Odds and Ends
DTN's Best of Lubbock - Best Burger, Take Two
Because Spanky's was the clear #1 choice, I thought I'd put up a run-off for second place for Best Burger in Lubbock so that there is a clear second and third place finisher. I need you guys to follow up and vote for the candidates. Feel free to put down any write-ins as well in the comments.
Kudos to Wife
My wife got she and I tickets to the Saturday night's Mavs game and talk about highs and lows. Thankfully I'm not as emotionally invested in the Mavs as I am Texas Tech, but that was a tough loss. My wife and I were in the rafters, but even we could see the foul from Antoine Wright. Just an incredible turn of events on Saturday night, but pretty cool that she would make the effort to get the tickets on her own.
Texas Tech Football
More on Stadium Expansion
I mentioned this story on Saturday morning's notes and LAJ's Don Williams has a bit more on the addition of 6,000 seats to the north endzone for an already approved and funded cost of $6 million. RaiderAde's Ayleein found the Texas Tech Facilities, Planning and Construction website. AD Gerald Myers says that the additional 6,000 seats can either mean being in the red or black as far as the entire athletic budget:
"It means a lot to our budget," he said. "It could be the difference of us finishing in the red or the black. We’re always pretty close. We’re either $100,000 or $200,000 in the red or $100,000 or $200,000 in the black, or we’re pretty even."
Williams and Myers also talks about the design of the stadium as well as the increased number to 61,000 seats:
The new sections will be aligned with, and the same height as, Section 108, the current end section on the stadium’s northwest corner, and Section 116, the current end section on the northeast corner."That’d put us right at 61,000. We feel that’s enough right now," Myers said. "We think we can fill 60,000 to 61,000 on some of our premier games and maybe more."
Later in the same conversation, Myers added: "Our next step, I think, would probably be we could add 9,000 more on the north end, eventually. We’d have to tear that (ticket office) building down if we do that, but that’ll be a while. We’ll grow to 61 (thousand) and then see what we need to do."
Brandon Carter Among Big 12 Elite
RRS.com's Joe Yeager writes why he believes that senior LG/LT Brandon Carter belongs amoung the Big 12 elite. Here's Yeager on Carter:
Simultaneously, he is one of the fastest and most nimble players for his size outside of the NFL. Nobody gets downfield to deliver blocks better than Carter, and no offensive lineman plays in space as well as Carter. Those assets are critical to the success of Tech’s screen package.
Personally, I think it will be interesting to see how the situation with him at left tackle with RS freshman Terry McDaniel. I love the fact that Carter dedicated himself during the spring to lose weight, which I think he could more than afford to do, to play left tackle, but honestly, I think that McDaniel may be a bit more gifted athletically to play that position. The difference here is that Carter obviously has the experience and that may be one of the most important aspects of playing left tackle, especially with the high quality of pass rushers in the Big 12.
Texas Tech Baseball
Red Raiders and Wildcats
| Date | Start Time | Texas Tech Starting Pitcher |
Dallas Baptist Starting Pitcher |
Result |
| 5/8/2009 | 6:30 p.m. | Nate Karns (W, 4-5) | A.J. Morris (L, 11-1) | 6-0 |
| 5/9/2009 | 2:00 p.m. | AJ Ramos (W, 5-4) | Lance Hoge (L, 5-3) | 12-6 |
| 5/10/2009 | 1:00 p.m. | Louis Head (L, 1-3) | Todd Vogel (W, 4-0) | 5-9 |
Outfield:
LF - Michael Reed (Jr.); CF - Taylor Ashby (Jr.); RF - Garrett Totten (Fr.)
Infield:
SS - Joey Kenworthy (Jr.) 2ND - Willie Rueda (Sr.);
3RD - Justin Berry (Fr.) 1ST - Chris Richburg (Sr.)
C - Jeremy Mayo (Fr.)
DH - Scott LeJeune (Fr.)
*Click on the score for boxscore. Texas Tech series preview (pdf).
The Red Raiders could not finish the sweep, but taking two of three from the #10 team in the country in Kansas State is nothing to sneeze at. The Red Raiders won the first two of the series but lost to the Wildcats 5-9 yesterday afternoon (recap). Freshman Louis Head (4.0 IP 4 H; 2 ER; 2 BB; 3 SO) got the start and only allowed 2 runs in 4 innings, but the bullpen couldn't keep it together. Cory Large (0.2 IP; 3 H; 3 ER; 0 BB; 0 SO) struggled to get outs in relief of Head and Robert Kilcrease (1.0 IP; 3 H; 2 ER; 0 BB; 0 SO) gave K-State enough to win the game. Interestingly, Kellen Monreal, an outfielder, and Brandon Foster finished up the game.
At the plate, Texas Tech only managed 10 hits and it was teh top of the order that was managing to get on base, but couldn't muster any more than 5 runs. 2B Willie Rueda (2-5) seems to be back on track, while the bulk of the offense was supplied by 1B Chris Richburg (2-4; 4 RBI) with a 3 run home run in the 9th inning.
I loved George Watson's post on his blog Short Hops, the guy sounds genuinely happy and although I'm no where as close to this team as Watson, you can feel the excitement in his tone. Watson mentions Mississippi Valley State canceling their midweek series with Texas Tech. Lots of questions to be answered in this weekend's series against Oklahoma State, who will be playing for a birth to the Big 12 Tournament. They'll be a desperate team.