Texas Tech Athletics
West Virginia
Preview: Tech travels to WVU for pivotal road series
May 11, 2023 | Baseball
TEXAS TECH at No. 12Â WEST VIRGINIA
Morgantown, W.Va. | Monongalia County Ballpark
May 12-14, 2023
- Friday, 3 p.m. CT/ 4 p.m. ET: Watch | Listen | Stats
- Saturday, 3 p.m. CT/ 4 p.m. ET: Watch | Listen | Stats
- Sunday, 12 p.m. CT/1 p.m. ET: Watch | Listen | Stats
STARTERS
The last regular season road trip has arrived, and it's a big one. Big in distance but bigger in the Red Raiders' positioning in the Big 12 race and RPI standings as they travel to West Virginia. The Mountaineers will provide a stern test as they hold a firm grip on first place atop the Big 12 standings and an RPI ranking of 18, entering Friday's matchup. It all amounts to a great opportunity for the Red Raiders to rise in the RPI and shake up the Big 12 standings with a successful weekend.
Coverage will be provided by ESPN+. It will be a solo broadcast booth from Morgantown with Lanny Frattare providing the play-by-play over the weekend. 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.
SCHEDULE CHANGE
It was announced on Thursday afternoon that Friday's series opener would move to a 4 p.m. ET/3 p.m. CT start due to the potential of rain on Friday evening. It was originally slated for a 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT start.
TEXAS TECHÂ IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Texas Tech holds steady this week in the same three polls it resided in last week after falling out of the D1Baseball poll a week prior after the 1-2 week at Kansas State.Â
- Baseball America: No. 15Â (-)
- NCBWA: No. 24Â (-)
- USA Coaches: No. 25Â (-1)
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PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS
- Friday, May 12: LHP Mason Molina (4-2, 4.22 ERA) vs. LHP Ben Hampton (5-1, 3.95 ERA)
- Saturday, May 13: RHP Trendan Parish (3-1, 4.65 ERA) vs. RHP Blaine Traxel (6-4, 3.32 ERA)
- Sunday, May 14: TBA vs. RHP Robby Porco (4-1, 7.60 ERA)
THE RPI DISCUSSION
As recent as the Week 10 poll (released April 24), Texas Tech was ranked No. 14 in the D1Baseball poll but No. 66 in the RPI entering its last road series at Kansas State (April 28-30). The Red Raiders dropped that series 1-2 and tumbled out of the rankings but rose in the RPI to No. 61. Since that trip, Texas Tech has added four wins and one loss to its resume and jumped to No. 51 in RPI entering a huge weekend versus a team that carries a high RPI - West Virginia checking in at No. 18 before the weekend series gets underway.
Why the RPI focus? The RPI, (rating percentage index) is heavily factored into the NCAA tournament selection process at the end of the season when selecting the 64 participants and the 16 regional hosts.
- Texas Tech has been to six-straight regionals and seeking its seventh consecutive trip in 2023.Â
KA$H SMASH
Texas Tech's Gavin Kash is having a historically great season when it comes to hitting home runs. The sophomore became the sixth Red Raider to reach 20 home runs in program history on April 21 versus Baylor. Last time out, Kash hit his 22nd home run of the season moving him into solo third all-time for single-season homers in program history, breaking a tie with Jace Jung's 21 hit in the 2021 season
- Kash's 22 home runs are the most recorded by a Red Raider since the 1997 season when Joe Dillon set the sitting program record of 33 home runs.
HIGH FLYING OFFENSE
Entering Friday's game, Tech ranks at the top of several national categories. (NCAA stat report following games played Wednesday, May 10):
TEAM
- No. 4 in sacrifice flies (35)
- No. 4 in hits (561)
- No. 9 in doubles (114)
- No. 5 in runs (454)
- No. 6 in walks (303)
- No. 10 in on-base pct. (.426)
- No. 10 in runs per game (9.1)
INDIVIDUAL
- Kevin Bazzell
- No. 4 doubles (22)
- Nolen Hester
- No. 7 walks (49)
- No. 10 OBP (.528)
- Gavin Kash
- No. 3 HRs (22)
- No. 3 RBI (76)
- No. 3 T bases (159)
HAPPY GRADUATION WEEKEND
Three Red Raiders, Derek Bridges, Dillon Carter and Ty Coleman, will be celebrating their respective graduations at Monongalia County Ballpark rather than at the United Supermarkets Arena for commencement this weekend. Bridges and Carter have been at Tech for the duration of their collegiate careers while Coleman transferred from Texas A&M. Bridges is an accounting major, Carter an Agricultural Education major and Coleman a University Studies major. Bridges is in his third season while Carter his fourth. Coleman is in his second season at Tech and fifth overall year.
SENIOR DAY QUICKLY APPROACHING
It's May, which means the regular season finale is quickly approaching. Senior Day will be held on Saturday, May 20 in the Red Raiders regular-season finale versus Kansas at 2 p.m. Tech will honor the six-member senior class prior to the game, which includes Bo Blessie (2nd yr. at Tech/Midland College/Midland, TX), Ty Coleman (2nd yr. at Tech/Texas A&M/Midland, TX), Ethan Coombes (1st yr. at Tech/Lubbock Christian/Roswell, NM), Garrett Crowley (2nd yr. at Tech/Fordham/Queens, NY), Nolen Hester (1st yr. at Tech/Wofford/Mount Pleasant, TX) and Zac Vooletich (2nd yr. at Tech/Navarro College/San Antonio, TX).
TEXAS TECH-WEST VIRGINIA SERIES HISTORY
- Friday's meeting will be the 34th all-time between the two programs.
- TTU head coach Tim Tadlock and WVU head coach Randy Mazey were both in their first seasons leading their respective programs when the first head-to-head matchup occurred between the two schools during the Mountaineers' inaugural 2013 season in the Big 12.
- In a closely contested series, Texas Tech broke the 15-15 all-time knot last year in Lubbock by winning two of three to take the slight edge, 17-16, heading into this weekend's matchup.
- Tech has won five of the last six regular-season series against WVU dating back to 2016.
- Tech is 16-11 against WVU in regular season games.
- Tech is 1-5 against WVU in games played during the Big 12 postseason tournament.
- While Tech has never lost a home series to the Mountaineers; games played in the state of West Virginia have been a different story as the Red Raiders are 7-8 in those games and have claimed just two of five all-time series.Â
- In the first-ever meeting in 2013 between the two programs in West Virginia's first season in the Big 12, the matchup was at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston, W. Va., which is approximately 165 miles away from WVU's campus in Morgantown.
- The two played for the first time at the newly built Monongalia County Ballpark in 2015. Tech is 6-6 all-time in that building and won their most recent series played there in 2021, two games to one.
2022 TEXAS TECH-WEST VIRGINIA FLASHBACK
The Red Raiders and Mountaineers had to wait an extra day to tee off their series last season when the Friday evening matchup was postponed due to inclement weather and was pushed to being a Saturday doubleheader on April 23. Texas Tech used arguably its best pitching day of the season to dispatch West Virginia, 7-5 and 12-2 (8 inn. run-rule), and claim the series win in the Saturday doubleheader by two star-studded complete game starts by a pair of future MLB Draft picks, Andrew Morris (fourth round) and Brandon Birdsell (fifth round). The dominant performances from the two pitchers signaled the first time since 2009 that Texas Tech tossed back-to-back complete games. It was a weekend of very highs, as well as lows, for the Red Raiders as West Virginia answered back on Sunday. The finale was tightly contested until the ninth inning, Texas Tech trailing by one, 5-4. watched the Mountaineers explode for 10 runs in the top half of the ninth inning, using eight hits, one of which was a grand slam, leaving with a 15-4 win.
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.
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