Preview: Red Raiders ready for Big 12 tournament

PHILLIPS 66 BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP
Arlington, Texas | Globe Life Field
May 24-28, 2023
Texas Tech (37-19, 12-12) / No. 6-seed

Game 1 - Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. vs. 3-seed West Virginia

Watch | Listen | Stats | Tickets

Game 2 - Thursday, 12:30 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. vs. 2-seed Oklahoma State or 7-seed Oklahoma

12:30 p.m. -- Watch | Listen | Stats | Tickets
7:30 p.m. -- Watch | Listen | Stats | Tickets

Remainder of schedule, TBD

Big 12 Tournament Central | Big 12 Bracket (PDF)

STARTERS
Texas Tech enters the 2023 Big 12 Championship as the No. 6-seed and will kick things off on Wednesday versus No. 3-seed West Virginia, which was its last Big 12 road trip this season. For the first time since 2015, Texas Tech is not a Top 3 seed in the Big 12 tournament; the Red Raiders entered the year as the only Big 12 team to finish in the top three of the league standings every year since 2016, but despite seeding for good or worse, the Red Raiders have not won the tournament since 1998.

Depending on the time slot, coverage will be provided via Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and ESPNU from Globe Life Field. Games over the five-day event will be divided in the broadcast booth by Victor Rojas, Clay Matvick and Keith Moreland fulfilling play-by-play duties. The analyst role will be split between Greg Swindell and Mike Rooney over the length of the tournament. 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 Geoff Haxton will have the call alongside analyst, Jamie Lent.

THE BRACKET BREAKDOWN
The Big 12 Baseball Championship is fielded by eight teams and two divisions. The winner of each division will play a winner-take-all championship game on Sunday at 5 p.m.

Division A

No. 1 Texas
No. 4 TCU
No. 5 Kansas State
No. 8 Kansas

Division B

No. 2 Oklahoma State (game notes PDF)
No. 3 West Virginia (game notes PDF)
No. 6 Texas Tech (game notes PDF)
No. 7 Oklahoma (game notes)

PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS

Wednesday, May 24: LHP Mason Molina (4-2, 3.91 ERA) vs. RHP David Hagaman (1-1, 2.30 ERA)

RED RAIDERS WELL REPRESENTED IN BIG 12 POSTSEASON AWARDS
Kevin Bazzell and Gavin Kash were both named first-team All-Big 12 selections on Tuesday, headlining the Red Raiders' portion of the annual postseason baseball awards. Senior Nolen Hester and sophomore pitcher Mason Molina were each tabbed to the All-Big 12 second team. Junior Brandon Beckel, freshman Gage Harrelson and catcher Hudson White each received All-Big 12 honorable mention nods for their respective seasons. The Big 12 All-Freshman team included Red Raiders' Bazzell, a unanimous selection, as well as Harrelson.

NEW TOURNEY TERRITORY FOR RED RAIDERS
For the first time since 2015, Texas Tech is not a Top 3 seed in the Big 12 tournament. The Red Raiders entered this season as the only program in the Big 12 to finish in the top three of the league standings every year since 2016. Under head coach Tim Tadlock, the Red Raiders' No. 6-seed this season is their lowest position in the postseason tournament since his first year at the helm in 2013 as the No. 8-seed. In 2014 and 2015, Tech was the No. 4 seed and progressed to a Top 3 seed each year thereafter.

The deepest run the Red Raiders have made in the Big 12 Championship under Tadlock was with its one-seed in 2019. Tech won three games, the most at the conference tournament since 1998. Tech advanced as far as Saturday game action that year, falling one game short of the championship game. The Red Raiders played West Virginia twice that day, which is the last time the Red Raiders played the Mountaineers in the tournament. Tech won its first game in the afternoon, its only win in tournament history over WVU, forcing an elimination game in the evening for a chance to play in the championship game that Tech fell short in.

BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY AS THE 6-SEED
In the history of the Big 12 Championship, there have been two No. 6 seeds in the history of the tournament to win the title - the 2006 Kansas Jayhawks (4-0) and the 2012 Missouri Tigers (4-0). Meanwhile, six other teams advanced to the championship game as the No. 6-seed - the 2001 Texas A&M Aggies (3-1), the 2007 Baylor Bears (3-1), the 2010 Baylor Bears (3-1), the 2013 Kansas Jayhawks (3-1), the 2017 Texas Longhorns (3-2), and the 2018 TCU Horned Frogs (3-1).

While Kansas and Missouri won their respective titles as the No. 6-seed. They are not the lowest-seeded teams to ever win the championships. A No. 7-seed has never won the championship, however, two No. 8-seeds have won it all as Missouri did so in 2011 and Oklahoma State did so in 2017.

6-STRAIGHT REGIONALS AND COUNTING
For five-consecutive postseasons, the Red Raiders were one of 16 host sites selected to host the regional round by the NCAA Selection Committee. Texas Tech entered the 2022 season as the only program in the country to host every year since 2016. It was the first time in school history that Tech secured hosting an NCAA Regional in five-straight seasons. The Red Raiders have hosted regional action a total of eight times in Lubbock - 1996, 1997, 1999, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. While that streak was snapped, the tradition of regional appearances continued as the Red Raiders traveled for the Statesboro Regional as the No. 3 seed last year. Since 2014, Tadlock's teams have qualified for regional appearances in seven of the last eight competed seasons (DNQ-2015/COVID-2020).

In each of their six appearances, Tech has at minimum reached the regional final every year.

THE RPI DISCUSSION
If Texas Tech is to reach its seventh straight regional, the RPI needs to continue to trend in the direction it's gone in the month of May. The Red Raiders have seen their RPI improve 22 spots in the month of May from 66 to 44. 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 continued to climb in the rankings that matter most, sporting an RPI of No. 44 (as of May 21).

Quad-1 Notes (post-regular season):

Texas Tech is one of 31 teams in the NCAA that own 10 or more quad-1 wins.
Eight of Tech's 11 quad-1 losses were away from Lubbock.
Six of Tech's 11 quad-1 losses were by two runs or less.
Tech's 21 quad-1 matchups rank T-31st for most in NCAA.

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. On May 5, 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. He went a season-long seven games without a home run before hitting No. 23 to inch him close to tying John Grimes' 24 home runs in 1984.

Kash's 23 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.

LOOK FOR HIM ON BASE
Nolen Hester was just named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week on Monday, May 22. The fifth-year senior transfer reached base in every game of the series, including reaching base four of six times on Friday and all five times he went to the plate on Saturday, finishing with a .667 on-base percentage over the three-game series. But that was to no surprise as Hester owns a Big 12 best 42 consecutive games reached base streak. In fact, he reached base in the regular season in 55-of-56 games with Tech's opening game of its series vs. Rice at Minute Maid Park being the only game he was unsuccessful reaching base. Hester's streak is the longest by a Red Raider since Jace Jung reached base safely in 50 consecutive games in 2021.

BAZZELL'S BAT HAS POP
While everyone is well aware by now of Gavin Kash's ability to hit home runs, his teammate Kevin Bazzell, who he shares an All-Big 12 first-team distinction with, has recently found the power. Last time out, Bazzell hit three home runs in the same game versus Kansas becoming the first Red Raiders to do so since 2022 when Parker Kelly hit three versus Merrimack on March 5. It was the first three-home run game in a Big 12 contest since Jace Jung mashed three in the same game versus TCU on April 11, 2021. Bazzell hit four home runs over the first 47 games of the 2023 season and has connected for six home runs over the last eight games.

A STRONG SECOND HALF
Zac Vooletich was not an everyday starter until the second half of the season, he became one because his ability to hit made him impossible to take out of the lineup. In his 24 starts, Vooletich has successfully had at least one base hit in 22 of his 24 starts and had a multi-hit effort in 15 of his 24 starts. He had a team-best 16-game hit streak and remains hot hitting 21 of the last 22 games. His streak was snapped at West Virginia on Friday, May 12.

--TECH--

Preview: Red Raiders ready for Big 12 tournament

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