No. 7 Red Raiders Open Big 12 Championship vs. KSU

LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 7 Texas Tech baseball team begins the 2019 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship on Wednesday against Kansas State at 12:30 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

Every game of the tournament will air live on FOX College Sports until the Sunday's championship game, which will air on FOX Sports Network. As always, fans can listen to the series on the Texas Tech Sports Network on 97.3 FM and the TuneIn app, while live stats will be available via Big12Sports.com.

Wednesday will be the fifth time the two teams have met at the conference tournament, splitting the first four matchups 2-2. The last meeting came in 2016 as Tech opened its stay in Oklahoma City with an 8-5 win before droppings its next two contests to bow out of the field.

It's the third time in four years the Red Raiders have earned the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. Tech did it in back-to-back years in 2016-17, putting together a 16-8 conference record in 2017 and a 19-5 conference mark in 2016. On Saturday, the Red Raiders clinched the seventh overall championship in program history with an 8-4 victory over TCU on senior day in front of a sold out Rip Griffin Park.

Tech has only won the tournament title once, coming in 1998. Tech defeated No. 18 Oklahoma (5-1) and No. 16 Baylor (11-4) in the first two rounds, before falling to No. 11 Texas A&M (11-7). The Red Raiders followed up by eliminating Oklahoma, 4-3, then took down the Aggies, 14-7, in the championship game.

In the season series, Tech took 2-of-3 against K-State in Manhattan. Rainy conditions Friday forced the teams into a doubleheader Saturday that Tech swept by scores of 11-4 and 4-3. The Wildcats salvaged the finale on Sunday behind three runs in the seventh to hand Tech a 5-4 loss.

Since their last meeting, the Wildcats (25-31, 8-16) have gone 13-15 with a 7-11 conference mark. K-State claimed back-to-back ranked series wins at No. 14 Texas and against No. 19 TCU before dropping its final four series of the season. The Wildcats suffered a sweep at Kansas last weekend and head to Oklahoma City losers of five of their last six.

K-State is led by sophomore outfielder Zach Kokoska, who is the lone Wildcat hitting over .300 at .329 for the season. Junior catcher Chris Ceballos packs the biggest punch with 10 home runs and 38 RBI to lead the team.

Tech heads to Oklahoma City after posting the league's top scoring offense and ERA throughout conference play. The Red Raiders hit .298 as a team with 161 total runs scored. The pitching staff, meanwhile, was more than a full run better than the competition with a 3.45 ERA and 2.33 opposing batting average in its 24-game league slate.

Head Coach Tim Tadlock will start freshman right-hander Micah Dallas (4-0) in the opener. The Aubrey, Texas, native is coming off an impressive start against TCU, throwing seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts to earn Big 12 Newcomer of the Week. Dallas has started the series opener in six of the final seven Big 12 series, leading Tech to a 4-2 mark during that span.

Big 12 Freshman of the year Jordan Wicks will get the rock for K-State. The lefty is 6-2 in 14 starts with a 2.70 ERA. In his last start against Tech, he gave up four runs on eight hits in five innings of work. He struck out nine of the 25 batters he faced with only two walks. The Red Raiders scored two in the third and two in the fifth to grab a 4-3 win.

The Red Raiders picked up 12 end-of-year awards from the Big 12 on Tuesday. Junior Josh Jung was tabbed Big 12 Co-Player of the Year while four other Red Raiders garnered All-Big 12 First Team accolades. Tech also had three players named to the second team, three on the freshman team and three more named honorable mention.

The award is the latest for Jung, who is also a semifinalist for the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy. The Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year, Jung is the fourth Red Raider and third in the last four years to bring in the conference's player of the year.

With the Big 12 regular season title and a 13-2 record in their last 15 games, the Red Raiders moved up as high as No. 7 in the NCBWA poll. Four of the six major polls have Tech inside their top 10. Tech made the biggest jump in the Collegiate Baseball Top 25, climbing three spots to No. 12.

Tech will play at either 9 a.m. or 4 p.m. on Thursday against either West Virginia or Kansas, depending on the outcome of the two games Wednesday.

No. 7 Red Raiders Open Big 12 Championship vs. KSU

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Players Mentioned

Micah Dallas

Josh Jung

Texas Tech University Athletics