Texas Tech vs California - Baseball Preview

Although Tech officially had Opening Day on Tuesday, the Red Raiders really open up the home part of the schedule with a crucial four-game series in three days this weekend against California.

Last season, the Bears welcomed Tech for a 4-game set of their own, but in what turned out to be a common theme last year, two of the four games were cancelled due to weather.

Going into last year’s series, Tech was ranked No. 25 and Cal was No. 9. In the Friday night game, there was an 80-minute rain delay and Tech went down 7-0 early before losing 9-2. Lanning allowed four runs on eight hits in four innings of work. The Saturday game was won 11-9 by Tech, in what would be Davis Martin’s first win of an impressive freshman season.

After last year, both teams lost several players to graduation and the MLB draft. Cal had 11 players graduate and another seven were drafted. The Bears coach knows what the Red Raiders bring, and called them “the best team we faced last year.”

Series Schedule

Game 1 - Friday 2:00pm Davis Martin (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs Tanner Dodson (0-1, 13.50 ERA)

Game 2 - Saturday 12:00pm Steven Gingery (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs Jared Horn (0-0, 5.40 ERA)

Game 3 - Saturday 4:00pm Ryan Shetter (1-0, 3.00 ERA) vs TBD

Game 4 - Sunday 12:00pm Erikson Lanning (0-0, 11.57 ERA) vs TBD

Game 3 is tentatively scheduled for 4:00pm, but that may change depending on the length on the first game of the doubleheader. The Friday afternoon game will be televised on FSSW.

Cal Players to Watch

• Freshman Anthony Walters went 5-9 with a double and 3 RBI’s in the series against Cal Poly
• Freshman SP Jared Horn allowed one run in four innings, but had a no decision. He was picked by D1 Baseball as the preseason PAC-12 freshman of the year
• Tanner Dodson went just 3.1 innings, allowing five runs and seven hits