the 26 positions on the squad. 42 players have been invited. Bard, along with pitcher Monty Ward and head coach Larry Hays played on the USA Baseball team last year. This is Wright's first-ever bid to make the team.
Ward breaks season strikeout record
Monty Ward broke the Texas Tech season strikeout Friday against Baylor. He broke the record held by Jason Gooding in 1997. Gooding finished his one year at Texas Tech with 137 strikeouts. Ward, who is already the Red Raiders' career strikeout recordholder and the game strikeout recordholder, has 139 strikeouts on the season.
Wright: Big 12 Conference Pitcher of Year?
Shane Wright is making a strong case for being named the Big 12 Conference's Pitcher of the Year. He has thrown a conference-leading 134.2 innings along with 11 complete games on the season. He has been forced to throw complete games and that many innings because Texas Tech has only seven other pitchers. His record is 12-1 along with a 2.94 ERA. He has given up 155 hits on the season but opponents are only batting .284 against him (584 batters faced). Plus, he has shown amazing control. He has only walked 17 batters in 134.2 innings! Last year he walked only 10 batters in 90.0 innings. For his career (last two years) Wright has only walked 27 batters in 224.2 innings pitched- that's an incredible 1.084 batters walked per nine innings!
Shane Wright-Texas Tech's Iron Man;
becomes first Big 12 pitcher to win 10 games
Texas Tech junior starter Shane Wright (Topeka, Kansas/Butler County J.C./Hayden H.S.) became the first Big 12 Conference pitcher to win 10 games with a 6-5 victory at Nebraska. The game was his fourth straight 9.0 inning complete game in his last four starts. Then he went out and pitched his fifth complete game in a row against Oklahoma on the following Sunday. Plus, he pitched 29 consecutive innings in 10 days. He also moved into a tie for second place on the Texas Tech 20-career victory club with the victory. Former Red Raiders in that company include 25-Matt Miller, 21-1997-98 Shane Wright; 1994-96; 21-Mark Brandenburg, 1991-92; 21-Ruben Garcia, 1970-72; 21-Jimmy Frush, 1994-97; and 21-Rodney Steph, 1988-91. With another season, Wright will easily break the TTU career victories record. What's more, Wright became one of only three TTU pitchers in history to win at least 10 games at least two times in a career. Mark Brandenburg (12 in 1991, 10 in 1992) and Matt Miller (12 in 1996 and 11 in 1995) are the other two to it. Last year, Wright finished 10-2 with a 3.90 ERA and was selected to the All Region and All Big 12 Conference First Team. He is making a push to be selected again. His hustle was showcased on Tuesday at Nebraska when a shot bounced off his leg and toward the Texas Tech dugout. Wright hustled after the ball and made a Pete Rose dive into the turf to save the ball from going into the dugout. An extra base would've been awarded if the ball had indeed rolled into the dugout. For that play, Wright has been walking around with a scab on his chin.
Bard comes up big for Texas Tech in April
Sophomore catcher Josh Bard came up with a huge month of April for Texas Tech. In the month Bard batted .456 (36-79), led the Red Raiders with nine home runs, 28 RBI and finished with 25 runs scored, six doubles and an .899 slugging percentage. He also had only one error in that time. Ryan Ruiz also had a big April as he finished at .411 (30-73) and Keith Ginter went .405 (30-74).
Team Notes
Texas Tech in the 1998 Polls
Week CB BA BW TSN Preseason 17th 8th 9th 10th Week 1 (2/2) NP NP NP 10th Week 2 (2/9) 17th 9th NP 12th Week 3 (2/16) 17th 9th 9th 9th Week 4 (2/23) 26th 16th 21st 15th Week 5 (3/2) 29th 23rd NR 25th Week 6 (3/9) 27th 22nd 23rd 23rd Week 7 (3/16) 26th 23rd 21st NR Week 8 (3/23) NR 22nd 24th NR Week 9 (3/30) 26th 20th 22nd 23rd Week 10 (4/6) 28th 20th 19th 20th Week 11 (4/13) 28th 21st 19th 19th Week 12 (4/20) 25th 21st 21st 21st Week 13 (4/27) 22nd 21st 21st 22nd Week 14 (5/4) 27th 22nd 22nd 23rd Week 15 (5/11) 27th 21st 19th 23rd Week 16 (5/18) 25th 17th 15th 18th
Key: CB=Collegiate Baseball; BA=Baseball America; BW=USA Today Baseball Weekly-ESPN; TSN=The Sporting News; NP=No poll conducted; NR=Not ranked
Texas Tech's 1998 Season Honors:
Texas Tech's 1998 Records
