Texas Tech Athletics
Western Illinois
Preview: No. 24 Tech hosts Western Illinois
February 23, 2023 | Baseball
WESTERN ILLINOIS at No. 24 TEXAS TECH
Lubbock, Texas | Rip Griffin Park
**SCHEDULE UPDATE | Friday, 9:08 a.m.**
Due to unexpected weather conditions Friday morning ... Tech baseball will play one game – still on for 1 PM – but no doubleheader on Friday.
Feb. 24-26, 2023
- Friday, DH1, 1 p.m.: Watch | Listen | Stats | Tickets
- Friday, DH2: Watch | Listen | Stats | Tickets
- Saturday, 3 p.m.: Watch | Listen | Stats | Tickets
- Sunday, 1 p.m.: Watch | Listen | Stats | Tickets
Texas Tech Game Notes (PDF)Â
PROMO HIGHLIGHTS
- Brooks Wallace Memorial Classic (all games)
- The classic was named in honor of former Red Raider player and coach Brooks Wallace who died tragically at the age of 27 (March 24, 1985) after an ongoing bout with leukemia. Wallace, a four-year standout at shortstop for Tech (1977-80), had a .289 career batting average with 153 hits, 23 doubles, 14 home runs and 97 RBI.
- Friday
- 2-for-1:Â Two games for the price of one for a doubleheader Friday. First 1,000 fans in attendance will receive a Brooks Wallace wristband.Â
- Saturday
- Brooks Wallace: Larry Wallace, brother to Brooks, will throw out the first pitch.Â
Weekend number two is here for the No. 24 Texas Tech baseball team and it will be another four-game series for the home team as Western Illinois travels to town. It will be a Friday doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. followed by games on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. The original schedule pit the two teams together for a doubleheader on Saturday but those plans changed due to the forecast of precipitation early in the day on Saturday.
Coverage will be provided via Big 12 Now on ESPN+. Chris Sylvester (Friday/Sunday) and Matt Warner (Saturday) will share play-by-play duties over the weekend while former Red Raider baseball player Mike Gustafson will provide the analysis for all four games. All broadcasts can be accessed from any desktop or laptop computer, personal cellular device and television streaming services using the ESPN app. Registration for the subscription service can be found at ESPNPlus.com.
Texas Tech Sports Network will also broadcast the game over 46 affiliates throughout the state of Texas and New Mexico as well as on the web via the Varsity App. Geoff Haxton will have the call alongside Jamie Lent on Friday and Sunday. Lent and Chois Woodman will pair together for Saturday's game.
TEXAS TECHÂ IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Once the 2022 season came to a close after its exit in the regional round, Texas Tech finished inside the Top 25 of all six national polls in the end-of-season rankings, extending a streak that started in 2016. Expectations remain the same in 2023 as the Red Raiders landed inside the Top 25 of all six national preseason polls as well as the week one polls released on Feb. 20.Â
- D1Baseball: No. 24
- Baseball America: 22
- NCBWA: No. 20
- Collegiate Baseball: 17
- USA Coaches: No. 21
- Perfect Game: No. 16
PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS
- Friday, Feb. 24 - DH1: RHP Brendan Girton (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Mitchel Sampson (0-0, 9.00 ERA)
- Friday, Feb. 24 - DH2: LHP Taber Fast (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. LHP Tyler Kapraun (0-1, 9.00 ERA)
- Saturday, Feb. 25: LHP Mason Molina (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Jake Armstrong (1-0, 3.38 ERA)
- Sunday, Feb. 26: RHP Bo Blessie (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. LHP Aron Harrington 0-0, 2.25 ERA)
HOT START
Head coach Tim Tadlock's 11th season at the helm of the Red Raiders baseball program is off to a 4-0 start. It is the fifth 4-0 start in his tenure but the 2023 squad has a long way to go to match his 2018 CWS team's 14-0 start to the season. During his tenure, Tadlock has built his alma mater into a national powerhouse, leading the Red Raiders to four College World Series since 2014, being one of six schools in the nation to advance to the CWS in the past nine years.
INSTANT IMPACT
The Red Raiders entered the season with a handful of question marks simply based on the unfamiliarity with this year's squad which features 13 freshmen and seven transfers, but the No. 8 recruiting class in the nation delivered in a big way during the Opening Weekend to help steer Tech to sweeping 2022 regional qualifier Gonzaga, four games to zero. Most notably the impact was seen from five new position players 1B Gavin Kash, LF Nolen Hester, CF Gage Harrelson, 3B Kevin Bazzell and 2B Austin Green. The quintet started all four games and combined to hit .434 (30-for-69) and combined to drive in 24 of the team's 38 RBIs.
FIRST WEEK, TWO BIG 12 WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS
Junior Brendan Girton was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week while Kevin Bazzell was recognized as the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week, the conference announced on Monday, Feb. 20. The first edition of the Big 12 baseball weekly awards was handed out shortly after the Red Raiders completed its four-game series sweep over Gonzaga and encapsulated the first three games of the Red Raiders' four-game series when votes were cast.
UNHERALDED STAR
While Brendan Girton was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and Kevin Bazzell was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week, it could be argued if votes had been held until after the four-game series rather than after the first three games that Texas transfer Gavin Kash would have been in line for Player of the Week. His four-game stat line was an incredible .692 batting average (9-for-13) with two triples, one home run, eight RBIs and four runs scored. His slugging percentage was 1.231 and his on-base percentage was .722 as he worked four walks as well.
SNAPSHOT OF THE OPPONENT - WESTERN ILLINOIS
- The Red Raiders welcome Western Illinois to Lubbock this weekend, a member of the Summit League. Later this season Texas Tech will also host Summit League member North Dakota State, April 6-8.
- Of the seven Summit League members, Western Illinois was picked seventh. NSDU was picked second.
- The Leathernecks are under the direction of interim head coach Tayler Sheriff; it's his second year with the program after serving as the team's pitching coach and recruiting coordinator in 2022. He is a first-year head coach while his two assistants Michael Keeran and Mike Snyder are a pair of first-year assistants with WIU.
- Western Illinois returned 14 players from its 2022 roster from a squad that finished 8-44 last year.Â
- Outfielder Nick Mitchell earned All-League second-team honors a season ago and was the only freshman to earn all-league recognition. Mitchell led all SL players with 30 steals and ranked fourth in BA with a .342 clip.
- Lefthander Jack Bell appeared in a team-high 31 appearances last year, which were 12 more than the next closest Leatherneck, and compiled a team-best ERA of 5.06.
- WIU welcomes 18 new faces to the 2023 roster. Mitchel Sampson was named Summit League Pitcher to Watch for WIU, a junior transfer from Heartland Community College. On the offensive side, Jake Allgeyer was an NJCAA All-American last season at Spoor River Community College.
- The Western Illinois campus is in Macomb, Ill., located in the West-Central part of the state. It's about three hours north of St. Louis, Mo. The enrollment at Western Illinois is 5,626.
SERIES HISTORY - WESTERN ILLINOIS
- Texas Tech and Western Illinois have played each other seven times in their respective histories with the most recent pairing in 2017 in a pair of neutral site games to open the season in Starkville, Miss. It was a four-game set that saw the Red Raiders face Mississippi State twice and the Leathernecks twice.Â
- Western Illinois last traveled to Lubbock for a pair of games in 2007.Â
- Tech is 9-1 all-time against members of the Summit League; the only other SL program Tech has faced was Denver back in 1962.
LAST TIME VS. WESTERN ILLINOIS
The Red Raiders met Western Illinois six seasons ago at Dudy Noble Field, home to the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Feb. 17-18, for Tadlock's first opening weekend not in Lubbock. The Red Raiders won its season opener 15-1 over WIU, which happened to be Tim Tadlock's 150th career win, making him the fastest coach in school history to reach the mark. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Davis Martin, and now a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, put together a strong outing, tossing 6.0 innings, allowing just four hits and one run, while matching a career-high seven strikeouts in the win. After a scoreless first inning from both sides, the Red Raider bats broke through and stayed hot over the next five innings, scoring at least one run in each frame to build a 13-1 lead by the end of the sixth. In that stretch, then-freshman infielder Josh Jung tallied his first career RBI as a Red Raider. In the next game, Tech pieced together a seven-run sixth inning to blow past Western Illinois 13-5. Sophomore right-hander Ryan Shetter in only his second career start, a Friendswood, Texas, native tossed 6.0 innings, giving up just four hits, two runs and striking out a career-high six without issuing a walk.
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPÂ
The 2023 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship, will be hosted at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, May 24-28. For info on attending and tickets, visit Big12Sports.com.
 --TECH--
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