No. 3 Tech Continues Homestand With NMSU Tuesday

LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 3 Texas Tech baseball team returns to action for its final game of the home stand against New Mexico State on Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 2 p.m. at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park.

Tuesday's contest will be shown online on TexasTech.TV with a paid subscription and can be heard on the Texas Tech Sports Network on 97.3 FM, the TuneIn app & the 97.3 app.

The Red Raiders (4-0) welcome in the Aggies (2-1) after putting together a four-game sweep of Maine (0-4) during the season-opening weekend on Feb. 16-18. Tech grinded out a 4-2 victory on Opening Day against the Black Bears, then rolled in the Saturday doubleheader by scores of 12-1 & 12-5. The Red Raiders wrapped the weekend with a 21-6 rout to put the bow on the first series between the two programs.

Tech racked up 49 runs & 48 hits against the Black Bears in the opening weekend. Six Red Raiders recorded multi-hit games, totaling 11 for the weekend, as sophomore infielder Josh Jung led the way with three. Jung also paced the team in multi-RBI performances with three of the team's 14, while six other student-athletes had at least one performance with multiple RBI driven in.

Jung's performance at the plate helped him earn Big 12 Player of the Week for the first time in his collegiate career. The award was announced Monday in conjunction with Big 12 Newcomer of the Week, which was given to Red Raider freshman Gabe Holt. It marked back-to-back years a Red Raider duo had won the two awards after the opening weekend of the season, as Jung (Newcomer) and Hunter Hargrove (Player) took home the honors after the 2017 opener against Western Illinois & Mississippi State.

Holt finished the weekend with eight hits, four for extra bases, including two doubles, a triple and a homer. He also drove in six RBI and score five runs, while throwing down two three-hit bids in each of the last two games of the series.

Both Jung & Holt came a triple away from the cycle in two different games over the weekend. Jung's happened on Opening Day, as he hit a double, a single & a homer in his first three at-bats. Holt opened Saturday's second game of the doubleheader with a home run & a double in the first inning, then a single in the seventh. He would get his triple the next day in his first at-bat of the finale against the Black Bears. Last season, Tech student-athletes had five separate occasions where they needed one more base hit to hit for the cycle. The last cycle by a Red Raider was in 2008 when Chris Richburg did it against New Mexico State in Roswell, New Mexico (April 23, 2008).

Head coach Tim Tadlock will hand the ball over to junior right-handed pitcher Ryan Shetter for the start on the mound on Tuesday afternoon. Last season, Shetter racked up a 4-1 record over 15 starts, putting together a 3.71 ERA. He struck out 74 batters over 70.1 innings, while walking just 27. Shetter had two separate occasions with 10 or more strikeouts, doing so against California on Feb. 25, then followed it in conference play with 11 against Kansas on May 19. He appeared briefly during Tech's series opening weekend against Maine on Friday, tossing 1.0 frame, giving up one run, walking two and punching out one Black Bear.

On the other side of the field, the Aggies will run out junior RHP Brock Whittlesey against the Red Raiders. Whittlesey transferred to New Mexico State from Gateway CC and made his first appearance as an Aggie on Saturday, throwing 2.1 innings against Towson, striking out four.

Texas Tech entered the 2018 campaign with its highest collection of preseason rankings in program history. The Red Raiders are ranked No. 3 in three polls: D1 Baseball, the USA Today Coaches & the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Perfect Game slotted Tech at No. 4, while Baseball America & Collegiate Baseball Newspaper round it out with No. 5 marks, giving the Red Raiders a unanimous top-five ranking. After the first weekend of the year, Tech did not move in the four polls that were released on Monday.

After Tuesday's game with the Aggies, the Red Raiders hit the road for a three-game set with UTSA on Feb. 23-25 at Roadrunner Field, followed by a midweek contest at UTRGV in Edinburg.

No. 3 Tech Continues Homestand With NMSU Tuesday

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Players Mentioned

Hunter Hargrove

Gabe Holt

Josh Jung

Ryan Shetter