Tech opens busy five-game week at ACU Tuesday

ABILENE, Texas – Texas Tech Baseball kicks off a busy five-game, three city week on Tuesday night when they head to Abilene for the road portion of the home-and-home series with ACU.

First pitch from ACUs Crutcher Scott Field at Bullock Brothers Ballpark is set for 6 p.m.

Following the Tuesday night contest at ACU, Tech will briefly return home for a Wednesday night date with UIW before hitting the road for the first three all-time matchups against Utah in program history.

The Red Raiders have won eight-straight matchups against ACU after a 15-4 run-rule win over the Wildcats back on Mar. 31 and have won three-straight midweek games dating back to a Mar. 17 St. Patrick's Day setback at Dallas Baptist. Overall, the Red Raiders are 5-2 on the midweek this season and with a win could eclipse the 2025 win total.

Tech tied its 2025 output of 20 with the 4-1 win Saturday afternoon against No. 17 West Virginia.

One week after helping the Red Raiders close out the first series sweep over UNM since 2018, Tech will again turn to right Kaysen Raineri looking for a season sweep over a midweek foe in Abilene on Tuesday.

Raineri tossed four innings and allowed three runs (two earned) striking out four. He did not walk a batter in his first career start.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (20-15) at Abilene Christian (18-18)
DATE: Tuesday, April 14
TIME: 6 p.m.
LOCATION: Abilene, Texas (Crutcher Scott Field at Bullock Brothers Ballpark)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Kaysen Raineri (3-0, 7.13 ERA) vs. LHP Collin Adams (1-1, 2.70 ERA)

HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
* Just two weeks removed from the first match up back on Mar. 31 in Lubbock, Texas Tech heads east to Abilene for the road portion of a home-and-home series with the Wildcats. In the first match up of the series this season, the Red Raiders won a 15-4 run-rule (8 inning) contest on a walk-off home run from Caden Ferraro. Ferraro, who homered twice in the first match up hit his first home run of the two-homer day against ACUs Collin Adams. Adams, who started the game in Lubbock is again listed as ACUs starter Tuesday. Ferraro's home run was the last long ball hit by a Red Raider, as Tech has gone 63 total innings (seven games) without a home run. Adams tossed two innings and allowed two runs over his 42-pitch outing in Lubbock.

* Tuesday's game in Abilene will kick off a busy five-game week for the Red Raiders that also includes a Wednesday night contest against UIW at home before a three-game weekend at Utah arrives. The Red Raiders have never faced Utah before in program history as the two sides did not meet during either the 2024 or 2025 season during Big 12 play. The Red Raiders are no stranger to the state of Utah, as they played a weekend series last season at BYU. The Red Raiders have not played a road Big 12 weekend series since Mar. 27-29 at TCU.

* Hawaii transfer Kaysen Raineri will take the ball on Tuesday night for the Red Raiders one week after making his first career start last week at New Mexico. Raineri who earned his third win of the season in the midweek in Albuquerque threw four innings of two earned run ball and struck out four in the Red Raiders win over UNM. After allowing three runs (two earned) in the first two innings, Raineri tossed back-to-back 1-2-3 innings in the third and fourth innings of the game. Raineri helped the Red Raiders close out a series sweep of UNM for the first time since 2018.

MIDWEEK NOTES:

IT'S BEEN CROOKED

Already through the season's first 35 games the Red Raiders have recorded 51 total crooked numbers (3+ runs in an inning) this season. That total is already eight more than the entire crooked number total from the 2025 season where Tech scored just three runs or more in an inning 43 times. In last Tuesday's come-from-behind win over UNM, the Red Raiders scored three times in the fifth, eighth and ninth innings. Tech is also now 15-2 overall when scoring three-plus runs in multiple innings. Most impressively, the Red Raiders have 19 single innings of five or more runs and have reached three or more runs in an inning 32 times without a home run including the last 11 total crooked innings.

FEEL THE BURNS

Redshirt freshman Jackson Burns continues to impress on the bump for the Red Raiders, as the righty has now tossed 19.2 innings over his last three start. After tossing back-to-back performances of six innings and two runs, Burns had a career day against No. 17 WVU on Saturday afternoon, tossing 7.2 innings of one-run ball to help the Red Raiders to a 4-1 win over the Mountaineers. Most impressively for Burns was the fact that he tossed six innings of shutout ball with no runs from the Red Raiders offense. Burns who took a shutout deep into the eighth inning, ultimately took a no-decision after allowing a game-tying solo home run. After a slower start to the season, Burns has shined during conference play as he has tossed 28.1 total innings and recorded 28 total strikeouts. After allowing 12 runs in his first two starts of Big 12 play to Kansas and at Arizona, Burns has allowed just five total runs in the 19.2 innings, pitching to an ERA of 2.29. Opponents are hitting just .219 against Burns the last three weeks.

LOOKING TO FIND THE RAIDER POWER

After being one of the nation's top power hitting teams through the season's first 28 games, the Red Raiders have now gone 63 innings (seven full games) without hitting a home run. Ironically, the Red Raiders last three home runs were hit against ACU in the March 31st win when Caden Ferraro homered twice and Logan Hughes also cleared the wall for a home run. Through the season's first 28 games, Tech had hit 43 home runs (1.54 home runs per game). Entering Tuesday's game against ACU the Red Raiders still sit on the same number, 43 home runs. In the weekend series against WVU, the Red Raiders recorded 35 total hits but only recorded seven for extra-bases. Despite the mini power drought the Red Raiders still lead the country in total doubles (103) and are second in scoring (10.1 runs per game) and third in on-base percentage (.452). ACUs Crutcher Scott Field has been friendly for the Red Raider bats, as the last two seasons as Tech has scored 30 total runs in the last two matchups in Abilene including a 21-run performance against ACU two years ago when the Red Raiders hit a program record seven home runs.

BLAME IT ON THE RAIN-ERI

Toeing the rubber for his first career start, Hawai'i transfer Kaysen Raineri was sharp last Tuesday afternoon at New Mexico, pitching four innings of three-run (two earned ball). After a rocky start that saw the big righty allow three runs in the first two innings, Raineri retired the final six batters of his outing, getting stronger as the appearance wore on. Raineri struck out four batters in the win over the Lobos and did not walk a batter. Despite not going five innings, Raineri was awarded the win on Tuesday, running his record to 3-0 on the season. With his four strikeout performance on Tuesday afternoon, Raineri ran his season strikeout total to 23 in just 17.2 innings giving the righty the best K/9 (12.0) on the roster. Raineri is third on the team in total strikeouts, trailing just Jackson Burns (43) and Lukas Pirko (34).

T-LO WORKING HIS WAY UP THE RECORDS

When he recorded his 200th career hit against Houston, Senior Tracer Lopez continued his climb toward cracking the Red Raider top-10 hits list Sitting at 210 hits, Lopez need just five more knocks to catch Scott LeJeune for 10th all-time in hits in program history. In addition to chasing the top-10 in total hits, Lopez continues to work his way up the all-time games played list as on Tuesday, Lopez is projected to play in his 199th career game. He needs just two more games played to become the seventh Red Raider to reach 200 career games played. So far in 2026, Lopez is hitting .338 with a career-high 14 doubles and 47 total hits. When Lopez reaches 200 career games played he will become just the fourth Red Raider all-time to reach 210 hits and 200 games played joining Assistant Coach Eric Gutierrez (264 hits in 244 games), Taylor Ashby (228 hits in 216 games) and Clint Bryant (341 hits in 240 games).

PITCHERS WHO RAKE

With the roster limitations that went into effect before the season and with multiple arms down due to injury, the red Raiders have turned to a pair of two-way standouts on the mound in RHP Connor Shouse and LHP Jesse Ruisnek. Shouse, who tossed a scoreless eighth for the Red Raiders last Tuesday afternoon at UNM has now allowed just one run in his last four appearances on the mound after being tagged for four runs on opening weekend. That stretch began for Shouse with a scoreless innings with two punch outs against Arizona (Mar. 21) and continued with a scoreless ninth inning in a tie game at TCU back on Mar. 28. After being charged with a run and a blown save last Friday (Apr. 3) against UH, he tossed a scoreless inning on Tuesday afternoon at New Mexico. On the year, Shouse has allowed just two hits and struck out eight over his 4.1 total innings. The Red Raiders other two-way impact player, Rusinek, has also flashed on the mound, as the lefty has struck out 16 batters in just 12.1 innings of work. Rusinek, who whiffed four in two scoreless innings at TCU, has struck out at least two batters in five of his 10 appearances. Rusinek co-leads the Red Raiders in batting average (.439) while Shouse has hit the third-most home runs (8) on Red Raider squad and has driven in 49 runs. Both Shouse and Ruisnek had RBI doubles on Tuesday against UNM and pitched for the Red Raiders on the mound in both the eighth and ninth innings. Shouse who pitched the eighth, doubled in the ninth, while Ruisnek did the opposite, doubling in the eighth and pitching in the ninth.

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders continue the busy week on Wednesday night with a matchup against UIW at Rip Griffin Park. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.

Tech opens busy five-game week at ACU Tuesday

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Players Mentioned

Jackson Burns

Caden Ferraro

Logan Hughes

Tracer Lopez

Lukas Pirko

Kaysen Raineri

Connor Shouse

Texas Tech University Athletics

Tech opens busy five-game week at ACU Tuesday

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Players Mentioned

Jackson Burns

Caden Ferraro

Logan Hughes

Tracer Lopez

Lukas Pirko

Kaysen Raineri

Connor Shouse

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