Texas Tech University Athletics
Baseball Prepares For Eighth Straight NCAA Tournament Appearance
May 28, 2002 | Baseball
May 28, 2002
Texas Tech Notes in PDF Format
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Washington Notes in PDF Format
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TECH EARNS EIGHTH CONSECUTIVE NCAA BERTH
The NCAA Baseball Committee extended Texas Tech's 2002 season at least one more weekend as the Red Raiders were given an at-large berth into the 2002 NCAA Baseball Tournament. Texas Tech was awarded a No. 2 seed in the Rice Regional which is being hosted by Rice University in Houston, Texas. Rice, the No. 4 overall national seed, will take on Harvard (Ivy League Champions) in the first game of the tournament at 3 p.m. on Friday while Texas Tech will take on No. 3 seed Washington at 7 p.m. on Friday night. All tournament games will be played at Reckling Park/Cameron Field.
Texas Tech will be making its eighth consecutive and eighth overall appearance in the NCAA Tournament on Friday. Tech's eight straight NCAA Tournament appearances is the longest active NCAA streak in the Big 12 Conference. The Red Raiders, despite making eight straight NCAA appearances, have never played in the month of June in school history and will do so for the first time in second round action on June 1st.
The Red Raiders, one of the hottest teams in the nation to end the regular-season, won 15 straight games to close out the year and pushed that streak to 16 by winning their first game in the Big 12 Tournament. Tech's run in the 2002 Big 12 Tournament came to an end as Tech lost a 12-8 decision to Nebraska on May 23 and a 7-6 elimination game to Kansas State on May 24. The Red Raiders stand at 41-18 on the season and finished tied for second in the Big 12 with Nebraska with a 16-11 conference record.
Texas Tech will depart for Houston on Wednesday morning via commercial airline and will arrive in mid-afternoon. The Texas Tech team headquarters will be the Crowne Plaza Hotel on 6701 S. Main St. in Houston. The Red Raiders will have an open workout at 11:30 on Thursday morning.
TEXAS TECH AT A GLANCE
Texas Tech finished the 2002 regular-season with a 13-game homestand which was the longest homestand to end a regular-season in school history. Texas Tech finished with a perfect 13-0 record during that stretch which included three-game sweeps of Oklahoma and No. 17 Baylor.
The Red Raiders are ranked No. 19 by Collegiate Baseball Magazine and is unranked by Baseball Weekly and Baseball America. Texas Tech, however, was the top vote getter in the Baseball Weekly poll with 72 votes.
Texas Tech recently tied a school record and set a new Big 12 Conference record with a 16-game game win streak.
Texas Tech has finished in second place in the Big 12 in each of the last two seasons.
A LOOK AT THE TOURNAMENT FIELD
The four team NCAA Regional field being hosted by Rice University at Reckling Park has been set and the following is a look at the teams in the tournament:
WASHINGTON: The Washington Huskies were one of the hottest teams in the Pac-10 Conference this season as the Huskies finished the year with a 15-9 league record and a third-place finish. Washington is 30-25-1 on the season and comes into the tournament having won five of its last seven games. Washington won league series against Stanford (2-1), California (3-0); Arizona (2-1); Oregon State (2-1), UCLA (2-1) and Washington State (2-1).
The Huskies are batting .307 as a team and total 70 home runs, 110 doubles, 16 triples and have stolen 93 bases. Defensively, the squad has committed 77 errors for a fielding percentage of .965. The leading hitter is Tyler Davidson who is batting .336 with 13 home runs.
On the mound, Washington has a team ERA of 5.41 with 348 strikeouts and has walked just 190 opposing batters. The leading hurler is Shawn Kohn who is 11-4 on the season with an ERA of 3.15 through 122 2/3 innings of work. Tyler Shepple leads the squad with five saves out of the bullpen.
RICE: The Rice Owls enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 4 national seed and are ranked No. 2 in all three major polls. Texas Tech and Rice met earlier this season in the Astros College Classic with Rice winning 17-4. The Owls come into the tournament as WAC Champions and have won 19 of their last 21 games.
As a team, the Owls are batting .325 with 65 home runs and 131 doubles and 15 triples. The leading hitter for Rice is Vincent Sinisi who is batting .433 with 22 doubles, nine home runs and 73 RBI.
The Owl pitching staff has an ERA of 2.86 having allowed just 167 earned runs over the course of 58 games. The leading hurler for Rice is Phillip Humber who has an ERA of 2.50 with an 11-1 record.
HARVARD: The Harvard Crimson earned an automatic bid into this year's NCAA Tournament by winning the Ivy League Championship. Harvard is 20-24 on the year and will be making its second trip of the season to Rice as the Crimson opened the 2002 season against the Owls at Reckling Park.
As a team, the Crimson are batting .259 with 17 home runs and just 188 runs scored. The leading hitter for Harvard is Trey Hendricks who is batting .371 with 13 doubles and five home runs.
The Crimson pitching staff has a combined ERA of 4.87. Ben Crockett has been the top pitcher as he is 6-3 with a 2.64 ERA.
CLUTCH DOWN THE STRETCH
Texas Tech has been nothing but clutch down the stretch in each of the six seasons of Big 12 Conference play. In the last 20 games of the regular-season from 1997-2002, the Red Raiders have an overall record of 94-28 which is a .770 winning percentage. In the last three conference series to end each regular- season, Texas Tech has a mark of 31-15-1 for a winning percentage of .659. The Red Raiders' clutch performances down the stretch have led to eight consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances which is the longest active streak in the Big 12 Conference.
 Steve Rowe  | |
ONE MORE FOR ROWE
Texas Tech senior right-handed reliever Steve Rowe (Houston, Texas/Strake Jesuit) is having an outstanding season and was recently named First-Team All-Big 12 by the league coaches and is a All-America candidate. Rowe recently moved into second place on the all-time appearances list with 84 in his Red Raider career and needs just one more to tie Brad Ralston for the all-time record of 85.
WIN STREAK ENDS AT 16
The 2002 Red Raiders accomplished something that had never been done in the six-year history of the Big 12 and just once in school history as Tech rattled off a 16-game win streak. Texas Tech began the win streak on April 13, 2002 with a 5-2 win over Kansas and had the streak snapped against Nebraska on May 23 in the Big 12 Tournament. The Red Raiders won their last 15 games of the regular season and pushed the streak to 16 with a first-round tournament win over Kansas State on May 22.
HAYS GRANTED CONTRACT EXTENSION
Texas Tech Head Baseball Coach Larry Hays was granted a two-year contract extension by the Texas Tech Board of Regents at its last meeting on May 10th. Hays' contract now runs through the 2008 season extending his previous contract which expired in 2006. Hays is the all-time winningest coach at Texas Tech and is the fourth winningest active head coach in NCAA history with 1,315 career wins.
FIVE NAMED TO ACADEMIC ALL-BIG 12 TEAM
Texas Tech placed five players on the 2002 Academic All-Big 12 Baseball team that was announced on Wednesday, May 15th. Sophomore outfielder Brent Fossum along with senior pitchers J.J. Newman and Steve Rowe were named to the first-team as all three posted cumulative GPA's over 3.20. Senior reliever Matt Harbin and junior outfielder Travis McElroy were named to the second team as both post cumulative GPA's between 3.0 and 3.19.
BUCHENAUER DISMISSED FROM TEAM
Texas Tech junior second baseman Joel Buchenauer has been dismissed from the team for violation of team rules according to head coach Larry Hays. Buchenauer has played in all 50 games this season and made 49 starts at second base where he was batting .241 as the nine-hole hitter. He tallied a fielding percentage of .971 and led the team with 179 assists. He transferred to Texas Tech at the start of the Spring semester from Yavapai Junior College in Prescott, Arizona.
ROWE NAMED TO ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT TEAM
Senior right-handed reliever Steve Rowe has been named to the 2002 Verizon District VI Academic Baseball Team. The senior from Houston, Texas has not only been outstanding on the field this season but has been stellar in the classroom as he has maintained a 3.71 cumulative GPA in Finance. Rowe is the first Tech baseball player to be named to the Academic All-District team since Brandon Buckley took home the honor in 1998. Rowe along with Ross Bennett of Baylor are the only two Big 12 players named to the team and both become candidates for Academic All-America.
