Red Raiders Set For 2004 Minute Maid College Classic

Feb. 11, 2004

Ticket Information
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Weekend Schedule
Friday; Texas Tech vs. #1 Rice, 7 p.m.
Saturday; Texas Tech vs. Houston, 3 p.m.
Sunday; Texas Tech vs. Ohio State, 10 a.m.
All games played at Minute Maid Park in Houston

Starting Rotations
Friday; Dallas Braden (LHP), Texas Tech vs. TBA, Rice
Saturday; Randy Gattis (RHP), Texas Tech vs. Garrett Mock (RHP), Houston
Sunday; Steve Gooch (RHP), Texas Tech vs. TBA, Ohio State

Texas Tech Projected Starting Lineup

Pos.    Name            Class.  Avg.    GS  R   H   2B  3B  HR  RBIC   Cooper Fouts Junior  .300    3   2   3   0   0   0   11B  Josh Brady Junior  .571    3   6   8   2   0   2   112B  Jose Delgado Junior  .500    3   5   7   0   1   0   0SS  Cameron Blair   Junior  .467    3   7   7   2   0   0   33B  Josh Haney Senior  .600    3   4   6   2   0   1   5LF  Ryan Andrews Junior  .182    3   2   2   0   0   0   3CF  Michael Mask Junior  .429    3   4   3   0   0   1   4RF  Madison Edwards   Junior  .667    3   6   6   0   1   3   5DH  David Steffey   Fresh.  .143    2   0   1   1   0   0   3

Red Raiders Set For Minute Maid Classic
The Texas Tech Red Raiders will head down to the Bayou City this weekend to take part in the 2004 Minute Maid College Classic being held at Minute Maid Park in downtown Houston. Texas Tech will take on Rice, Houston and Ohio State as part of this year's tournament field while Kansas State and Texas are the other Big 12 teams participating.

Texas Tech enters the weekend with a perfect 3-0 record as the Red Raiders swept the Campbell Camels last weekend at Dan Law Field. Texas Tech had little problems with the Camels as Tech took game-one 18-1, game-two 19-4 and game-three 9-4. After not receiving any votes in the ESPN/Baseball Weekly Coaches Top 25 Poll in the preseason, the Red Raiders garnered 28 votes to rank them just outside the top 25 at No. 28.

The Red Raiders will get their first big test of the season on Friday night as Tech will battle defending national champion and top-ranked Rice at 7 p.m. The Owls finished the 2003 season with a 58-12 record and won the College World Series by defeating Stanford in the three-game title series.

Tech continues play on Saturday against the Houston Cougars at 3 p.m. and will wrap up tournament play against Ohio State at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning. Houston and Ohio State both advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals last year. Houston finished the '03 season with a 37-30 record while Ohio State finished at 44-21. Rice, Houston and Ohio State will all be opening their 2004 season's at this weekend's tournament.

All three-games of the Minute Maid College Classic can be heard on the Texas Tech Baseball flagship station KKAM 1340 AM with Mark Finkner and Jimmy Frush calling the action from Houston. Friday's game against Rice will also be webcasted and fans can log on to https://www.msbn.tv/owlvision to watch the game live from Minute Maid Park.

Brady Earns National Attention
Junior first baseman Josh Brady made a big splash in his Red Raider debut as he was named the Big 12 Player of the Week and the NCBWA National Hitter of the Week for his performance in the season opener against Campbell.

Brady, a native of Lindou, Utah and a transfer from the Community College of Southern Nevada, helped pace the Red Raiders to a three-game sweep of the Campbell Camels this past weekend at Dan Law Field. He finished the three-game series with a batting average of .571 as he was 8-for-14 at the plate with two doubles, two home runs and 11 RBI. In the second game of the three-game series, he was a perfect 5-for-5 with four runs scored, six RBI and two home runs.

Brady joined Texas' Huston Street as the two players honored by the Big 12 while Jered Weaver of Long Beach State was named the NCBWA's National Pitcher of the Week. He is the first Red Raider to earned national player of the week honors since Jon Weber picked up the honor on Feb. 1, 1999.

Raiders Showing Plenty Of Firepower
Texas Tech showed plenty of firepower this past weekend as the Red Raiders combined for a .437 batting average after pounding out a total of 52 hits in 119 at-bats. Four different players hit over the .500 clip (Madison Edwards, Josh Haney, Josh Brady and Jose Delgado) while two others hit over .400.

The long ball was also displayed over the weekend as Tech combined for seven home runs. Madison Edwards hit a home run in each of the three games marking the first time a Red Raider has done that since Josh Bard did it in 1997.

Offensively, Texas Tech took advantage of 15 walks while scoring 46 total runs and was a perfect 10-for-10 in stolen bases.

Gattis Rebounds From Injury
A year ago at this time, right-hander Randy Gattis was in a local hospital being treated for a blood clot that formed unexpectedly in his throwing arm (right) during practice. Gattis was forced to go on Coumadin (a blood thinner) and couldn't be part of any physical activity for six months. Tech doctors gave him the green light to begin throwing in late August and according to Gattis he had to start over from the very beginning.

Despite his injury and a long road to recovery, Gattis impressed the Tech coaching staff enough to make him the starter in the season opener against Campbell. He didn't disappoint them as he pitched six shutout innings allowing just three hits and struckout four. Gattis will pitch against Houston on Saturday.

Red Raiders At Minute Maid Classic
The Minute Maid College Classic has not been good to the Red Raiders but it has helped vault Tech teams to successful seasons by the year's end. The Red Raiders are just 2-4 in the tournament with two losses to Rice and a loss to both Houston and Louisiana-Lafayette. Despite less than stellar results at the tournament, Texas Tech went on to win 40-plus games, finished second in the Big 12 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament both years.

2001 Tournament
2/2 - Def. TCU 5-4
2/3 - Lost to Rice 13-6
2/4 - Lost to Houston 11-5

2002 Tournament
2/7 - Def. TCU 2-1
2/8 - Lost to La-Laf 4-3
2/9 - Lost to Rice 17-4

Briefly

Texas Tech will be looking to snap an eight-game losing streak to Rice that dates back to the 1996 season. Tech's last win over Rice came on April 6, 1996 (8-1). Texas Tech leads the all-time series 56-49.
Texas Tech and Houston will be meeting for just the third time since 1996 but the Cougars have won the last two meetings. Houston leads the all-time series 40-35.
Texas Tech and Ohio State will meet for the first time on Sunday.

Texas Tech University Athletics

Red Raiders Set For 2004 Minute Maid College Classic

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