Pitcher of the week: A pitcher from the bullpen emerges

The Red Raiders hosted the first place Baylor Bears this past weekend and we could not have asked for a better series. The first two games felt like heavyweight fighters feeling each other out until one team could throw a knockout punch. It was difficult to pick just one pitcher this week, but the juco transfer Taylor Floyd gets the honors this week.

Before getting into Taylor Floyd’s tremendous showing I do want to recognize John McMillon. The junior played his heart out in that series opening loss and if it wasn’t for him, Tech would have never taken that game to extra innings. McMillon gave this team hope moving forward in the series and his effort was outstanding.

Floyd is 3-3 on the season and came up huge in a tightly contested game in relief of Micah Dallas. After losing a heart breaker in extra innings, the Red Raiders faced a must win game against Baylor and Floyd showed incredible poise in his appearance. Floyd pitched 3 innings, gave up 4 hits, and recorded 2 strikeouts. None of these are flashy numbers by any stretch of the imagination, but the most important stat in a 3-2 win was that Floyd held the Bears to 0 earned runs.

The Red Raiders will play 4 games at home this week starting with the New Mexico Lobos on Tuesday. The top team in the Big 12 standings, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, come into Lubbock for what will be a pivotal series in the Big 12 championship race. The Red Raiders are now 8-7 in conference play and the Cowboys are currently 2 games ahead of Tech at 10-5. The Red Raiders are currently tied for 3^rd place in the Big 12 standings with West Virginia and are only behind Baylor and Oklahoma State. A series win is crucial if Texas Tech wants to win the Big 12 championship.