Tech hosts UIW for Wednesday midweek

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech Baseball kicks off Week 10 of the season Wednesday night with a 6:30 p.m. contest against UIW at Rip Griffin Park.

The Red Raiders and Cardinals are meeting for the first time in program history.

Originally scheduled to play Tuesday night in Abilene, the Red Raiders saw that game postponed early Tuesday morning due to projected inclement weather in Abilene.

Following the Wednesday night contest with UIW, Tech will hit the road for the first three all-time matchups against Utah in program history.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (20-15) vs. UIW (17-19)
DATE: Wednesday, April 15
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park

HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
* Originally scheduled to kick-off a five-game week in Abilene on Tuesday night, Texas Tech saw its contest with ACU postponed due to projected inclement weather in the Abilene area. The Red Raiders and Wildcats are working to reschedule the Tuesday night contest for a different mutually-agreeable date.

* The Red Raiders instead will open the week on Wednesday night with the first all-time matchup against UIW. The Red Raiders and Cardinals will play a Tuesday midweek contest at 6:30 p.m.

* The contest against UIW will be the final 100+ RPI game of the season for the Red Raiders as Tech's final 18 games are all against teams ranked inside the top-100. Texas Tech heads to Utah this weekend for a matchup with No. 82 Utah before returning home next week for matchups with No. 66 Tarleton State (Tuesday) and a weekend series with No. 49 Oklahoma State. Tech also will play a midweek with No. 16 Oklahoma in Frisco and a midweek with DBU who currently sits at No. 71. Tech also has weekend series at No. 39 Baylor, vs. No. 42 BYU and at No. 22 Cincinnati providing plenty of opportunities down the stretch for the Red Raiders to improve their RPI. Tech currently sits at No. 95 in the RPI following a 2-2 week against New Mexico and No. 17 West Virginia.

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).

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 hit the road for a weekend series at Utah. First pitch from America First Ballpark is set for 7 p.m. (CT)/6 p.m. (MT)

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Players Mentioned

Jackson Burns

Caden Ferraro

Logan Hughes

Tracer Lopez

Lukas Pirko

Kaysen Raineri

Connor Shouse

Texas Tech University Athletics