Odds and Ends
College Baseball Chat
Tonight, The College Baseball Blog and Big 12 Hardball will host a college baseball chat, taking a look at questions concerning the conference tournaments beginning this weekend.
Texas Tech Track
Roberts Wins Men's 400m; Omo Osaghae Wins Men's 110m Hurdles
Thanks to the comment by johnlaf13 for breaking the news in the comments, and LAJ's Don Williams details that sophomore Gil Roberts ran the fourth fastest time in the world on Sunday to win the men's 400 meter with a time of 44.86 and broke Baylor's streak of having the top place 400m finisher since 2000. Here's Roberts:
"I’m running because I know this is my race, and I’m the best in it,’’ said Roberts, whose time was faster than what three Olympic medalists ran 10 days ago on the Fuller Track. "I’m running for myself, my team and the home crowd.’’
Omo Osaghae continued Texas Tech's streak of dominance in the 110 meter hurdles since 2004, winning in a photo finish of 13.65 seconds:
"I think what me and my coach worked on this weekend was my technique, but more than that getting out of the blocks good,’’ Osaghae said. "I think I got out so good I surprised myself a little bit. I got out so far ahead of everybody, I couldn’t see or hear or anybody, and I think I got a little bit complacent. Some of them started to catch up, but I was able to finish good.’’
There were a number of other top finishers in the article, too many for me to recap this morning, so go read the whole article.
Texas Tech Football
Post-Spring Rankings
First, no one take offense to someone else's opinion about where teams will finish. It's the offseason and we all need things to write. This is just one person's opinion. I'd love for you to vote in the poll about where you think Texas Tech will finish and feel free to leave a comment. ESPN Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin ranks the Big 12 teams post-spring and Griffin thinks the Red Raiders finish 6th:
6. Texas Tech: Coach Mike Leach has a new five-year contract but will be facing some heavy lifting. This will be his most significant offensive rebuilding job during his coaching tenure as he replaces the prime weapons of last season's South Division tri-champion. Taylor Potts won't be as productive as Graham Harrell, but he has more experience coming into the position than most of Leach's previous starting quarterbacks. The star power at wide receiver will be lacking without Michael Crabtree, but the spring showed the Red Raiders still have much talent and should be deeper throughout the receiver rotation. McKinner Dixon's spring suspension, coupled with Brandon Williams' defection to the NFL, makes pass rushing iffy. And the Red Raiders are looking for two new safeties from an inexperienced group. It all adds up to a challenging rebuilding job for Leach. February pre-spring ranking: 6.
Captain Leach #7 Pot-Stirring Football Coaches
The Orlando Sentinel's Matt Humphrey ranks the top 10 pot-stirring college football coaches and your Captain Mike Leach checks in at #7 (hat-tip Tim Griffin:
7. Mike Leach, Texas Tech Red Raiders: This pirate-loving coach gives crazy dating advice and has no trouble mouthing off from his perch in West Texas.One has to wonder if this guy is playing with a full deck.
Neglected Audio, Video and Photos
Fox34 as a couple of worthwhile features. The first being the countdown of the top 25 players for Texas Tech football, and at #25 it's Franklin Mitchem. The second feature is a review of last year's Eastern Washington game.
Texas Tech Baseball
Red Raiders and Cowboys
| Date | Start Time | Texas Tech Starting Pitcher |
Oklahoma State Starting Pitcher |
Result |
| 5/15/2009 | 6:30 p.m. | Chad Bettis (W, 5-0) | Brad Propst (L, 1-1) | 9-8 |
| 5/16/2009 | 1:00 p.m. | Louis Head (L, 1-4) | Tyler Lyons (W, 6-5) | 5-14 |
| 5/17/2009 | 1:00 p.m. | Chad Bettis (L, 5-1) | Randy McCurry (W, 3-1) | 9-10 |
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).
Texas Tech loses Series with Oklahoma State
From all accounts, this looks like a pretty tough loss for the Red Raiders. Texas Tech couldn't make a 9 run lead stick, even behind the pitching of Brian Cloud and Chad Bettis (recap). Starting pitcher Miles Morgan (5.0 IP; 6 H; 4 ER; 1 BB; 2 SO) was pretty good, especially since its been a while since he's pitched. Again, this was a case of the bullpen not being able to keep a fairly healthy lead. Brian Cloud (0.2 IP; 4 H; 4 ER; 0 BB; 0 SO) was pretty bad in the 7th inning which included the following: ground out, a home run, a double, a pop up, a home run and a double. Chad Bettis (2.1 IP; 2 H; 0 ER; 1 BB; 2 SO) came on to get the last out, but immediately gave up a single to drive in Cloud's last double and another runner scored on an error. At the plate, CF Taylor Ashby (3-4; 2 RBI), RF Scott LeJeune (2-5; 3 RBI) and 2B Joey Kenworthy (1-4; 2 RBI) lead the offense, but was completely shut out of the final three innings to re-take the lead.
LAJ's George Watson recaps the game head coach Dan Spencer says that it was just one bad inning:
"One bad inning," head coach Dan Spencer said. "We didn’t make enough pitches and when we did we didn’t catch a couple of balls, and that’s how you get beat. It’s disappointing but we’re in a position where we need to shake this glitch … because we’ve got business in front of us. I’m proud of our guys who have competed all year and had just one bad inning."
The Texas Tech Red Raiders finished 7th in the league and the seedings are set for the Big 12 Tournament held in Oklahoma City at the Bricktown Ballpark (official release - pdf). Here's what you need to know when Texas Tech plays, from Texas Tech's website:
No. 7 Texas Tech vs. No. 2 Oklahoma, Wednesday, May 20 - 7:30 p.m.
No. 7 Texas Tech vs. No. 3 Missouri, Friday, May 22 - 3 p.m.
No. 7 Texas Tech vs. No. 6 Texas A&M, Saturday, May 23 - 7:30 p.m.