Texas Tech University Athletics
No. 22 Texas Tech Hosts Northern Iowa
March 03, 2005 | Baseball
March 3, 2005
No. 22 TEXAS TECH vs. NORTHERN IOWAMarch 4-6, 2005
Dan Law Field - Lubbock, Texas
6:30 p.m./11 a.m./1 p.m.
Tech vs. Northern Iowa - Gameday Central
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RED RAIDERS HOST NORTHERN IOWA
No. 22 Texas Tech will conclude a short four-game homestand this weekend as the Red Raiders will host the Northern Iowa Panthers in a three-game series at Dan Law Field. Tech and Northern Iowa will begin the series at 6:30 p.m. on Friday evening in what will be the first home night game of the season. Tech and Northern Iowa will continue the series at 11 a.m. on Saturday before wrapping up at 1 p.m. on Sunday. This will be the last time to catch the Red Raiders at home for the next two weeks as the squad will play its next five games on the road.
The Red Raiders enter the weekend series riding a six-game win streak and are fresh off an 8-0 shutout win of UTA on Tuesday. Tech got a complete game shutout performance from junior right-hander Adam Lawford and his heroics pushed the win streak over UTA to 13 games. The 12-1 start to this 2005 season is the best for a Red Raider squad since the 1991 team also started the year at 12-1. The 8-0 shutout of the Mavericks also marked back-to-back shutouts at home for Tech as the Red Raiders defeated Dallas Baptist last Tuesday 7-0.
Northern Iowa makes the drip down south with an overall record of 3-4. The Panthers opened their 2005 season 10 days after the Red Raiders but will make up for it quickly as they are scheduled to play eight games in as many days beginning on March 11. Northern Iowa is coming off a 1-2 weekend at the Northwestern State Demon Classic where the Panthers opened with a 4-0 win over Eastern Michigan before falling to Northwestern State 10-3 and Kansas State 8-1.
Tickets for the three-game series are currently on sale through the Texas Tech Athletics Ticket Office and can be purchased by calling (806) 742-TECH or 1-888-GOBIG12. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.texastech.com or at any area United Supermarkets/Select-A-Seat location.
For the latest information on Red Raider baseball and all Texas Tech sports, log on to the official athletics website - www.texastech.com.
THE COACHES TEXAS TECH: Texas Tech Head Coach Larry Hays is now in his 19th season in control of the Red Raider baseball program. Hays began his collegiate head coaching career at nearby Lubbock Christian University where he remains the all-time winningest coach there and helped lead the Chaps to the 1983 NAIA National Championship. He is also the all-time winningest head coach at Texas Tech where he has a record of 708-372-2. He is the NCAA's fourth winningest active head coach with a record of 1,403-753-3.
NORTHERN IOWA: The Panthers are led by sixth-year head coach Rick Heller. Heller has a record of 143-149-1 during his tenure at the school and a career record of 434-343-4 over 18 seasons. Prior to joining the Northern Iowa program, he spent 12 seasons as the head coach at Upper Iowa where he had a record of 291-194-3. He is assisted by Dan Davis, Ryan Jacobs and Marty Sutherland.
HAYS REACHES 1,400 WIN MILESTONE
Texas Tech head coach Larry Hays reached the 1,400 career win milestone against Lamar on Friday as the Red Raiders defeated the Cardinals 5-3 in the Rockhounds College Classic. He became just the fifth coach in NCAA history to reach 1,400 wins. Hays is currently the fourth winningest active NCAA head coach (fifth winningest all-time) trailing Texas' Augie Garrido, Gene Stephenson of Wichita State, Cliff Gustafson (former head coach at Texas) and Chuck Hartman at Virginia Tech.
Of his 1,403 career wins, 708 have come at Texas Tech where he is the school's all-time winningest head coach. Prior to his arrival at Tech he spent 16 seasons at nearby Lubbock Christian where he won 695 games and an NAIA national championship in 1983.
HOMETOWN HERO
The script could not have been written any better than it was over the weekend at the Rockhounds College Classic in Midland. Midland product and senior outfielder Madison Edwards played the hero for Tech over the weekend as he put on quite a show for the hometown fans in attendance at First American Bank Ballpark.
The fireworks began for Edwards on Friday night when he belted his first career grand slam that gave the Red Raiders a 5-3 win over Lamar. But most importantly, that win gave Tech head coach Larry Hays his 1,400th career coaching win. After finishing the night 2-for-3 with four RBI, Edwards returned on Sunday and went 5-for-11 with another home run and six RBI.
The weekend totals went like this for Edwards: .500 batting average (7-of-14), two home runs (one grand slam and a three-run dinger), a double and 10 RBI. His stellar weekend at the plate jolted him to the top of the Tech season statistics sheet as he now leads the Red Raiders with a .516 batting average.
MR. SHUTOUT
Adam Lawford has taken matters into his own hands when it comes to defending the turf at Dan Law Field. The junior right-hander turned in his second straight shutout performance on Tuesday to give Tech an 8-0 win over UTA. Lawford's complete game shutout coupled with six innings of shutout baseball against DBU last week has led Tech to its first back-to-back shutouts at Dan Law Field since 1997.
When you add in a scoreless ninth inning at TCU, Lawford now has a streak of 16 scoreless innings pitched and has dropped his ERA from 6.00 to a staff best 2.25. Lawford has logged a team-high 24 innings and also leads the team with 21 strikeouts. Opponents are hitting just .239 against him and he has allowed just two walks in 92 at-bats.
TECH ENTERS NATIONAL TOP 25
The Texas Tech baseball team's 12-1 start to the 2005 season has earned the program its first Top 25 rankings of the year as the Red Raiders are ranked as high as No. 22 in two different collegiate polls.
Texas Tech is ranked No. 22 in both Baseball America and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Top 25 polls while the NCBWA (National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association) puts the Red Raiders in at No. 25. The Red Raiders moved up one spot to No. 27 in the Collegiate Baseball Magazine poll after entering those rankings last week at No. 28.
The Tech baseball program, under the guidance of Hall of Fame Head Coach Larry Hays, has been ranked nationally in each of the last 12 seasons.
Under the leadership of Athletics Director Gerald Myers, all four major sports at Texas Tech (Football, Men's and Women's Basketball and Baseball) have earned national Top 25 rankings this season for the second straight year. Texas Tech joins Oklahoma and Texas as the only schools in the Big 12 to accomplish this feat.
RED RAIDERS ARE ON THE PROWL
Opposing pitchers and catchers--BEWARE--Tech is on the prowl again in 2005. After sporting the quickest team in the Big 12 in 2004, the Red Raiders are looking for a repeat. Just 12 games into the season, Texas Tech leads the league with 50 stolen bases, 24 more than second place Texas who has 26 on the year.
Tech has four players who rank in the conference's Top 8 in Cody Fuller, Chris Williams, Joseph Callender and Cameron Blair. Fuller leads the league with 13 stolen bases while Williams is tied for second with 12. The Red Raiders have averaged 110 stolen bases in each of the last four seasons.
RED RAIDER TIDBITS
- Friday's game will mark the fifth all-time meeting between the two schools. Texas Tech and Northern Iowa met for the first time in 2003 when the Panthers came to Dan Law Field for four-games. Tech leads the all-time series 3-1.
- Senior center fielder Cody Fuller, who recently moved into fourth place on the school's all-time stolen bases list, now totals 69 stolen bases in his four year career. Fuller needs just 5 more stolen bases to move into third place all-time. His 13 stolen bases this year leads the Big 12 Conference.
- Texas Tech's team batting average of .360 leads the Big 12 Conference.
- The Red Raiders have won six straight games after dropping their only game of the season to Western Illinois on Feb. 19.
- At 12-1 on the season, the Red Raiders are off to the best start since the 1991 season when that squad also started the year at 12-1. A win on Friday against Northern Iowa would give Tech a 13-1 record and the best start since 1986. Tech's best start to a season came that same season as the Red Raiders jumped out of the gates at 14-1.
- Texas Tech has now played errorless in three of the last four games after committing at least one error in the first nine games of the season.
FROM THE HILL
- Texas Tech's ERA of 3.85 after 13 games is the best for a Red Raider pitching staff since the 2001 season when that squad posted an ERA of 3.73 after its first 13 games. The last time Tech had an ERA of under 4.00 following a considerable stretch of games was in 2002 when Tech had an ERA of 3.31 after its first eight contests.
- Adam Lawford did not issue a single walk in Tuesday's game against UTA and that marked the first time since March 2003 that Tech has not walked at least one batter in a game.
- Junior right-hander Brian Wyatt got his first action of the 2005 season in the game against New Mexico State on Sunday in the Rockhounds College Classic. Wyatt was one of Tech's top prospects out of the bullpen coming into the spring but he had been forced to sit out nearly six weeks due to a case of mononucleosis. Wyatt earned the win in relief of Dustin Richardson as he tossed three innings allowing two hits and struckout three.
- Junior right-hander Billy Carnline turned in one of his best outings of the season against UTSA on Sunday in the Rockhounds Classic. Carnline tossed a season-high seven innings and tied his season-best strikeout mark with six. He entered the weekend struggling with his control as he led the team with 11 walks but did not issue a free pass against the Roadrunners.
- Senior Tanner McElroy is enjoying the most successful tenure of his four-year career with the Red Raiders. McElroy is quickly emerging as the team's closer as he has now recorded saves in back-to-back games. McElroy picked up his first career save against Dallas Baptist last Tuesday and logged another against New Mexico State. He has a 0.00 ERA in three appearances and seven innings of work.
- Senior right-hander Joe McCoy was scheduled to pitch Sunday's game against New Mexico State but was unable to go at game time due to a sore back. McCoy's last substantial outing was against Northern Illinois on Feb. 13 but has been nursing this back problem since then. Team doctors and trainers are hopeful that he will be ready to go for the Northern Iowa series.
- Senior right-handed reliever Adam Fry had a career night against Lamar last Friday. Fry pitched a career-high five innings and tied his career-best strikeout mark with six. He earned the win in his stellar relief role and that gave him his first since the Baylor game on May 22, 2004.
SCOUTING NORTHERN IOWA
Northern Iowa makes its second trip to Lubbock in three seasons as the Panthers come to Dan Law Field for a three-game series over the weekend. Northern Iowa is 3-4 on the year after dropping two games last weekend at the Northwestern State Demon Classic in Louisiana.
Offensively, the Panthers have a team batting average of .285 and are led by third baseman Dave Westergaard's .462 average. Right fielder Ryan Norman has shown the most power for UNI as he leads the team with eight RBI and six doubles. The Panthers do not have a home run yet this season.
On the mound, Texas Tech will face a couple of left-handers on the weekend and Friday's starter Jake Hansen leads the way with a 0.00 ERA in 14 innings of work with 14 strikeouts and five walks. Hansen was named the Missouri Valley Pitcher of the Week for the week of Feb. 21-27 for his efforts against Centenary. The Panthers have a combined ERA of 6.10 and will be looking for some consistency from their bullpen in this three-game series.
Northern Iowa is coming off a 25-31 campaign last year and it was a season marked heavily by injuries. The Panthers finished in a three-way tie for fifth in the Missouri Valley with a 12-20 conference record.
