Tech and ACU, set for Monday Midweek

LUBBOCK, Texas – The Red Raiders head to Abilene Monday for a midweek contest at Abilene Christian.

Originally scheduled for a two-game home-and-home series against the Wildcats, the Red Raiders will instead play just once against ACU this week, as Tuesday's contest in Lubbock against ACU has been postponed.

With just 10 days left in the month of April, Tech will play six times over those 10 days, with fie of those contests coming at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park. The Red Raiders last series of April will be a two-game midweek against UTRGV next Tuesday (Apr. 29) and Wednesday (Apr. 30).

INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:

GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (12-23) at Abilene Christian (24-14)
LOCATION: Abilene, Texas (Crutcher Scott Field)
DATE: Monday, Apr. 21, 2025
TIME: 6:05 p.m.

HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
* Texas Tech begins a crucial six-game stretch to close the Month of April this week when they head to ACU on Monday. The Red Raiders have won five-straight against ACU and six-straight games in Abilene. That streak includes last years 21-3 run-rule win at ACU.

* After Monday's road contest at Abilene, the Red Raiders will kick off a six-game homestand with a weekend set against Arizona before closing the stand with a midweek series against UTRGV. The next three teams Tech will face are a combined (78-38, .672 winning pct) with Arizona (No. 17) and UTRGV (No. 31) checking in inside the top-35 of the RPI. ACUs RPI sits at 200.

* The Red Raiders will look to build upon Saturday's series finale against ASU this week against a pair of teams with a Wildcat as their mascot. Of course the first game of the week will be against the Wildcats of Abilene Christian while the weekend series will be against the Wildcats of Arizona. Arizona and ACU are two of the 10 schools that garner the "Wildcat" nickname. That list also includes Big 12 foe K-State, Kentucky, Northwestern, Davidson, Villanova, New Hampshire and Weber State.

SERIES NOTES:

WINNING STREAK AGAINST THE 'CATS

The Red Raiders enter the series against ACU riding a five-game winning streak in the overall series and having won six straight games in Abilene. The Red Raiders last loss in the overall series to ACU was back on Apr. 26, 2022 when ACU defeated the Red Raiders 8-5 in Lubbock. Since that contest, the Red Raiders have won the last five matchups and have scored at least nine runs in those matchups. In Abilene, the Red Raiders have won the six straight matchups dating back to an Apr. 20, 1976 loss to ACU. Overall the Red Raiders have won 17 out of 18 in the series.

LAST TIME WAS HISTORIC

The last time that Tech and ACU met up, an Apr. 10 meeting in Abilene last season, the Red Raiders not only won the game 21-3 in seven innings, but the Red Raiders launched a program record nine home runs in the seven innings. In that contest the Red Raiders homered in the first six innings of the contest as five different Red Raiders homered and four different Red Raiders hit multiple home runs.

A BIG QUAD ONE WIN AND A BIGGER BOUNCE BACK

After dropping the continuation of the middle game of the weekend series that was suspended in the bottom of the seventh, the Red Raiders were once again tasked with needing to respond after facing adversity, as the third and final game of the series commenced just a mere 45 minutes after the final pitch of game two. The Red Raiders immediately bounced-back using a Kyeler Thompson double and a two-run Logan Hughes home run to race out to an early 2-0 lead. Adversity once again struck in the bottom of the first inning when Arizona State needed just five pitches to tie the game at two on a lead-off double, a triple and an error. With the game deadlocked at two, Damian Bravo stepped up with one of the defensive plays of the year for Tech, when he gunned down a Sun Devil runner trying to advance to third on a flyout. The outfield assist brought the innings second out. The 7-5 putout proved to be a bit of turning point in the game for the Red Raiders as starter Zane Petty after a two out single that would have scored Arizona State's Matt King, combined to retire the next 10 batters in a row and 14 of the next 15 batters. The lone baserunner from the two out single in the first until the one-out walk in the sixth was a lead-off double in the fifth that Petty stranded. At the plate, five different Red Raiders homered including catcher Davis Rivers who launched two of Tech's six home runs on the day and drove in four of the 12 runs. The win for the Red Raiders was categorized as a "Quad One" victory, as ASU currently sits inside the top-50 of the RPI. The Q1 win for Tech was its third of the season as the Red Raiders also earned singular Saturday wins against TCU (Mar. 22) who is No. 16 in the RPI and UCI Irvine (No. 21 RPI).

HUGHES HAD A WEEKEND

Sophomore Logan Hughes continues to cement his status as one of the best players in the Big 12 Conference this season, as this weekend at Arizona State, Hughes went 6-for-15 (all six hits went for extra-bases) with five doubles, a home run and five RBIs. In Friday's second game on ESPN2, Hughes shined in front of a national-TV audience, going 2-for-5 with three runs scored. On Saturday, Hughes immediately set the tone for Tech, as he homered in the first to give the Red Raiders a 2-0 lead before adding a two-run double in the eighth. On Sunday, Hughes went 3-for-6 with three runs scored, two doubles, a home run and four RBIs. Hughes recorded at least one double in all three games and drove in a run or scored in all three games and in the field did not make an error in 14 total chances.

RIVERS HAD A 24 HOURS

After Dylan Maxcey started the first 16 games of Big 12 play, the Red Raiders turned to Davis Rivers for the final two games of the weekend series against ASU and Rivers delivered. After ripping a bases-clearing 106 MPH go-ahead double on Friday night, Rivers hit over 850 feet of home runs on Saturday hitting a 414' three-run home run in the third before adding a 438-foot blast that left the bat at 113 MPH. Rivers also threw out a base runner stealing on Saturday in his start behind the plate

PETTY SHOVED

With the Red Raiders in search of length after getting less than two innings from Thursday's starter Mac Heuer and just five innings from Tyler Boudreau on Friday, RHP Zane Petty gave the Red Raiders exactly what they needed on Saturday afternoon, as the righty went eight innings and allowed just six hits and three runs. A week after lasting less than three innings and giving up four home runs, Petty was magnificent in a bounce-back performance pitching into both the seventh and eighth innings for the first time in his career. After a rocky first, Petty recorded three straight 1-2-3 innings in the second, third and fourth, before working around a lead-off double in the fifth. Petty ended a scoreless sixth on a groundball double before closing another 1-2-3 inning in the seventh with a strikeout. In the eighth, Petty allowed a pair of doubles and a run before winning an eight-pitch battle with ASUs Matt King.

SCHULZE SHINES

Earning a start at third base in Saturday's series finale, Peyton Schulze had a huge day, going 4-for-5 with a double a and a home run. The home run was his first as a Red Raider while the four hits tripled his hit total for the season as entering the game, Schulze had just two hits all season. The homer was the 20th of his career, after hitting a pair of home runs at Long Beach as a Freshman and 17 home runs in two seasons at Cal.

LAST ROAD GAME BEFORE MAY

This week's home-and-home series against ACU marks the beginning of a crucial stretch for the Red Raiders. Monday's road game in Abilene will be the final road game of the month of April as Tech will embark on a six-game homestand to close the month of April beginning with Tuesday's contest against ACU. The homestand continues this weekend when new Big 12 foe Arizona visits The Rip for a three-game weekend set before concluding with a midweek series against UTRGV. Both the series against Arizona and UTRGV provide massive opportunities for the Red Raiders to improve upon their RPI as Arizona enters this week at No. 17 overall in the RPI while one of the surprise mid-major teams of the 2025 season, UTRGV, enters the 11th weeek of the College Baseball season with an RPI of 31. Before the midweek series against the Red Raiders, the Vaqueros have a huge weekend against 26-7 and RPI No. 38 McNeese this weekend in Edinburg.

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders kick-off a five-game homestand this weekend when Arizona pays its first visit to Lubbock as a Big 12 foe. The three-game series kickoffs on Friday night with a 6:30 p.m. first pitch.

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Players Mentioned

Tyler Boudreau

Damian Bravo

Mac Heuer

Logan Hughes

Dylan Maxcey

Zane Petty

Davis Rivers

Peyton Schulze

Kyeler Thompson