Tech set for Las Vegas College Baseball Classic

Friday, February 28

Las Vegas, Nev.

4 p.m. (CT)/2 p.m. (PT)

Texas Tech Athletics

Illinois

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Tech set for Las Vegas College Baseball Classic

February 27, 2025 | Baseball

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The Red Raiders will face Illinois (Friday), No. 15 Texas (Saturday) and Washington (Sunday) in the three-game event

By: Andrew Stern

LAS VEGAS – Texas Tech Baseball heads to Sin City this weekend for the 2025 Las Vegas Baseball Classic hosted by Peak Events and the Las Vegas Aviators.

Playing in the event for the first time, Texas Tech will face Illinois on Friday afternoon, Texas on Saturday night and the University of Washington on Sunday afternoon.

First pitch for Friday's game against the Illini is set for 4 p.m. (CT)/2 p.m. (PT) while Saturday's middle game against the 15th-ranked Longhorns is set for 6 p.m. (CT)/4 p.m. (PT). Sunday's finale against Washington is set for 5 p.m. (CT)/3 p.m. (PT).

All three games of the weekend event will be live streamed on both D1Baseball.com (Subscription required) and the Texas Tech Sports Network. Fans can use code: TTU 25 for $10 off the price of the monthly subscription required to watch the games.

The Red Raiders will face off with the University of Illinois for the first time in program history and against Washington for the first time in the regular season. The Red Raiders will face longtime rival UT for the 179th time on Saturday but for the first time since UT left the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference.

INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:

GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (1-5) vs. Illinois (5-2)
DATE: Friday, Feb. 28, 2025
TIME: 4 p.m. (CT)/2 p.m. (PT)
LOCATION: Las Vegas, Nev. (Las Vegas Ballpark)
STREAM: D1Baseball.Com (Paid monthly subscription required)

GAME TWO:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (1-5) vs. No. 15 Texas (6-1)
DATE: Saturday, Mar. 1
TIME: 6 p.m. (CT)/4 p.m. (PT)
LOCATION: Las Vegas, Nev. (Las Vegas Ballpark)
STREAM: D1Baseball.Com (Paid monthly subscription required)

GAME THREE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (1-5) vs. Washington (3-6)
DATE: Sunday, Mar. 2
TIME: 5 p.m. (CT)/3 p.m. (PT)
LOCATION: Las Vegas, Nev. (Las Vegas Ballpark)
STREAM: D1Baseball.Com (Paid monthly subscription required)

HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
* Texas Tech Baseball returns to the road for the first of three consecutive weekends away from Lubbock this weekend when they head to the Las Vegas College Baseball Classic where matchups against Illinois (Friday), Texas (Saturday) and Washington (Friday) await. Friday's matchup against the Illini is set for a 4 p.m. (CT)/2 p.m. (PT) first pitch. Friday's matchup against Illinois will be the first between the two schools in program history.

* Following the Friday afternoon clash with Illinois, the Red Raiders will meet a familiar foe, as the University of Texas awaits. The most common opponent in program history, the Red Raiders and Longhorns will meet for the 179th time in program history and for the first time since Texas' move to the SEC. Saturday's matchup is set for 6 p.m. (CT)/4 p.m. (PT).

* Following the first time games against Illinois and Texas, the Red Raiders will close the weekend on Sunday afternoon with a 5 p.m. (CT)/3 p.m. (PT) matchup against Washington. All three games of this weekend's Las Vegas Classic will be live streamed on D1Baseball.com (Subscription required).

MATCHUP NOTES:

TWO NEWBIES AND A FAMILAR FOE

The Red Raiders weekend matchups (Illinois, Texas and Washington) features a pair of new opponents and the most familiar opponent in program history. The Red Raiders have never faced Illinois in program history and will be meeting Washington for the first time in the regular season in school history. On the flip slide the Red Raiders and Longhorns are meeting on Saturday night for the 179 time in program history and for the fifth time in less than a calendar year.

SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE

The Red Raiders and Longhorns are meeting for the first time as non-conference opponents in the entire 178 game history of the rivalry. The Red Raiders and Longhorns first met back in 1968 when both programs were members of the Southwest Conference. Both Texas Tech and Texas moved to the Big 12 Conference in 1996. The Longhorns of course left the Big 12 Conference after the 2023-24 athletic season in favor of the Southeastern Conference.

LAST TIME WAS A WILD ONE

The last time that the Red Raiders and Longhorns met was a wild one as infielder Cade McGee hit a go-ahead two-run home run off the left field foul pole. The home run which came of Texas' Andre Duplantier, gave the Red Raiders a 6-4 lead and pushed them into the winners bracket at the Big 12 Tournament. The matchup would be the final between the two schools as conference foes.

SIN CITY REUNION

The Red Raiders return to Sin City for the first time since the 2016 season this weekend when they face Illinois on Friday, Texas on Saturday and Washington on Sunday. The Red Raiders last placed in Las Vegas against UNLV back on Mar. 28, 2016. The matchups this weekend at the Las Vegas College Classic will mark the first time that the Red Raiders will play neutral site games in Las Vegas.

WE WERE HOME NOW BACK TO THE ROAD

After spending opening weekend on the road at No. 6 UNC, the Red Raiders returned home for their lone weekend home series until Mar. 21 last weekend when they played host to the Anteaters of UC Irvine. Following this weekends games in Vegas, the Red Raiders will hit the road for a pair of true road weekends at Grand Canyon (Mar. 7-9) and the Big 12 opening series of the year at Houston (Mar. 14-16).

NEW PLACES, SAME FACES

This weekends matchup in the Las Vegas features a pair of foes who are competing in different conferences this season for the first time. Of course, Texas is partaking in its maiden season in the SEC, while Washington will compete as a member of the Big 10 for the first time this season. The Red Raiders will face a member of the Big 10 Conference for the fourth straight season. Last year, Texas Tech faced Nebraska in Arlington, while in 2023 and 2022 Tech faced Michigan in Houston (2023) and Arlington (2022). The Red Raiders have won three straight games against the Big 10 Conference dating back to a 2019 loss to Michigan in Omaha at the 2019 CWS.

CONTINUING A NCAA STRETCH

This weekends series against UCI continues a stretch of eight straight games against NCAA Tournament foes from a season ago and a span of 11 games against NCAA Tournament team from 2024 in the season's first 14 games. The Red Raiders of course opened the weekend series with No. 6 UNC, the Red Raiders will return home to Rip Griffin Park for a weekend series with UC Irvine before heading to Vegas to face Illinois (Feb. 28), No. 19 Texas (Mar. 1) and Washington. UNC, UCI, Illinois and Texas all made the field of 64 a year ago. The Red Raiders stretch of 11/14 games against NCAA foes concludes with a weekend series at GCU. In the end, Tech will play 24 games against NCAA teams from a season ago beginning once again with the sixth-ranked Tar Heels.

ROAD RED RAIDERS

The Red Raiders will become accustom to the road in 2025 as Tech will play just 26 of 53 games at home this season. Starting with the weekend set at No. 6 UNC, the Red Raiders will play 12 of their first 17 games away from the friendly confines of Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field and will play just 10 of their first 26 games at home. In the end, Texas Tech's 27 road games will bring the squad to seven different states: (Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and West Virginia). The Red Raiders in 2025 will play just 31 of 53 games inside the State of Texas. The Red Raiders 26 home games are the fewest in a season since 2022 when Tech also played just 26 games at Rip Griffin Park. The fewest home games the Red Raiders have played in a season was 2009 when Tech played just 22 total home games.

PLAYED THEM TO NO MARGIN

Despite losing the series two games to one, the Red Raiders played now ranked No. 20 UC Irvine to an even margin last weekend. After suffering a two-run defeat on Friday afternoon, the Red Raiders rebounded to win Saturday's game by three runs to bring their weekend run margin to +1. On Sunday afternoon, the Red Raiders fell by a singular run to bring the weekends margin to a dead even zero.

POMPEY AND HUGHES EARN D1 RECOGNITION

Fresh a weekend that saw the Red Raiders hit seven home runs and score 28 runs, sophomores TJ Pompey and Logan Hughes were named to the D1Baseball Top-100 Hitters from this past week, the publication announced Monday. Continuing where he left off after a strong offensive weekend at No. 6 North Carolina, Pompey went 6-for-13 with two home runs, six runs scored and six RBIs. Pompey scored twice in all three games and drove in at least one run in all three games. After a 3-for-4 day with a double and a home run on Friday afternoon, Pompey went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and a stolen base in Tech's 15-12 win over nationally-ranked UC Irvine. On Sunday afternoon, Pompey also shined at the plate, as the righty homered and scored twice in the Red Raiders series finale against UC Irvine. The Red Raiders other honoree, Hughes, also shined this weekend at the plate as well as in the field. After a tough 0-for-4 on Friday afternoon, Hughes caught fire on Saturday and Sunday going a combined 4-for-8 in the final two games of the weekend with a pair of home runs and nine total RBIs. In Saturday's win over the Anteaters, Hughes went 2-for-3 with three runs scored and four RBIs, before added a pair of hits, a home run and five RBIs in the Red Raiders Sunday game against UCI.

ZP IS BACK

After battling through multiple injuries in 2024, Texas Tech junior Zane Petty made his much anticipated return to action in last Friday's season-opener at No. 6 UNC. Petty, who saw action for the first time since last Mar. 19 against Abilene Christian, threw three strong innings, allowing just three hits and one run. Petty struck three batters and walked just one all while flashing his patented mid 90s fastball and strong slider. Moving back into the weekend rotation this week, Petty enters the weekend with six straikeouts and just one run allowed in 5.1 innings pitched. His ERA sits at 1.69.

KYE IS A THREAT ON THE BASES

After recoding 43 stolen bases in his lone season at Galveston College a season ago, Texas Tech sophomore Kyeler Thompson has flashed some of that patented speed in so far as Thompson has stolen five bases thus far and has not been caught stealing. Thompson also sits with the third most runs on the team as the outfielder has scored five times in six games. Thompson's five stolen bases are the third most in the league currently trailing just ASUs Kien Vu and Cincinnati's Landyn Vidourek who have eight and six bags respectively.

TJs SWINGING IT

Following a strong freshman campaign that featured 10 home runs and 12 stolen bases, sophomore TJ Pompey has looked the part at the plate during the seasons first two weeks. After homering twice on opening weekend, Pompey added two more home runs last weekend against UC Irvine to bring his seasons total to four. Pompey leads the Red Raiders in home runs (4), hits (9), on-bast percentage (.480), slugging percentage (1.000) and runs scored (8). Pompey co-leads thew Big 12 in home runs and leads the Big 12 in slugging percentage (1.000) and slugging percentage (1.480). Pompey enters the weekend tied for ninth in the country in home runs per game (.67) and 15th in total home runs. Pompey is also 20th in slugging percentage.

FIVE RED RAIDER DEBUTS

In the weekend series against UC Irvine the Red Raiders saw five players make their Red Raider debuts including Freshmen Colman Ryan and Connor Mohan as well as transfer arms Logan Bevis (USF), Johnny Lowe (Cisco College/UT Tyler) and Daniel Bass (Midland College). Ryan started all three games at shortstop for the Red Raiders last weekend and went 2-for-7 (.286) with a pair of RBIs and three walks, while his classmate, Mohan pitched two scoreless innings allowing just one base runner to reach on an error. Bevis fired 1.2 innings in his Red Raider debut and didn't allow a run or a hit while Bass stuck out a pair and did not allow a run in his two-thirds of an inning. After stranding the bases loaded by retiring a pair of batters in order, Lowe struggled in the top of the fourth, as the righty allowed a lead-off single, a two run home run and a third hit before departing with runners on the corners and one out.

CROTCHFELT GETS HIS FIRST

Auburn transfer Zach Crotchfelt got his first win as a Red Raider in Saturday's 15-12 win over UC Irvine, as the lefty pitched 2.2 innings and allowed just four hits and one run. Crotchfelt struck out one over his 44 pitches of work. The win was his third career win. The lefty went 2-3 all-time at Auburn in 24 appearances and six starts.

RED RAIDER POP

In the weekend series with UC Irvine, three different Red Raiders connected on the first career home runs. On Friday afternoon, leading off the game, outfielder Kyeler Thompson cleared the wall in left for his first career D-I home run. A transfer from Galveston College, Thompson homer tied the game at one all. Other first career home runs included Freshman Kendyl Johnson homering off the batters eye in Saturday's win over the Anteaters. The third Red Raider "First" home run came off the bat of Logan Hughes in Saturday's game, as Hughes homered in both Saturday and Sunday's contest. The homers for Hughes were the ninth and 10th of his career, as the outfielder homered eight times during his Freshman season at Stetson.

HAVEN'T BEEN UNDER THE LIGHTS

So far this season, the Red Raiders have yet to play a night game amongst it's first six games of the season, as all six of the Red Raiders contests have had a first pitch before 5 p.m. local time. The Red Raiders closest gametime to a night game came on opening day at UNC when the Red Raiders played a true doubleheader. After the first game of the doubleheader started at 12:00 p.m. the second game of the double-dip began at 3:50 p.m. local time. The Red Raiders series finale at UNC was also an afternoon game, as first pitch occurred at Noon. Originally slated to play its first night game in the series opener against UCI, the game time was moved up to 2 p.m. to accommodate weather conditions. The other two games of the weekend set against UCI were set for 2 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. first pitches. The Red Raiders will not play a night game in this weekends Las Vegas Baseball Classic either, as the three games are set for 2 p.m. (PT), 4 p.m. (PT) and 3 p.m. (PT). Tech's first true night game the Red Raider will play will occur on Tuesday night against UC San Diego. First pitch from Dan Law Field on Tuesday is set for 6:35 p.m.

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders return home to Rip Griffin Park at Dan Law Field this week for a pair of midweek contests on Tuesday (6:30 p.m.) and Wednesday (6:30 p.m.) night against UC San Diego.