Red Raider Ravioli: the baseball team has to speed up

Buongiorno!

I’m happy to give you my warmest benvenuto in this new edition of RRR, glad to have you here reading.

There’s a topic I want to discuss, but before approaching it, I’d like to spend a couple of words on Zhaire Smith’s decision to declare for the NBA draft, becoming the first one-and-done in Texas Tech history.

There’s a (small) possibility to see him again with a Red Raiders’ jersey as he declared for the draft without hiring an agent, but whatever happens, I think we just saw one of the most athletic and spectacular players in a while, and we were lucky to see him in action.

Amy Kontras-USA TODAY Sports

That said, let’s talk about baseball: I write these words just after Tim Tadlock’s team scored 25 runs in two games against Kansas and, without doubts, that’s a good sign waiting for the third game of the series.

With these wins, Texas Tech improves its overall record to 26-6, but only 5-3 in Big 12, and here comes the problem: Oklahoma leads the conference with an immaculate 7-0 record (last night game against TCU was postponed because of unfavorable weather conditions) and seems to be the early favorite for the title.

The Red Raiders have a better overall record, as the Sooners “only” won 22 games and lost 10, but they have to avoid other unexpected stops like against Baylor and West Virginia. It’s true there are still 16/17 conference games and everything can happen, but a “top-top-tier“ team cannot, as we say in Italy, slip on a banana peel.

Credit: TTU Athletics

The question is: are these Red Raiders, in this moment of the year, this kind of “top-top-tier” team? According to the various rankings they are, as D1baseball and Baseball America have them at No. 7, NCBWA and USA Today at No. 5, and the RPI Index even sees them as the second team in the country.

After Steven Gingery’s injury, the team needed some physiological time to metabolize the thing, and until opponents were, with al due respect, UTSA or South Alabama, things went in the right way. Let’s hope that the two losses at Baylor and the home fall against West Virginia were only a couple of bumps in the road, a road that we hope as long and as bright as possible.

As usual, I’d like to see your opinions and suggestions, I’m very open for this, of course.

Alla prossima!