Monday Morning Matador: track, baseball, softball and basketball news

Spring is here! We’re looking at highs of 70+, plenty of sunshine, and victory bells. Catch up on Texas Tech Athletics here.

Baseball sweeps Michigan, drops against Stetson

The No. 13 Texas Tech baseball team rallied back against a tough series loss to Texas with a sweep of No. 22 Michigan. The first game was an absolute stalemate against Michigan’s Ace pitcher, Tommy Henry until a leadoff double from Cameron Warren was capitalized on by a base hit from Max Marusak in the sixth inning. It was all Texas Tech from there. The Red Raiders would close out the first game, 11-2 against a very good Michigan team. The second game had a few more sprinkled runs throughout but Tech’s magic number was inning number 6. It wasn’t without effort from Michigan, who nabbed three runs, but the pitching from Tech was far too prolific and the game ended 10-3. Their final stand on Saturday was much more of a fight. Out of eight innings the Red Raiders plated a run (or more) in six of them. Michigan was able to keep better pace with Tech rotating through six pitchers, as the Wolverines earned 5 runs (the summation of their runs in the first and second game). By the fifth inning it was tied up 5-5, and remained so until Texas Tech could manage three final runs in their last innings to finish the game and complete the sweep, 8-5. Tech outscored Michigan 29-10 in the series. Sunday started a two-game series against Stetson, where Texas Tech lost in extra innings, 7-5. Texas Tech will look to even the score today at noon.

Softball drops series to Oklahoma but sets home attendance record

Tech’s dominating softball team, ranked high as No. 12, battled against No. 2 Oklahoma in front of a record setting crowd at Rocky Johnson Field. The Sooners capitalized in each of the games on a number of long hits to outpace Tech. Friday they handed Tech their third loss of the season, 1-3, then Saturday they applied similar pressure to beat Tech 3-8, then finally on Sunday they completed the sweep, 13-1 . The Red Raiders were baffled to shake Oklahoma’s resolve and had a difficult time getting into a groove. Despite a strong 27-2 non-conference record, Texas Tech remains winless in the Big 12 (0-3) but is hoping to bounce back against Iowa State this Friday in another conference series.

Outdoor track season starts off well

Texas Tech’s segue into the outdoor track season was smooth as it wrapped up its first home meet of the spring. Coach Kittley commented that “I thought our kids looked good today. We’re still trying to get some of the rust off from indoors, but I’m really proud of the way we came out of here and competed today.” Some notable performances of the meet came from the women’s 4x100 (Tiffani Johnson, Daja Gordon, Alaysha Johnson, and D’Jenne Egharevba) recorded a 44.60, which leads the Big 12. The men’s 4x100 (Justin Hall, Jacolby Shelton, Keion Sutton, and Charles Brown) also placed first with a time of 39.94. Shelton’s solo time of 10.42 in the 100m was good enough for second in the Big 12. Tiffani Johnson set a PR in the 100m with a time of 11.44, Rose Njoku won in the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.69. Chancellor Stephenson PR’d in the 400m with a 47.13. Norman Grimes won the 400m hurdles with a 51.44, putting him top in the Big 12. Cyre Virgo won the high jump with a length of 1.71 meters, and Jack Scarborough took the men’s high jump with a length of 2.11 meters. Drew McMichael represented the pole vault with a height of 5.34 meters. me along with a clearance of 13’-10” (4.22m). Duke Kicinski won the discuss with a throw of 60.71 meters and Seasons Usual also won her discuss throw with an impressive 54.55 meter throw. Texas Tech performed spectacularly at home and will take their momentum to Austin this weekend for the Texas Relays.

Lady Raiders tennis remains unbeaten in conference play

Texas Tech women’s tennis team claimed its sixth straight win and their third Big 12 victory after defeating TCU 4-2 on Saturday. One of TCU’s points was the first of the match, pushing the Horned Frogs above Tech but Felicity Maltby and Nell Miller tied it up after a duos sweep of their opponents. Maltby, Olivia Peet, Francesca Sella and Lana Rush capitalized on their matches in order to bolster Tech’s lead and ensure the 4-2 victory over TCU. The win moves the Lady Raiders’ record to 13-4 on the season, 3-0 in Big 12 play. Up next they will travel to Kansas for matches with Kansas and Kansas State. Texas Tech is set to face the Jayhawks on Friday at 5 p.m. and the Wildcats on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Basketball illustrates why defenses win games

After losing in the first round of the Big 12 tournament, Coach Beard rallied the players for the biggest stage in college basketball. Their first matchup in the round of 64 was against Northern Kentucky - a prominent Horizon League team that had many considering their ability to pull the upset. Not so! Despite being four points apart at the half, Texas Tech held off the Norse and continued to score to manage a 15 point victory. Most of which was handled by Jarrett Culver’s career-high (and program high in a tourney game) 29 points. The following match was set between Tech and one of the nations top 10 offensive teams, the Buffalo Bulls. With a team that averages 80 points a game Tech would have to play its best defense of the year to stand a chance. After the first 10 minutes and Norense Odiase securing near 10 rebounds - it was obvious the Red Raiders were locked in. Odiase also, for the record, set a single game rebounding record in the tournament with 15 total rebounds. The points were evenly dispersed but Tech throttled Buffalo 78-58 to secure their spot in the Sweet Sixteen. Up next for the Red Raiders they will travel to Anaheim, California to face off against the second seeded Michigan Wolverines.