Red Raider Hardball | Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Oklahoma St. Cowboys

Other than the Friday night starter for Oklahoma St., all of the pitchers are TBA. Anyone else think that there might be some changes to the starters this weekend? UPDATE: When I wrote this, there were no starters listed, but on Twitter, Scott Lacefield said that Matt Withrow would start tonight and Chris Sadberry would start on Sunday. The starter on Saturday is TBA.

Friday Night Woes: Texas Tech has really struggled quite a bit on Friday nights the last two nights and the Red Raiders hope to turn that aspect around (via LAJ). Head coach Tim Tadlock said that the team just needs to play better:

"This simplest thing is we just need to go play and not worry about it being Friday," Tadlock said. "Obviously we’ve given up some runs the last two Fridays. But both Fridays we decided there were certain points of the game where guys needed to get some outs and when they didn’t get them, we moved on. But we do need to pitch better and we need to swing the bats better."

For those of you who don’t remember, head coach Josh Holliday is in his first year at Oklahoma St. and they hope to have similar success that they have previously had (via LAJ):

"We want to take a step forward every day we wake up on the program, and our goal is to get better," said Holliday, who played for OSU from 1996 through 1999. "That will never change. We expect to compete for championships, and that will never change. It’s just how quickly you can get to that point and it is something you have to deal with in terms of terms of tempering the expectations of the public. We expect to win every time we put on that uniform and win that day."

This is a good overview of the Cowboys and their team.

OUTFIELD: LF: Alec Humphreys | CF: Stephen Smith | RF: Adam Kirsch
INFIELD: 3B: Jake Barrios | SS: Ryan Long | 2B: Bryant Burleson | 1B Eric Gutierrez | C: Hunter Redman | DH: Matt Broadbent

Game 1: Friday, April 4th @ 7:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: RHP Matt Withrow (3-2, 4.03)
Oklahoma St. Starting Pitcher: RHP Jon Perrin (2-2, 3.05)
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 1, Oklahoma St. 3 - Recap - Box Score - LAJ

Before last night, my biggest concern was that the starting pitching for the Friday night game wasn't even giving the starting pitching a fighting chance, but last night, starter Matt Withrow only pitched 1 inning before being replaced by Cameron Smith, who pitched 3.2 innings, and then finally by normal Friday night starter, Dominic Moreno, who pitched the final 3.1 frames.  Sometimes, I don't think I'm smart enough to figure out what Tadlock is trying to do with just having a starter pitch 1 inning, unless it's not to get behind the 8 ball as mentioned above.  The only run came from Eric Gutierrez, a home run in the 5th inning, but that's all the offense could muster, so even though the pitching was patch-work, the offense has to generate some runs.

Game 2: Saturday, April 5th @ 3:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: TBA
Oklahoma St. Starting Pitcher: TBA
Final Score & Box Score: Texas Tech 16, Oklahoma St. 6 - Recap - Box Score - LAJ

That's a bit more like it. Texas Tech seems to win really big when they do win in conference games.  Johnathon Tripp got the start and went 4 innings, giving up 2 hits, 1 run, striking out 3 and walking none, while Corey Taylor picked up the win despite giving up 6 hits and 4 runs in just 2 innings of relief. The relievers, Nick Pettus and Dalton Brown, finished up the game. Meanwhile, on offense, Adam Kirsch hit two home runs, going 5-3 for the day, and driving in 6 runs. That's a pretty good little day. Meanwhile, Eric Gutierrez continues his hot-hitting ways and goes 2-5 with 6 RBI. The offense had 12 hits on the day and 7 walks. That's going to help out a lot for an offense.

Game 3: Sunday, March 6th @ 1:00 pm
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: LHP Chris Sadberry (3-1, 2.50)
Oklahoma St. Starting Pitcher: TBA
Final Score & Box Score: -