Texas Tech (22-15, 3-9) vs. Houston (12-21-1, 1-7-1)
Official Site Notes: Here
Location: Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park | Lubbock, TX
Radio: Affiliates
Date | Start Time | Texas Tech Starting Pitcher |
Houston Starting Pitcher |
Result |
4.13.12 | 6:30 pm | John Neely (W, 3-4) |
John Hernandez (L, 0-2) |
W, 15-4 |
4.14.12 | 5:00 pm | Duke von Schamann (W, 5-3) |
Jordan Mannistro (L, 1-2) |
W, 7-1 |
4.15.12 | 1:00 pm | Trey Masek (RHP) (1-3, 3.29) |
TBA |
W, 10-9 |
Outfield:
LF - Brennan Moore | CF - Barrett Barnes | RF - Jordan Lopez
Infield:
SS - Tim Proudfoot | 2ND - Jamodrick McGruder
3RD - Bryant Burleson | 1ST - Scott LeJeune
C - Bo Altobelli
DH - Kevin Whitehead
*Click on the score for boxscore.
TEXAS TECH VS HOUSTON BASEBALL THOUGHTS
- I feel like I'm very much behind after missing all of last weekend's series with Texas and I honestly don't really know what transpired. As I was doing this preview, I noticed that other than the insertion of Masek as the Sunday starter, this is pretty much the same set of starters since the Kansas series. The expiraments to move guys all over the infield (i.e. Altobelli at 3rd) to generate some offense has fallen by the wayside. With Redman out for the rest of the year, this is the main group.
- von Shamann is pretty much awesome, while Neely has had mixed success as a starter and I don't recall what Masek did, but I'm guessing that since the team lost the third game, that it didn't go too well.
-
LAJ's George Watson writes that the team wants to treat the Cougars like a conference opponent and here's Duke:
But for a team that needs to make a big move in the second half of conference play, the Red Raiders (19-15) will treat this weekend’s non-conference series against Houston (12-18-1) as if it counted in the Big 12 standings.
"Every weekend has the same feel to it," starting pitcher Duke von Schamann said. "We’ll go into the weekend and try to win the series and I think we’re going to do well. Hopefully we can come out and get two or three wins this weekend and ride that going into Oklahoma State (April 20-22)."
-
DT's Brett Winegarner previews the series and here's head coach Dan Spencer:
"We need to make sure we’re not looking that hard into their record and our record, and take one game at a time and play them straight up," Tech coach Dan Spencer said after his team’s 7-1 win against Dallas Baptist on Wednesday. "We know we feel confident we can win against everybody we play, but we have seen the opportunities that if we don’t take care of business we can be a victim to anybody."
Game 1 | Houston 4, Texas Tech 15 (official site)
C Bo Altobelli was 2-5 with 5 RBI, including a grand slam to lead the offense, while John Neely went 6.0 innings giving up only 3 earned runs. We haven't heard DH Stephen Hagen's name in quite some time (he was integral to the team last year) was 2-5 with 2 RBI and the only guy that didn't get a hit was 1B Scott LeJeune, so that sorta tells you about the offense. LAJ's George Watson recaps the game:
Tech pounded out 13 hits, took advantage of four Houston errors, and got solid pitching in a game that didn’t have Duke von Schamann on the mound as the Red Raiders (20-15) won back-to-back games for the first time since late March.
“This is what we needed,” said Altobelli, who also had an RBI groundout in the first that gave Tech a lead it would not relinquish. “We talked about it all week, came out and did our job for nine innings. The pitching staff did their’s and it’s what we needed at this point of the season. We knew we could do this all year, it just so happens that it came in this game and now we can get rolling from here.”
Game 2 | Houston 1, Texas Tech 7 (official site)
Remember when I said that Duke von Shamann was awesome? Well, it's still true. von Shamann goes 7 innings, gives up 11 hits (which is uncharacteristic), 0 runs, 0 walks and 4 strikeouts, while Shane Broyles closed out the final two frames, giving up a run and striking out 3. The top of the lineup was pretty much a hit parade, Jamodrick McGruder had 3 hits, while Barrett Barnes was one of 4 players that had two hits, but he had 3 RBI on the day. LAJ's George Watson recaps the game and Barnes wants to keep the good mojo going:
“It’s about time,” said Barnes, who was 2 for 4 with three RBIs. “It’s been a struggle ever since we got into conference. It’s a big series win but it’s not over, and we need come out (today) and get a win. We need to come out and play another good game of baseball and get the victory.”
Game 3 | Houston 9, Texas Tech 10 (official site)
After having a huge lead, it was given up late, had to go to extra innings but Texas Tech prevailed. That's a 3 game sweep, something that I can't recall when that happened. Starter Trey Masek was actually pretty good, going 6.2 innings, 1 earned run, 4 strikeouts and 2 walks. It was the bullpen that gave up the lead, Andre Wheeler, Aaron Corwin, Brennan Stewart and Shane Broyles, 8 runs in 2 innings. Thank you for Jerad McCrummen for closing things down. C Mason Randolph and LF/RF Nick Hanslik had 4 hits and CF Barrett Barnes singled home Hanslik to end the game. LAJ's George Watson and DT's Michael DuPont, II recap the game.