No. 4 Tech Travels To Ohio State For Midweek Battle

LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 4 Texas Tech baseball team hits the road for Columbus to take on Ohio State on May 2-3 at Nick Swisher Field at Bill Davis Stadium.

Both Tuesday & Wednesday's games will be played at 5:30 p.m. CDT and can be streamed for free on Buckeye Vision. As always, fans can listen to the game on the Texas Tech Sports Network on 97.3 FM and the TuneIn app, while live stats will be available via TexasTech.Statbroadcast.com.

Tuesday will be the second time in history the Red Raiders (36-12) and the Buckeyes (17-26) have met on the diamond. In 2004 at the Houston College Classic in Minute Maid Park, Tech picked up a 9-4 victory over Ohio State, making Tuesday's game the first true home/road matchup in the series.

Tech is 36-34 all-time against members of the Big Ten conference.

The Red Raiders are coming off a series victory over then-No. 2 TCU in Lubbock last weekend. After dropping a tough battle in game one, 4-1, Tech evened the series with a 6-4 win, needing two days to settle the second game of the weekend. In the finale an hour later, the Red Raiders put up at least one run in every inning en route to 21-3 run-rule of the Horned Frogs to claim the series.

In the third game of the weekend, every Tech hitter in the lineup recorded at least one hit, one run scored and one run driven in, while eight put up multi-hit & multi-run performances. With the series win over the Horned Frogs, the Red Raiders improved to 5-1 this season against top-10 teams.

Earlier in the week, Tech traveled to Albuquerque and split with New Mexico, dropping game one, 16-5, before unleashing a 27-run effort in the final game of the midweek set in a 27-15 victory.

It was the first time since a pair games against Alabama A&M in 2012 the Red Raiders have scored 20 or more runs twice in one week. Overall, Tech threw down 61 runs on 67 hits over five games against the two 2016 NCAA Tournament squads.

Eighteen of those hits and 16 of the runs came from senior infielder Hunter Hargrove and freshman infielder Brian Klein, who were named Big 12 Player & Newcomer of the Week, respectively, on Monday. The duo led the Big 12 with nine hits each last week, while Klein drove in a conference-best 10 runs while scoring eight. Three of his 10 RBI came on a go-ahead, three-run homer in the second game against the Horned Frogs, giving Tech a 6-4 lead. In Albuquerque, Klein posted a career day with four hits and six RBI.

Their accolades gave the Red Raiders nine Big 12 weekly honors in 2017, the most by any Tech team since the beginning of the award process in 1997. Eight different student-athletes have picked up conference recognition this season.

With a pair of 20+ run and hit performances last week, Tech's team average rose to .307 heading into the trip to Columbus. Seven Red Raiders are hitting above .300, with Hargrove leading the way with a .346/.545/.422 line. The Mansfield native continues to lead the Big 12 in hits (66) and doubles (19), while junior infielder Orlando Garcia tops the conference with 52 RBI.

On the other side of the field, the Buckeyes are lead on offense by Dominic Canzone, who has put together a .339 average in 109 at-bats. Tre' Gantt holds the team in hits with 47, while Jalen Washington tops the Buckeyes with 31 RBI. Ohio State will roll out right-hander Jake Vance on Tuesday night, who enters with a 5.79 ERA and an 0-2 record over 14.0 innings pitched and two starts.

The Buckeyes come into the midweek battle after dropping their weekend series against Nebraska. Ohio State took game one, 9-7, but a similar situation with weather caused two games to be played on Sunday, as the Cornhuskers picked up 3-1 & 11-9 victories to claim the conference set. After taking on the Red Raiders, the Buckeyes will travel to Ann Arbor to battle rival Michigan.

After going 3-2 last week, the Red Raiders moved up in every poll, climbing as high as No. 4 in four publications. The USA Today Coaches Poll, Collegiate Baseball, the National College Baseball Writer's Association (NCBWA) and Perfect Game all placed Tech at fourth in their latest rankings. Baseball America (fifth) and D1 Baseball (sixth) also bumped the Red Raiders up two spots from last week's placement.

Tech will go straight from Columbus to Morgantown after the midweek set to take on conference foe West Virginia on May 5-7 at Monongalia County Park.

No. 4 Tech Travels To Ohio State For Midweek Battle

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Players Mentioned

Orlando Garcia

Hunter Hargrove

Brian Klein