Tech welcomes Baylor for three game set

LUBBOCK, Texas – Heading toward the midpoint of the Big 12 schedule and the overall schedule, Texas Tech Baseball will play host to Baylor this Friday through Sunday for another key Big 12 series.

With just five series to go following the weekend with the Bears, the Red Raiders sit right in the middle of the Big 12 standings, tied for eighth with Baylor and Houston. The Red Raiders of course swept UH to open Big 12 play.

The weekend begins on Friday night at 6:30, with a pennant giveaway, and continues on Saturday afternoon with a 2 p.m. first pitch. The weekend closes on "Masters Sunday" with a 1 p.m. first pitch.

Sunday's giveaway will be a Texas Tech themed golf towel.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (9-20, 5-7 Big 12) vs. Baylor (21-11, 5-7 Big 12)
DATE: Friday, April 11
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Mac Heuer (1-2, 6.15 ERA) vs. LHP Ethan Calder (3-3, 5.31 ERA)

GAME TWO:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (9-20, 5-7 Big 12) vs. Baylor (21-11, 5-7 Big 12)
DATE: Saturday, April 12
TIME: 2 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Zane Petty (0-1, 3.86 ERA) vs. LHP Carson Bailey (2-1, 5.40 ERA)

GAME THREE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (9-20, 5-7 Big 12) vs. Baylor (21-11, 5-7 Big 12)
DATE: Sunday, April 13
TIME: 1 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
PITCHING MATCHUP: TBA vs. TBA

HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
* Sitting in the middle of the pack in the crowded Big 12 standings and heading toward the second half of the conference slate, Texas Tech Baseball welcomes Baylor this weekend for the fifth of 10 Big 12 series. The Red Raiders and Bears are two of three teams (Houston) that are tied for eighth in the crowded and congested Big 12 standings. Kansas leads the Big 12 at 9-3 followed by a quartet of teams at 8-4 (Arizona, Arizona State, TCU and Kansas State). West Virginia, who saw two games at OSU canceled, sits at 7-3, three games (in the loss column) clear of 6-6 Cincinnati. Tech, Baylor and Houston are tied at 5-7, a game clear in both the win and loss column of 4-6 OSU. BYU (4-9), UCF (3-9) and Utah (2-10) round out the 14 team standings.

* The Red Raiders will look to snap a three-series losing streak this weekend against Baylor. That stretch dates back to a series loss to TCU and includes a sweep at KST and last weekends tough series loss to UC.

* This weekends series against Baylor will also feature a pair of promotional items, as the Friday night contest will feature a Texas Tech Baseball pennant giveaway while Sunday's contest will be "Masters Sunday" and will feature a golf towel giveaway. Also on Saturday, Texas Tech rising sophomore Christian Anderson will be on hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
SERIES NOTES:

NO WEATHER ISSUES THIS TIME WE HOPE (KNOCK ON WOOD)

In an ironic twist of fate, the last two times Tech and Baylor have met for a weekend series weather has played a serious factor. After a beautiful Friday night game in Waco, the rest of last years series was seriously impacted, as the Saturday contest between Tech and Baylor was delayed over three hours and ultimately suspended until Sunday morning. After closing out the second game of the series, the Red Raiders and Bears again ran into weather issues late Sunday afternoon, as the finale again went into an extended weather delay. The Red Raiders and Bears also had a series impacted due to weather two years ago, as the Sunday finale was moved to a doubleheader on Saturday. In looking at the weather forecast for this weekend, the Bears and Red Raiders should have no issues playing three games in their normally scheduled

SETTING WEATHER RECORDS IN BACK-TO-BACK WEEKS

After playing a Baseball game in 40 degree weather last Sunday morning (the first pitch temp of 43 degrees tied the all-time low first pitch temp in April in recorded history), the Red Raiders will could set a pair of game high temperature records this weekend on both Saturday and Sunday. The all-time first pitch high is 90 degrees set back on April the 12th, 2014. According to the Weather Channel, Saturday's first pitch temp is projected to be 89 degrees while Sunday's first pitch temperature is projected to be 92 degrees.

LOG JAM IN THE STANDINGS |

As teams approach the midpoint of Big 12 play (this weekend will be the fifth of 10 Big 12 weekends), there remains to be a log jam at both the top and the middle of the crowded Big 12 standings. Kansas leads the way at 9-3 followed by WVU at 7-3 (WVU has played just 10 conference games), but four different teams sit tied at 8-4 (TCU, Arizona, Arizona State and Kansas State), meaning that five teams sit separated by just one game. When you go to the middle of the pack in the Big 12 standings the same cane be said, as five different teams sit with either six or seven Big 12 losses. Cincinnati at 6-6 in Big 12 play sits in solo seventh, following by a three-way tie between Tech, Baylor and UH. The Red Raiders and Bears of course play this weekend, while Tech swept UH to open Big 12 play. The Bears and Cougs played last weekend in Waco, as the Cougs took the series two-games to one on the road. OSU lurks just one game behind at 4-6. The Cowboys, who will play just 28 conference games this season after two-of-three games against WVU were canceled due to wild fires head to Arizona this weekend while Houston hosts No. 23 WVU.

LOOKING TO SNAP THE SERIES STREAK

Entering the weekend at 5-7 overall, the Red Raiders have lost three straight Big 12 series and back-to-back home Big 12 series. If the Red Raiders don't at least win 2-of-3 this weekend, they will lose a third-straight home series for the first time since 2013, Tim Tadlock's first season in Lubbock. After sweeping Houston in Houston, the Red Raiders fell in two of the three game against TCU before getting swept at KU. The Red Raiders saw Cincy win 2-of-3 last weekend marking the second-straight home series loss. Again the four-straight Big 12 series losses would mark the first time since 2013 that Tech hadn't won a series in four-straight weekends.

12 HOME GAMES IN APRIL

After playing just nine home games in the first two months of the regular season, the Red Raiders will play 12 times at Rip Griffin Park during the month of April. That stretch began last weekend with the weekend series against the Bearcats and continues this weekend with the series against Baylor (Apr. 11-13). Following a weekend trip to Arizona State (Apr. 17-19) on Easter weekend, the Red Raiders will head to ACU for the first game of a two-day home-and-home against the Wildcats (Apr. 21-22). The Red Raiders will close the month of April with a weekend series against Arizona (Apr. 25-27) and a midweek series against UTRGV (Apr. 29-30).

THE SCHEDULE HAS CHALLENGED US

In addition to playing 17 of the first 29 games away from home the Red Raiders have played one of the nations most difficult and challenging schedule. According to Warren Nolan the Red Raiders enter the weekend at No. 2 overall in SOS and No. 6 in the country in non-con SOS. Entering action this week the Red Raiders have played just three Quad Four games (Tech is 2-1) and just 13 games against Q3 and Q4 teams.

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders return to action next weekend when they head to Arizona State for a Thursday-Saturday set with the Sun Devils. The series features an 8:30 p.m. (CT)/6:30 (MST) start on Thursday and a 9 p.m. (CT)/7 p.m. (MST) first pitch on Saturday. The series finale on Sunday is set for a 3 p.m. (CT)/1 p.m. (MST) first pitch.

Tech welcomes Baylor for three game set

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Players Mentioned

Mac Heuer

Zane Petty

Tech welcomes Baylor for three game set

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Mac Heuer

Zane Petty

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