Red Raiders Split Double-Header

Outfield
LF - Michael Reed (Jr.); CF - Mason Macnoll (Fr.); RF - Taylor Ashby (Jr.)
Infield
3RD - Justin Berry (Fr.); SS - Joey Kenworthy (Jr.);
2ND - Willie Rueda (Sr.); 1ST - Chris Richburg (Sr.)
C - Jeremy Mayo (So.)
DH - Scott LeJeune (Fr.) or Nich Hanslik (Fr.)

*Click on the score for boxscore.

The Red Raiders split yesterday's double-header winning the first game 16-8 (recap) and losing the second 10-1 (recap) and the LAJ's George Watson has his game stories. Here's head coach Dan Spencer from Watson's article:

"It’s a confidence builder," Tech head coach Dan Spencer said. "The guys needed to win a game like that and (they) showed a lot of character, lot of toughness coming back from a two-run (deficit) against a (No. 1) guy.

"I’m not nearly convinced our offensive approach was close to as good as it was against a guy we had respect for coming into the series. We let (Roualdes) dictate the deal and we got beat."

Nebraska 8, Texas Tech 16

The offense simply exploded late, with 12 runs in the final two frames (7th and 8th innings). Yesterday marked the return of second baseman and leadoff hitter Willie Rueda (2-4; 1 RBI) which is greata news for the offense. Taylor Ashby (4-5; 3 RBI) and Joey Kenworthy (1-5; 3 RBI) helped with run production, while freshmen Scott LeJeune (3-5; 2 RBI) and Justin Berry (3-6) are starting to find their way as true freshmen.

Miles Morgan (5.1 IP; 8 H; 3 ER; 0 BB; 2 SO) had a solid, but not spectacular performance and the bullpen held Nebraska to just 2 more earned runs, with Chad Bettis (2.0 IP; 1 H; 0 ER; 1 BB; 2 SO) getting his second save of the year.

Nebraska 10, Texas Tech 1

The Red Raider offense was held in check by an very good performance from Nebraska's Jordan Roualdes, who only gave up 5 hits all day. Not much to write about here as AJ Ramos was moved back to Sunday and freshman Louis Head (4.1 IP; 1 H; 3 ER; 5 BB; 4 SO) got the start and there was some good and bad. The bad, too many walks given up, 5, but the good is that Head obviously has something as he was able to strike out 4. The bullpen struggled for the most part (Cory Large, Colton Farrar, and Ben Flora), although Austin Quick (1.0 IP; 0 ER; 0 BB; 0 SO) had a good 9th inning.

Overall, the Red Raiders had 6 errors in yesterday's double-header and that's got to change the further Texas Tech gets into conference play, although with so many freshman receiving significant time, it's going to be a problem.

I like Texas Tech's chances today to win the series as Spencer moved Ramos, who was supposed to start the second game yesterday, to today.