Top 10 Showdown Highlights Trip To Tallahassee

LUBBOCK, Texas – No. 2 Texas Tech baseball travels to the Sunshine State this weekend to battle Florida Atlantic and No. 9 Florida State in a three-game weekend at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla.

The Red Raiders (8-1) will open their visit at 1 p.m. CT, Friday against FAU (7-0), before a pair of top-10 showdowns with the Seminoles (6-1) starting Saturday at 5 p.m. CT and concluding Sunday at 12 p.m. CT.

Both contests against Florida State will be shown on ACC Network Extra and through the WatchESPN app with select service providers. Friday's game against FAU will not be streamed. Each game can be heard on the Texas Tech Sports Network with Jamie Lent and Mike Gustafson on the call. Fans can also follow @TTU_Baseball on Twitter for live updates.

PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday vs. FAU – 1 p.m. CT
RHP Clayton Beeter (1-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. RHP Corey Ireson (1-0, 2.08)

Saturday vs. Florida State – ACC Network Extra – 5 p.m. CT
RHP Bryce Bonnin (2-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. LHP Shane Drohan (0-0, 3.52 ERA)

Sunday vs. Florida State – ACC Network Extra – 12 p.m. CT
RHP Austin Becker (1-0, 3.38 ERA) vs. RHP Conor Grady (2-0, 0.90 ERA)

WEEKEND PRIMER
While Friday's matchup with FAU will be the first between the two schools on the diamond, the Red Raiders and Seminoles have grown quite familiar with each other over the last few years. Tech and FSU met for the first time in 2016, splitting a two-game midweek series in Tallahassee. They were reunited at last year's College World Series, where the Red Raiders eliminated the Seminoles with a 4-1 win in Mike Martin Sr.'s final game of his historic coaching career.

The ninth-ranked Seminoles will be the second Top 25 club Tech has faced this season as the Red Raiders downed No. 15 Stanford, 7-2, last Saturday in front of over 8,000 fans at the Round Rock Classic. In 2019, Tech went 13-8 against top-25 teams, including 4-4 against top-10 opponents.

ABOUT FAU
The Owls are 7-0 on the year with three-game sweeps over Delaware and Binghampton and a midweek win over Florida Gulf Coast. With no midweek, FAU enters Friday with four days of rest.

FAU went 41-21 last season and took home the Conference USA title with a 22-8 conference mark. The Owls qualified for the NCAA Tournament, going 1-2 in the Athens Regional.

ABOUT FLORIDA STATE
The Seminoles are 6-1 this season with its only blemish coming on Opening Day against Niagara. FSU fought back to win its next six games, including a three-game sweep of Cincinnati and a victory over South Florida. FSU's midweek contest this week, scheduled against Jacksonville, got postponed due to rain.

The Seminoles went 42-33 last season and finished third in the ACC Atlantic division at 17-13 in conference play. In Mike Martin's final season, they went on a magical run to the College World Series, where they were eventually eliminated by the Red Raiders. FSU has been to 23 College World Series times and made 42-consecutive NCAA Regionals.

INSIDE THE SERIES: FAU
Friday's meeting between Texas Tech and FAU will be the first in program history. FAU is the first of three C-USA teams Tech will face this season, including Rice and UTSA. Tech is the only Big 12 school the Owls will play this season, although they face power-five schools Miami, Florida and Florida State a combined six times

Texas Tech is 106-85 all-time against current members of Conference USA. Tech last faced off against a C-USA opponent in 2018 against UTEP. The Owls last played a current member of the Big 12 in 2013 (West Virginia). They are 7-5 all-time against current Big 12 schools.

INSIDE THE SERIES: FLORIDA STATE
Saturday's contest between Texas Tech and Florida State will be the fourth in program history with the first matchup taking place in 2016 when the two sides split a two-game midweek series in Tallahassee. That was the last time Tech has traveled to the state of Florida. Both regular-season series between Tech and FSU will feature a ranked matchup as the 2016 meeting had Tech ranked No. 19 and FSU at No. 5.

Last season, the teams met once again in Omaha as the Red Raiders earned a 4-1 win in an elimination game. Saturday starter Bryce Bonnin earned the win over FSU in Omaha last season, tossing 5.0 innings, allowing just one unearned run on two hits with seven strikeouts and four walks. Tech limited FSU to three hits in the contest while Brian Klein and Dylan Neuse combined to score all four runs for Tech.

FSU represents the lone ACC school Tech will face this season, while Tech is the only Big 12 foe for Florida State in 2020 and its first to meet in the regular season since 2016. The Red Raiders are 15-11 all-time against members of the ACC.

REFRESHER
The Red Raiders enter the weekend following a sweep of their first midweek series of the season with 13-2 and 10-3 victories over Southern. It marked the third time in the last four years the Red Raiders have swept their first two-game set against a midweek opponent. The sweep moved the Red Raiders to 6-0 at home as they have outscored their opponents 85-16 at Rip Griffin Park so far this season.

Last weekend, Tech traveled to Round Rock, Texas, where it participated in the inaugural Round Rock Classic along with Tennessee, No. 15 Stanford and Houston. The Red Raiders went 2-1 at the event, shaking off a loss to Tennessee with a 7-2 win over Stanford on Saturday and a walk-off win over Houston in extras on Sunday.

The trip to Round Rock kicked off an absolute gauntlet of a schedule stretching until mid-April. Starting with the midweek against Southern followed by the trip to Tallahassee, Tech plays five days a week for five straight weeks. The next time Tech will enjoy two days between games is March 30-31 before a midweek roadtrip to UTSA. Tech has one more two-day break April 15-16 before a trip to Baylor, and finally sees its first week of rest without a midweek April 20-23 sandwiched between consecutive Big 12 road series. Overall, it's a stretch of 28 games in 38 days through the end of March and 41 games in 59 days through the Baylor series April 17-19.

UP NEXT
Texas Tech opens up a busy home slate in the month of March with a two-game midweek set against UNLV followed by a three-game series with Rice next weekend. The matchup with the Rebels begins a stretch with 16-of-20 games at home throughout the end of March.

Tickets can be purchased in advance on TexasTech.com or by calling 806-742-TECH. The Rip Griffin Park Ticket Office opens on gamedays two hours prior to first pitch.

?? Dick Howser Stadium

Time to get some work in.

??#WreckEm?? pic.twitter.com/lpuVFJXyGi
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) February 27, 2020

Top 10 Showdown Highlights Trip To Tallahassee

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Players Mentioned

Austin Becker

Clayton Beeter

Bryce Bonnin

Brian Klein

Dylan Neuse