After a key split on the road in Tallahassee, Texas Tech looks to keep the momentum going in one of the biggest series left in the regular season. Oklahoma State is tied with TCU in second place in the conference with a 4-2 record in Big XII play. Overall OSU is 19-9 but since they started conference play March 24 the Cowboys are 5-2.

Tech might not be a better team than TCU but right now the Red Raiders lead the conference with an 8-1 Big XII record. To maintain this advantage Texas Tech needs to win this series in Stillwater.

Baseball America in their preseason top 25 ranked OSU 9 and picked them to win the conference because of their dominant pitching staff led by two underclassmen aces. Sophomore hurler Thomas Hatch leads the club in innings pitched with 44 in his seven starts this season. In those 44 innings Hatch has piled up 33 strikeouts and 14 walks. His ERA for the season is an astounding 1.84 and the only thing more astounding about is that another starter on the staff has a lower ERA.

The 6'6" freshman from Coppell Texas Jensen Elliott sports a 1.82 ERA through 39.2 innings (seven starts). Elliott strikes out 8.4 batters per 9 innings but walks 3.6 per 9. Both of these dudes will likely be slated for a start in this three game series.

Pitching dominance doesn't stop with those two; as a staff OSU's ERA is an obscene 2.33. That's just unfathomable. Offensive inconsistency is what has killed the Cowboys. Oklahoma State averages 5.6 runs per game. The team's batting average is a fine .241 but it's nothing overwhelming.

Texas Tech will be only the second ranked team that OSU has played this year as Michigan was not ranked when those two faced off. The last ranked team Oklahoma State faced was North Carolina who swept their three game series in Chapel Hill.

This weekend series should be a tight one and if Tech can take two out of three in Stillwater it will do wonders for building momentum and put some distance between Tech and the rest of the conference.