Texas Tech University Athletics
No. 21 Red Raiders Host Southwest Texas
March 06, 2003 | Baseball
March 6, 2003
SOUTHWEST TEXAS (5-11) at NO. 21 TEXAS TECH (13-5)
Opponent: Southwest Texas
Series Location: Lubbock, Texas
Stadium: Dan Law Field
Capacity: 5,050
Dates: March 7-9, 2003
Game Times: 7 p.m./2 p.m./1 p.m.
Radio: All Sports Radio Network (1340 KKAM); Mark Finkner (Play-By-Play); Jason Totman (Color)
Internet: www.texastech.com; Game Audio & Live Box Score
The Series: Texas Tech leads 4-2.
Pitching Rotations
Friday
Steve Gooch (TT), RHP (2-1, 3.00 ERA)
vs. Cory Covert (SWT), RHP (0-3; 8.27 ERA)
Saturday
Juan Razo (TT), RHP (1-1; 4.09 ERA)
vs. Brook Parr (SWT), RHP (1-1; 3.97 ERA)
Sunday
Jeff Karstens (TT), RHP (4-0; 5.40 ERA)
vs. Paul Schappert (SWT), LHP (1-2; 4.75 ERA)
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NO. 21 RED RAIDERS GET FINAL TUNE UP BEFORE BIG 12 PLAY
Texas Tech will get one final weekend tune-up before Big 12 play begins as the Southwest Texas Bobcats come to Dan Law Field for a series against the No. 22 Red Raiders. Texas Tech will be in search of some answers this weekend as a huge Big 12 opening series at No. 7 Baylor looms on the horizon. The Red Raiders enter the weekend with an overall record of 13-5 after winning 3-of-4 against Northern Iowa. Southwest Texas comes into the match-up with a 5-11 overall record after dropping three games to Rice over the weekend and a 2-1 loss to Texas A&M on Wednesday.
Texas Tech will play four games over a stretch of five days that will put the wraps on what has been an eight-game homestand. Tech was originally scheduled for a nine-game home stretch but that was shortened by one game due to the cancellation of the Texas-Pan American series. The Red Raiders made up one of those games by playing a four-game series with Northern Iowa instead of three.
The Athletics Department will sponsor "Coca-Cola Friday" on Friday night as fans who bring an unused Coca-Cola product will receive $2 off admission to the 7 p.m. game. Saturday's game will be Student Red Raider Club Appreciation Night in that Texas Tech will honor members of the Student Red Raider Club with a specialty item at the gate.
The Red Raiders and Bobcats will square off at 7 p.m. on Friday night and then again at 2 p.m. on Saturday before wrapping up the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are still available for the series and can be purchased by calling the Texas Tech Athletic Ticket Office at (806) 742-TECH.
BRIEFLY
- Texas Tech improved in the national rankings this week as the Red Raiders climbed up one spot to No. 21 in the March 3 Sports Weekly/ESPN Coaches Top 25 Poll. Texas Tech is one of five Big 12 teams that are ranked in the poll.
- Texas Tech will once again put its non-conference home series record to the test as the Red Raiders have not lost a home non-conference series since 1989 (13 years). Texas Tech has won 73 series and split 10.
- Texas Tech and Southwest Texas will meet for just the seventh time in history on Friday night and will play a weekend series for the first time. All six of the previous meetings were played as individual games. The Red Raiders lead the all-time series 4-2 with the last win coming in the Express College Classic last year on Feb. 17, 6-2.
A LOOK AT SOUTHWEST TEXAS
The Southwest Texas Bobcats, of the Southland Conference, will bring a 5-11 overall record to Lubbock this weekend after dropping a heartbreaking 2-1 decision to Texas A&M on Wednesday night. The Bobcats fell to 5-11 after allowing the Aggies to break a 1-1 tie in the top of 10th with a run and were not able to answer in the bottom of the inning. The loss gives Southwest Texas a 1-3 record versus teams from the Big 12 Conference with a win against Baylor and losses to Texas, Texas A&M and Nebraska. The Bobcats are now on a four-game losing skid and have lost six of their last seven contests.
Offensively, the Bobcats are batting .239 as a team as they have 137 hits in 574 at-bats. The leading hitter is Richard Martinez who is hitting .382 with two home runs, six doubles and has six RBI.
On the hill, the Bobcats have a 4.88 ERA through 144.0 innings of work and opponents are batting .277 against them. Left-hander Paul Schappert leads the staff with a 4.75 ERA and a 1-2 record through 36.0 innings of work allowing just nine walks and has struckout 21. Brandon Hankins has been the closer as he has a 2-1 record and a 0.48 ERA in eight appearances.
JORDAN KEY IN TECH'S SERIES WIN OVER NORTHERN IOWA
Texas Tech senior outfielder Scooter Jordan made a big statement this past weekend in Tech's series with Northern Iowa. The Dallas, Texas, native picked up the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth in Friday afternoon's game to give the Red Raiders an 8-7 win. He duplicated the feat again on Saturday when the Red Raiders trailed in the eighth inning of a seven-inning game and he again picked up the walk-off RBI single to give Tech a 7-6 victory. Jordan finished the weekend going 4-for-5 (.800) at the plate with four walks and five RBI. He is currently batting .359 on the season with 13 walks and four extra-base hits.
HIT STREAKS COME TO AN END
The Northern Iowa Panthers put an end to a couple of Red Raider hitting streaks this past weekend as Josh Haney's 14-game streak was snapped and Cody Fuller's 10-game stretch came to a halt.
RPI'S MAKE DEBUT
The unofficial college baseball RPI's were released this past week by Boyd Nation of boydsworld.com. Texas Tech has an RPI ranking of No. 86 but most importantly this early in the season the team's ISR (iterative strength ranking) is at No. 28.
THE COMEBACK KIDS
The 2003 Red Raiders are quickly earning the reputation of the "comeback kids" as Tech has registered five come-from-behind wins this season and has won two more games after being tied in the late innings. Here is a look at Tech's come-from-behind wins this year:
- Trailed 9-8 in the seventh vs. San Francisco (2/14); Won 10-9
- Trailed 10-9 in the seventh vs. San Francisco (2/15); Won 16-10
- Trailed 7-5 in the eighth vs. Northern Iowa (2/28); Won 8-7
- Trailed 6-3 in the seventh (7 inning GM) vs. UNI (3/1); Won 7-6
- Trailed 7-5 in the seventh (7-0 in the third) vs. UNI (3/1); Won 13-9
As part of its comeback trend, Texas Tech has picked up 98 of its 212 hits this season in innings 6-9 and has scored 70 runs in those same innings.
ALEXANDER IS CLUTCH
Junior outfielder Sean Alexander has been one of Tech's biggest clutch hitters this year. Alexander has pinch hit seven times this season and has gone 3-for-7 with three runs scored and three RBI.
UP NEXT FOR TECH
Texas Tech will wrap up the season long series with TCU with a 7 p.m. game on Tuesday, March 11 at Dan Law Field. The series is tied 2-2.
OFFENSIVE NOTES
- Texas Tech leads the Big 12 Conference in team batting average as the Red Raiders are hitting .338 on the year. The Texas Longhorns, the only other team that has played at least 18 games, are batting .320 and rank sixth in the league.
- The Red Raiders are currently averaging 12 hits-per-game.
- Junior second baseman Josh Haney leads the Big 12 with a nine doubles on the season.
- Junior designated hitter Evan Shahak is the long ball leader in the Big 12 as he has a league-best six home runs.
- Texas Tech has had three walk-off games this season as Evan Shahak delivered a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth to defeat San Diego 15-13 on Feb. 9 and Scooter Jordan delivered game-winning RBI singles against Northern Iowa on Feb. 28 and March 1 (GM1).
- The Red Raiders have an outstanding pinch hitting average thus far as Tech pinch hitters are batting .407 (11-of-27).
- Tech is hitting .368 with runners in scoring position.
- Tech is third in the Big 12 behind Texas and Kansas with 28 stolen bases.
DEFENSIVE NOTES
- Texas Tech is fielding at a Big 12 best .981 as Tech has recorded just 13 errors on 471 putouts and 202 assists.
- This time last season (after 18 games), the Texas Tech defense was fielding at .956 as the squad had committed 32 errors.
- The Red Raider defense committed its first multiple error inning of the season in the second inning of the second game of the doubleheader against Northern Iowa on March 1. Third baseman Clint McGill committed two errors in the inning while catcher Cooper Fouts was responsible for the other.
- Out of 18 games this season, Texas Tech has totaled multiple error games only four times. Tech has gone errorless in 10 games this year.
- Tech has rattled off two 30+ errorless inning stretches this year and one 27+ stretch.
PITCHING NOTES
- In just 18 games this season, Texas Tech has walked 82 batters which is half of the entire number of batters the Red Raiders walked in 62 games last season. After just 18 games in 2002, the Tech pitching staff had issued just 42 walks.
- Of the 115 runs scored by Tech's opponents this year, 28 of those runs were scored by opposing batters who were walked or hit by a pitch.
- Sophomore RHP Tanner McElroy, who was making just his third career start, struckout out 12 Northern Iowa batters in Sunday's series finale. The 12 strikeouts was the most by any Tech pitcher since Nathan Fouts struck out 11 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi batters last season.
