Texas Tech University Athletics
Baseball Prepares For Astros College Classic
February 05, 2002 | Baseball
Feb. 5, 2002
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RED RAIDERS PREPARE FOR ASTROS CLASSIC
The Texas Tech Red Raiders went on the road for the first time this season when they traveled to Albuquerque, N.M. for a three-game series with cross-state rival New Mexico. Texas Tech won the series 2-1 (13-4, 3-5 and 21-8). Texas Tech now stands at 5-1 overall and will take national rankings of 23/26/27 into the annual Astros College Classic at Enron Field this weekend in Houston. The Red Raiders, in the midst of a three-week road swing, will take on the TCU Horned Frogs in the first game of the tournament at 3 p.m. on Thursday and will then battle 2000 College World Series participant Louisiana-Lafayette at 9 a.m. on Friday morning. Texas Tech will wrap up tournament play on Saturday with a 12:30 show- down with No. 11 Rice
Following the Astros College Classic, Texas Tech will travel to Round Rock, Texas to play in the Southwest Texas Tournament being held at the Dell Diamond (home of the AA Houston Astros). Tech will face TCU, Houston and Southwest Texas in that tournament.
TEXAS TECH AT A GLANCE
- Texas Tech now stands at 5-1 on the season after going 2-1 this past weekend in Albuquerque against New Mexico.
- With a 5-1 record, Texas Tech is off to its best start since the 2000 season. In the first six games of the 2001 season, Texas Tech was 4-2.
- Chris Phillips moved into a tie for 10th place on the all-time complete game list at Texas Tech after he pitched the eighth com- plete game of his career in a 13-4 win at New Mexico on Saturday, Feb. 2. He also surpassed his previous career-high of eight strikeouts in a game when he tossed nine against the Lobos.
- Senior Nick Blankenship has been upgraded to ioday-to-dayla by the Texas Tech team physicians. Blankenship may see time at other defensive positions besides third base this weekend.
- Leadoff hitter and right fielder Scooter Jordan has reached base a team-high 65% of the time as Jordan has an impressive on-base percentage of .654.
- Texas Tech cracked the Top-25 for the first time this season on Tuesday, Feb. 5 when the NCBWA ranked the Red Raiders No. 23.
- Texas Tech has an all-time mark of 221-111 in the month of February.
- Texas Tech is hitting .353 while opponents are hitting just .269. TechTMs staff ERA is 4.10 compared to 9.99 by opponents.
- Texas Tech is ranked 26th by Collegiate Baseball Magazine and 27th by Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches Poll
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - After being held to just two hits on Sunday afternoon in a 5-3 loss, the Texas Tech offense regrouped and pounded out 20 hits for the second time in three days and the Red Raiders defeated the New Mexico Lobos 21-8 on Monday afternoon at Lobo Field. With MondayTMs win, Texas Tech wins the series 2-1.
Texas TechTMs Austin Cranford drew a two-out walk in the top of the first inning and senior Nick Blankenship belted his fourth home run of the season in the next at-bat to give the Red Raiders and early 2-0 lead. New Mexico capitalized on two Texas Tech defensive errors in the bottom half of the inning and tied the score at 2-2. Lobo right fielder Anthony Lovato brought in both runs for New Mexico with a two-out single to left field. Texas Tech opened up the game in the fourth inning when Bryon Smith hit a two run home run over the left- center field fence. The home run was SmithTMs first of the season. Senior catcher Willie Durazo kept the inning going with a double to left while Jake Brown and Joel Buchenauer followed with singles to give Tech a 5-2 lead. Austin Cranford pushed the Red Raider lead to 7-2 with a two-out two-run single to right.
New MexicoTMs Julio Guerrero led off the bottom half of the fourth inning with a triple to right field and Tech starter Nathan Fouts walked the next two batters to load the bases. Reliever Justin Cleveland walked in a run for New Mexico as he was unable to retire the left-handed hitting Matt Young. Steve Gooch came in to face the next New Mexico batter and gave up a three-run double to right field. New Mexico tied the score at seven on a sacrifice fly by Matt Alexander before the Tech defense was able to turn a double play to end the inning.
Texas Tech regained the lead in the next two innings as Tech scored two runs in the fifth and three runs in the sixth to take a 12-8 lead. Jake Brown and Gera Alvarez each tallied their first multiple hit games of the season as both had RBI singles in the sixth. Nick Blankenship picked up his second hit of the day when he hit an RBI double to right-center field that scored Tyler Carson who led off the seventh inning with a walk. Gera Alvarez capped off the inning with his first home run of the season, a solo shot over the left-center field wall to give Tech a 15-8 lead. Steve Gooch picked up his first win of the season after tossing five innings giving up three hits and two runs.
SCOUTING THE FIELD IN HOUSTON
Texas Tech will be the only one of six tournament participants who have already begun the 2002 campaign. Texas and Baylor were scheduled to open their seasons on Tuesday night but inclement weather all across the state forced a postponement from both schools. Texas Tech will face TCU in the first game of the tournament and first-year participant Louisiana-Lafayette in the second game. Tech completes the tournament with a Saturday afternoon match-up against the Rice Owls TCU finished the 2001 season with a mark of 32-28 and finished third in the WAC with a record of 21-15. LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE finished 28-28 last season and just missed an invitation to the NCAA Tournament after appearing in the College World Series in 2000. RICE finished the 2001 season with a mark of 47-20 after winning the WAC Championship...the Owls were eliminated by Big 12 Champion Nebraska in the Super Regionals held in Lincoln.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Texas Tech will be singing that old Willie Nelson tune again this weekend as the squad travels to Houston, Texas for the Astros College Classic. Texas Tech is currently on a three-week road swing that began this past weekend with a trip to Albuquer- que, N.M.
The Red Raiders hit the road again next week but this time they will test out the Double A field of the Houston Astros when they play in the Southwest Texas Tournament at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.
HITS, HITS AND MORE HITS
The Texas Tech offense has pounded out 76 hits in six games this season for a team hitting percentage of .353. The Red Raiders pounded out two 20-hit games against New Mexico this past weekend. Through is first six games last season, Tech had 77 hits but had a team hitting percentage of .333.
BLANKENSHIP CONDITION UPGRADED
Senior preseason All-America selection Nick Blankenship was upgraded to ioday-to-dayl. this week by the Texas Tech medical staff. Blankenship has been limited to the designated hitter role for all six games of the season due to soreness in his right (throwing) elbow. Blankenship could possibly move into the defensive lineup this weekend in the Astros College Classic but most likely NOT at third base. BlankenshipTMs injury has not slowed him down any as he has a team-high four home runs and 14 RBI. He has just seven hits this season but all seven have generated at least one RBI.
THE RANKINGS
Texas Tech is currently ranked 26th by Collegiate Baseball Magazine and 27th by the Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches Poll. The Red Raiders earned their first Top-25 ranking of the season when the NCBWA tabbed the squad 23rd in its most recent poll on Tuesday, Feb. 5. Texas Tech completed the 2001 season ranked in all three major polls (21 in Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America and 23 in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches Poll).
BULLPEN KEEPS TECH GOING
The Texas Tech bullpen is arguably the strongest it has been in the last couple of years. So far this year, the Tech bullpen has accounted for three of the five wins and has an ERA of 3.24. Texas Tech starters are 2-1 on the year and have an overall ERA of 4.88.
RED RAIDERS TRYING TO FIND THE DEFENSE
After leading the Big 12 last season in defense with a fielding percentage of .971, this yearTMs squad is having trouble finding where they left off. Texas Tech has committed eight errors so far this season including a five-error game against New Mexico. Senior shortstop Gera Alvarez, has committed five blunders to lead the team. However, after six games last season the Red Raiders had 11 errors and a fielding percentage of .954 and then went on to be the 11th best fielding team in the nation.
HITTING NOTES
- Nick Blankenship became a member of the 100-hit club at Texas Tech in the first game against New Mexico on Feb. 2. Blankenship currently has 103 hits in his career as a Red Raider.
- Senior shortstop Gera Alvarez is just six hits away from earning the 100th hit of his career at Texas Tech.
- Texas Tech pounded out 20 hits in two different games of the New Mexico series.
- Jon Slack and Scooter Jordan have been a lethal combina- tion for Texas Tech at the top of the order. Jordan has an on- base percentage of .654 while Slack has an OB% of .633. This past weekend against New Mexico, Slack drew seven walks and had three base hits for an OB% of .667
- Freshman Cody Fuller has been TechTMs most productive pinch hitter as he is a perfect 2-for-2 this year.
- Senior first baseman Bryon Smith has been TechTMs hot bat so far this season as he is batting .448 on the year going 13-for- 29 at the plate. Last season, Smith went 66-for-225 at the plate (.293) which was good enough for eighth on the team.
- Senior Jake Brown, a transfer from Iowa State, snapped a 16 at-bat hitting slump against New Mexico in the third game when he hit a line drive to left field. Brown finished the day going 3-for-5 at the plate.
PITCHING NOTES
- Senior right-handed pitcher Chris Phillips moved into a tie for 10th place on the all-time complete game list at Texas Tech as he pitched the eighth of his career against New Mexico on Feb. 2 in the first game of that series. He also set a career record with nine strikeouts in the game.
- Junior Steve Gooch picked up his first win of the season and the third by a member of the Tech bullpen against New Mexico in the final game of the series.
- So far this year, Tech starters have gone just 2-1 while the bullpen has a mark of 3-0.
- After six games last season, Texas Tech had a combined ERA of 3.83 while this yearTMs staff has an ERA of 4.10 after six.
- After picking up his first win of the season against BYU in the third game of that series, junior Nathan Fouts now has a cumulative record of 61-5 since his freshman year in high school.
- This yearTMs pitching staff of 18 outnumbers last year staff of 14 pitchers. The squad is comprised of 13 right-handers and five left-handers.
