DTN's Top Four:
- Rush the Court checks in on the Big 12.
- Big 12 Hardball on this weekend's games.
- ESPN's Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin thinks Ed Britton may emerge as a star.
- Dr. Saturday responds to UT hiring BCS gurus.
Crabtree to Have Surgery
This is good news, Michael Crabtree has decided to go ahead and have surgery on his ankle and forgo running the 40-yard dash. This was quoted last night, but here's Crabtree on his decision, which I think was ultimately the correct decision:
"After thorough consideration and discussion with my advisors and doctors, I decided to have the surgery, rather than risk any further injury," Crabtree said in a statement Sunday. "As a competitor, I wanted to run at my pro day, but it became clear that the best thing for me is to have the surgery and be ready to get on the field as soon as possible."
Ticket Sales Up
DT's Eric Boyd writes that since the Captain signed his contract extension, there's been a jump in season ticket sales, some of which may be due to the deadline, but simply ignore that part. Last season, the ticket office set a record of 41,072 season tickets, including student season tickets.
Junior Knight Proud of Team's Effort
Similar articles from LAJ's Jeff Walker and DT's Alex Ybarra about how Pat Knight is proud of the effort of his players. Here's Pat Knight on his players:
"They’re giving me everything they can. It’s tough, you don’t want to talk about moral victories, you’d rather have victories on your record. These kids haven’t quit," Knight said."I’ve had five people come up to me this week after watching practice and say, ‘Geez, the enthusiasm is there.’ We’re just coming up short. We just don’t have enough right now. These kids are giving everything they’ve got. We’ve got two more games, we’ve got the Big 12 tournament. We’re enjoying being around each other. I enjoy coaching this team. We’ll just play it out and see."
And OU head coach Jeff Capel says that the Red Raiders are keeping it close:
"It seems like, in watching them on tape and especially this game, coming into this game they had been playing really well, they just haven't been able to close the deal," Capel said. "Sometimes you go through a season like that.""I think it's indicative they're a really young team. These young guys haven't gone through the experiences. You have to find - you have to learn how to win, how to close games out."
Red Raiders Swept by Matadors
| Date | Start Time | Texas Tech Starting Pitcher |
Cal State Northridge Starting Pitcher |
Result |
| 2/27/2009 | 4:00 p.m. | Cory Large (L) 0-1 | Paul Tremlin (W) 1-0 | 4-8 |
| 2/28/2009 | 3:00 p.m. | Miles Morgan (L) 1-1 | Ryan Juarez (W) 2-0 | 3-7 |
| 3/01/2009 | 3:00 p.m. | Brian Cloud (L) 1-2 | Jimmy Jolicoeur (W) 1-2 | 2-3 |
*Click on the score for boxscore.
Texas Tech 3, Cal State Northridge 7
A pretty tough weekend for the Red Raiders as the baseball team is swept by the Matadors. Let's start with the second game of the series (recap) where Miles Morgan (4.1 IP; 7 H; 7 ER; 5 BB; 1 SO) had a rough outing after a fine first outing last week. A lot like last year, Morgan tended to throw too many pitches (85) and is walking too many opponents. Freshman Louis Head (3.2 IP; 1 H; 0 ER; 1 BB; 4 SO) shut down the Matadors the rest of the way. Meanwhile, the offense is struggling a bit as well, managing only 3 runs off of 8 hits, leaving 9 on base. Leadoff second baseman Michael Reed (3-5; 2 RBI) produced the only RBI of the day.
Texas Tech 2, Cal State Northridge 3
A tough game for freshman third baseman Justin Berry, who committed an error in the bottom of the ninth inning, which allowed 2 unearned and go-ahead runs (recap). This was a well-played game for the Red Raiders and pitcher AJ Ramos (4.0 IP; 6 H; 0 ER; 0 BB; 6 SO) was outstanding as was the bullpen, with contributions from Lorenzo Douglas, Austin Quick, Brennan Stewart, Ben Flora, and Brian Cloud. As was the case the last game, the offense is still having trouble generating much offense as the Red Raiders managed only 7 hits, no player with a multiple hit game and Texas Tech scored their only runs of the game on Cal State Northridge errors in the 6th and 7th innings.
There's not much time to sulk as the Red Raiders face UC Riverside Tuesday and Thursday and then weekend games against San Francisco, Gonzaga, and Oregon State in Palm Springs.
Larry Hays #27 to be Retired
Larry Hays will have his #27 jersey in a game against Lubbock Christian University on March 23, 2009 at Dan Law Field. This is a good thing and there's no reason to wait a couple of years to know the impact that Hays had on the program, despite the program not being on the same footing as it had early in Hays tenure.