Tech continues five-game homestand vs. UCF

LUBBOCK, Texas – With just four total home games remaining and seven games remaining in the regular season, Texas Tech Baseball will welcome UCF this weekend for a three-game series.

The weekend begins on Friday night with a 6 p.m. first pitch before continuing on Saturday afternoon with a 2 p.m. contest. Tech and UCF will close the weekend out on Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. first pitch.

Sunday's contest will be "Senior Day" as the Red Raiders will honor their six senior players and three student managers prior to the start of the game.

This weekend's series with UCF provides an opportunity for Tech to clinch its spot in the 12-team as Tech with a pair of wins of wins this weekend the Red Raiders would book their spot in the Big 12 Championship (May 21-25) in Arlington.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:

GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (17-28, 11-13 Big 12) vs. UCF (25-23, 6-18 Big 12)
DATE: Friday, May 9, 2025
TIME: 6 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Mac Heuer (2-2, 5.36 ERA) vs. RHP Camden Wicker (0-2, 5.33 ERA)

GAME TWO:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (17-28, 11-13 Big 12) vs. UCF (25-23, 6-18 Big 12)
DATE: Saturday, May 10, 2025
TIME: 2 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Tyler Boudreau (1-4, 7.65 ERA) vs. Russell Sandefer (2-3, 3.07 ERA)

GAME THREE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (17-28, 11-13 Big 12) vs. UCF (25-23, 6-18 Big 12)
DATE: Sunday, May 11, 2025
TIME: 1 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Zane Petty (1-3, 5.57 ERA) vs. Matt Sauser (3-2, 3.41 ERA)

HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
* The Red Raiders continues a season-high five game homestand this weekend when it welcomes UCF for the first all-time series in Lubbock between the two schools, as all four of the previous all-time matchups occurred in Orlando.

* The Red Raiders enter the weekend in ninth in the crowded Big 12 standings, just .18 percentage points behind OSU and just two games behind the Cowboys. Just five total conference wins separate third place Kansas and 11th place Baylor.

*With the final home regular season weekend upon us, the Red Raiders will honor their six seniors prior to Sunday's contest against UCF. As part of the Senior Day festivities the Red Raiders will honor Carson Baugh, Jack Cebert, Hudson Parker, Trendan Parish, Peyton Schulze and Robin Villeneuve. Baugh and Parker joined the Red Raiders back in the Fall of 2023 ahead of the 2024 season from the Junior College ranks, while Cebert (USF), Schulze (Cal) and Villeneuve (Tennessee) joined Tech from D1 institutions. Parish is the lone Red Raider senior this year to have not transferred into Tech from either a JUCO or a four-year institution. Both Parish (medical redshirt) and Villeneuve (Fifth-Year JUCO exemption) will participate in senior day festivities this weekend despite having the extra year of eligibility.

MATCHUP NOTES:

HUGHES LOST ONE STREAK, KEPT ONE GOING

After homering and walking twice in four trips to the plate last Tuesday night, sophomore Logan Hughes took an "O-Fer" on Wednesday night, as the outfielder went 0-for-4 in five trips to the plate. Despite not recording a hit, Hughes did walk once, extending his team-high on-base streak to 27 games. After going 4-for-10 against West Virginia with four runs scored, Hughes homered twice to extend his team-high on-base streak to 31-consecutive games. Hughes has not reached base in just two contests this season: Feb. 15 at UNC and Mar. 9 at GCU.

SENIOR DAY HAS ARRIVED

With the final home regular season weekend upon us, the Red Raiders will honor their six seniors prior to Sunday's contest against UCF. As part of the Senior Day festivities the Red Raiders will honor Carson Baugh, Jack Cebert, Hudson Parker, Trendan Parish, Peyton Schulze and Robin Villeneuve. Baugh and Parker joined the Red Raiders back in the Fall of 2023 ahead of the 2024 season from the Junior College ranks, while Cebert (USF), Schulze (Cal) and Villeneuve (Tennessee) joined Tech from D1 institutions. Parish is the lone Red Raider senior this year to have not transfered into Tech from either a JUCO or a four-year institution.

SCHULZE IS COMING ALIVE

Since earning a game three start at third base against Arizona State (11 games), Cal transfer Peyton Schulze has taken off, as the senior is now 20-for-45 (.444) over that stretch with 10 runs scored and 11 RBIs. The transfer has raised his batting average over two full points in that span. Schulze turned in the best game of his Texas Tech career this past Tuesday against New Mexico State, as the infielder went 3-for-4, homered twice, scored four runs and drive in five RBIs in the Red Raider win over New Mexico State.

PITCHING SIX HAS BROUGHT WINS

With three quality starts (at least six innings pitched) in the last five games (all wins), the Red Raiders are now 7-0 this season when the starter goes at least six innings. The first quality start of the season was Tyler Bourdreau against UCSD (Mar. 5) when the righty went six and did not allow a run. The Red Raiders second six inning performance was Mac Heuer back on Mar. 14 at Houston. Zane Petty was the next Red Raider to go six innings in the Sunday win over Cincy (Apr. 6), followed by another six inning start on Apr. 11 by Heuer. The Red Raiders got eight innings from Zane Petty last Saturday, before getting six from Connor Mohan last Monday at ACU and six from Heuer on Saturday against Arizona. Conversely, the Red Raiders are just 8-20 in the 28 starts where the starting pitcher has not seen the fifth inning. Tech has lost just twice all season when a starting pitcher has reached the sixth, the Sunday (Mar. 30) loss at K-St where Zane Petty went 5.1 innings in a 5-4 loss and a 2-1 loss to Arizona (Apr. 26) when Tyler Boudreau threw 5.1 innings of two run ball.

T-LO IN THE LEAD-OFF SPOT

Since sliding into the lead-off spot for the series finale against Cincinnati on Apr. 6, junior Tracer Lopez has taken off at the plate, as Lopez is now 31-for-80 (.387). He has reached base in all 18 of those games and has scored 17 runs and driven in 14 runs, launching six doubles and three home runs.

SAVATTERE HAS TAKEN THE DH ROLE AND RUN WITH IT

After spending part of the season as a part-time player, Odessa College transfer Antonelli Savattere has also taken off the last 18 games. Savattere has started the last 17 games consecutively at either designated hitter or at second base. Coinciding with him entering the starting the starting lineup, Savattere also has started to produce at the plate, as he's now 22 for his last 62 (.355) at the plate with 12 runs scored and 10 RBIs. Savattere's on-base percentage over that span sits at .459.

HERE COMES TP

Since blowing back-to-back saves against Kansas State and Cincinnati, Senior Trendan Parish has turned it on over his last five appearances, as the righty has now allowed just one run in his last 11.1 innings pitched (at ASU; Apr. 17) and will take a 5.2 inning scoreless streak that spans three outings into the weekend series against UCF. Most importantly over that spand Parish has walked just one batter and has struck out seven. He's holding opponents to a .189 average in that span.

HOW DO YOU BUILD THE NATION'S HARDEST SCHEDULE?
Through the seasons first 13 weeks the Red Raiders have played one of the nation's toughest schedule (Tech enters the weekend with the No. 1 Overall strength of schedule and the No. 2 non-conference schedule), as the Red Raiders have faced 10-30 win ballclubs so far in Texas (39-8) and UNC (36-10), UC Irvine (35-11), TCU (33-15), Oklahoma (32-14), Baylor (30-18), Arizona State (32-17), Arizona (33-15), UTRGV (33-16) and West Virginia (39-8). In total, of the Red Raiders 21 opponents, 19 enter the weekend above .500. In fact, those two opponents that Tech has faced that are under .500 overall (Tarleton and New Mexico State), Tech has played just twice. The Red Raiders have faced four top-20 RPI teams: Texas (1), UNC (10), TCU (15) and UC Irvine (17). When you expand it out to top-30 RPI teams the Red Raiders have also faced Oklahoma (21), WVU (22) and Arizona (26). The Red Raiders have played the seven top-30 RPI teams a combined 17 times and have played 25 total games against top-40 RPI opponents and 28 games against top-45 RPI opponents. The RPI teams ranked 30-45 include UTRGV (35), Cincinnati (39), Arizona State (40) and KST (44). In fact, Tech has played just 14 games against teams ranked above 80 in the RPI has Tech has played Illinois (97), UCSD twice (147), Grand Canyon (80) three times, Tarleton (228), New Mexico (110), ACU, (210) and New Mexico State (161). When you add it all up the Red Raiders have played just five weekend games against non top-65 RPI teams. The Red Raiders five non-top 65 RPI games were all away from home: Illinois in Vegas, Washington in Vegas and GCU in Phoenix. Tech's 21 opponents this year are a combined 626-346 (.644) and just three overall opponents: Baylor, Houston and Tarleton are under .500 and just five (Baylor, Houston, Illinois, New Mexico State and Tarleton) are not above .500. In Big 12 play through the first eight weekends of conference play the Red Raiders have played the following teams (in order of standings): WVU (1), Arizona State (2), Arizona (4), TCU (5), Kansas State (6), Cincinnati (7) and Houston (10). The Red Raiders this weekend will face No. 13 UCF before heading to No. 12 BYU.

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders close their home slate in 2025 on Tuesday afternoon when ACU pays a visit to Rip Griffin Park. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.

Tech continues five-game homestand vs. UCF

Players Mentioned

Carson Baugh

Tyler Boudreau

Jack Cebert

Mac Heuer

Logan Hughes

Tracer Lopez

Connor Mohan

Trendan Parish

Hudson Parker

Zane Petty

Antonelli Savattere

Peyton Schulze

Robin Villeneuve

Related Videos