Brooks Wallace Memorial Classic (PDF)
Texas Tech (3-1, 0-0)
Location: Rip Griffin Park | Lubbock, TX
Radio: Affiliates
| Date | Start Time | Texas Tech Starting Pitcher |
Opponent Starting Pitcher |
Result |
| 2.24.12 | 5:00 pm | Duke von Schamann (RHP) | St. John | Kyle Hansen (RHP) | W: 4-1 |
| 2.25.12 | 5:00 pm | Daniel Coulombe (LHP) | NIU | Tom Barry (RHP) |
W: 8-5 |
| 2.26.12 | 1:00 pm | Shane Broyles (RHP) | St. John | Sean Hagen (LHP) | W: 5-2 |
| 2.26.12 | 5:00 pm | Rusty Shellhorn (LHP) | NIU | Jake Hermsen (LHP) | W: 10-4 |
| 2.27.12 | 5:00 pm | TBA |
NIU | Tony Manville (RHP) | W: 3-2 |
Outfield:
LF - Brennan Moore | CF - Barrett Barnes | RF - David Paiz
Infield:
SS - Tim Proudfoot | 2ND - Jamodrick McGruder
3RD - Reid Redman | 1ST - Scott LeJeune
C - Bo Altobelli
DH - Stephen Hagen
*Click on the score for boxscore. Texas Tech series preview (pdf).
UPDATING THIS POST | In order to keep things easy on myself and to create some more posts that are actually related to baseball, I'm going to update this post throughout the weekend and through Monday. I have a baseball section (look to the sections on the left) but I usually end up updating scores in a DTN DD, so what I plan to do this year is to update the preview post through the weekend and then have the game re-caps after the jump.
More after the jump.
A RANKED OPPONENT | LAJ's George Watson writes that this Texas Tech team is excited to take on one a team that made the NCAA tournament and apparently this St. John's team is also ranked. Here's Watson:
The pitching matchup today should be a stellar one. St. John’s brings in a potential Top 5-round draft pick in right-hander Kyle Hansen, who has a fastball in the mid-90s and is a two-time All-Big East and second-team all-America selection. Hansen took a loss in the season opener last week against Michigan State in the Big East-Big Ten Challenge, surrendering a pair of runs on two hits and two walks with nine strikeouts in four innings.Tech will counter with redshirt sophomore right-hander Duke vonSchamann, who was outstanding in the Red Raiders’ season-opening 4-1 win over Missouri State. vonSchamann allowed just one unearned run on one hit and a walk with six strikeouts in seven innings.
For the length of the weekend, though, the Red Raiders’ mound depth may be the biggest advantage between the three teams. Tech comes in with an ERA (1.75) well below the team ERAs of either St. John’s (6.92) or Northern Illinois (8.62).
PITCHING IS KEY | DT's Brett Winegarner also writes about the excellent pitching that will be in Lubbock and if you want to go watch a game that should be terrific, then go check out tonight's game as I'm starting to think that von Schamman is going to be this staff's ace:
Tech head coach Dan Spencer said this is exactly what baseball at the collegiate level is all about."I think that Friday night in college baseball, that’s what it’s supposed to be — two studs," he said. "We have a lot of respect for (Kyle) Hansen, but we really like our guy. So we’re going to line up and play, and we want to win on Friday night and Duke’s (von Schammann) our best guy at this point to ride out there and start a weekend with, so we’ll go from there."
The six-foot-eight inch Hansen has dominated batters during the last two years with a blazing fastball that registers in the mid to upper 90s. According to College Baseball Daily’s 2012 Top 100 College Baseball Players list Hansen ranked 14th, and he proved why in his opening debut this season.
Game 1 | St. John 1, Texas Tech 4 (box score | quotes)
I mentioned yesterday that RHP Duke von Shamman will be the staff ace and he was incredibly good yesterday evening as he didn't allow a run in his 7 innings pitched (7.0 IP | 3 H | 0 ER | 0 BB | 5 SO) . RHP Trey Masek and RHP John Neely tried to make it interesting late. The Texas Tech offense couldn't do much with St. John's starter Kyle Hansen but knocked around Brendan Lobben, mainly CF Barrett Barnes who hit an inside the park home run that knocked in 3 runs and that's all Texas Tech would need (although to be technical, 3B Reid Redman had an RBI in the 1st inning and was 2-4).
LAJ's George Watson recaps the game:
Friday’s challenge for Texas Tech redshirt sophomore right-hander Duke vonSchamann wasn’t necessarily going out and matching heralded St. John’s right-hander Kyle Hansen.
The challenge for vonSchamann was showing the ability to have a second straight quality start in order to give the Red Raiders hope their Friday night starter will give them a chance to start future Big 12 Conference series on the right foot.
Turns out, he did both at the same time.
Game 2 | Northern Illinois 5, Texas Tech 8 (box score | quotes)
Another relatively strong pitching performance by the staff as Texas Tech took down Northern Illinois 8-5. Starter LHP Daniel Coulombe was pretty good (5.0 IP | 6 H | 3 ER | 6 BB | 6 SO), but the walks are obviously a problem and he wasn't as sharp as he was last week. Relief pitchers RHP Jared McCrummen and RHP John Neely finished the game combining for 4.0 innings and no runs, while Neely got the save. Texas Tech scored 8 runs and had 3 RBI, which usually means there were some sloppy play from Norther Illinois.
LAJ's George Watson has a recap:
Tech’s bullpen shut the Huskies down from there. Junior right-hander Jerad McCrummen and senior right-hander John Neely combined for four innings of scoreless relief to preserve the win.
“We’ll take the result,” head coach Dan Spencer said. “We were a little sloppy obviously in that four-run inning. The lethal combination of walking a couple and kicking a couple of balls hurt us in the middle there, and it was frustrating because we’d warned them beforehand that Northern Illinois was going to hang around and hang around. We were sloppy but good teams find a way to right the ship.”
Tech’s offense used a four-run second inning and three more in the fourth to take a 7-0 lead. An RBI single by Barrett Barnes and a run-scoring double by Reid Redman along with a pair of wild pitchers by NIU starter Jake Hermsen (0-2) staked the Red Raiders (5-1) to a 4-0 lead. Barnes added an RBI double in the fourth — his 100th career RBI as a Red Raider — and two more runs scored on a Northern Illinois error and a wild pitch to push the lead to 7-0.
Watson also notes that this is Coulombe's first win as a collegiate pitcher. Congrats to him.
Game 3 | St. John 2, Texas Tech 5 (box score | quotes)
Starting pitcher RHP Shane Broyles was terrific (7.2 IP | 4 H | 2 ER | 2 BB | 3 SO) while RHP Trey Masek was dominant closing out the game (1.1 IP | 1 H | 3 SO) and threw 16 of his 17 pitches for strikes. The top of the order was really good as RF Jamodrick McGruder, CF Barrett Barnes and 1B Scott LeJeune each had an RBI, which was more than enough to put away the Red Storm.
Game 4 | Northern Illinois 4, Texas Tech 10 (box score | quotes)
A quality start and a save from someone other than Trey Masek or John Neely. LHP Rusty Shellhorn (6.0 IP | 8 H | 3 ER | 2 BB | 7 SO) was excellent and RHP Jamen Parten got the save, but he also pitched 3 innings (3.0 IP | 0 ER | 0 BB | 3 SO). CF Barrett Barnes, C Bo Altobelli and DH Stephen Hagen all hit home runs while 1B Scott LeJeune was 4-5 with 1 RBI and RF Jamodrick McGruder was 3-4. Barnes, 3B Reid Redman, Altobelli and 2B Bryant Burleson all had 2 RBI.
LAJ's George Watson recaps both games:
Texas Tech baseball coach Dan Spencer was in his players’ ears all day Sunday, reminding them to do the one thing the Red Raiders failed to do last Sunday.
The constant reminders apparently paid off as the Red Raiders swept a pair of games at Rip Griffin Park, and did so in contrasting styles, beating St. John’s 5-2 in a pitcher’s duel then blasting three home runs for a season-high in runs and hits in a 10-4 win over Northern Illinois.
The wins push the Red Raiders to 7-1 on the season. Tech’s only loss on the year came exactly one week ago when it couldn’t complete the doubleheader sweep, losing to Missouri State in the nightcap after beating Tennessee Tech earlier in the day.
Watson also has a notebook filled with all sorts of stuff.
Game 5 | Northern Illinois 2, Texas Tech 3 (box score | quote)
Another solid, maybe spectacular, pitching performance, this time by David Paiz who no-hit N. Illinois for five innings(5.0 IP | 0 H | 0 ER | 1 BB | 4 SO). Closer John Neely was shaky yet again (this is a recurring theme) as he gave up the tying run, but was bailed out by freshman SS Tim Proudfoot, who knocked in the winning run with a triple in the bottom of the 9th to score LF Brennan Moore. Proudfoot, Moore and DH Matt Eureste all had 2 hits and Proudfoot and 1B Scott LeJeune had the lone RBI.
LAJ's George Watson recaps the game:
And it earned Proudfoot a face full of shaving cream from his appreciative teammates.
“The funny part about it is he doesn’t even shave yet,” senior third baseman Reid Redman said. “That’s the first time he’s had shaving cream on him.”
It came just moments after closer John Neely surrendered both a no-hit bid and the lead in a span of five batters as the Huskies (0-7) scored two to tie the game and force Tech (8-1) to the plate one last time.
“It’s was actually good for us,” Proudfoot said. “We had some adversity to face, and so far this season, we haven’t faced much of that yet. We all knew that we could do it and overcome the adversity and it turned out to be good for us. We ended up winning.”
The Red Raiders went 5-0 for the tournament and are now ranked #24 in the nation.