Monday Morning Matador: baseball, softball, draft days, and a bit of tragedy

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Baseball gets the sweep against Oklahoma State

Texas Tech baseball’s win streak extended to six this weekend after dismantling a good Oklahoma State team at home, three times in a row. In the first game on Friday, the third inning was an eruption of six runs to launch the Red Raiders up 7-1 by the beginning of the fourth inning. Their impressive scoring was only matched by the impressive pitching efforts by Micah Dallas, Dane Haveman, and Ryan Sublette who combined for a season-high 17 strikeouts. The match ended 12-4, Red Raiders. On Saturday, Texas Tech decided to spread the love and score multiple runs in four innings - replicating a beautiful pitching performance by Caleb Kilian and Taylor Floyd only allowing two runs and five hits. Texas Tech took the series with a 10-2 victory. Then Sunday there was a much more resilient effort by the Cowboys to keep Texas Tech off the board through six innings. With a 1-0 deficit, the bats caught fire in the seventh and the Red Raiders notched 4 runs and a fifth in the eight to secure the last victory at 5-2. Red Raiders’ sweep of the Cowboys moved them to second in the conference behind Baylor, with two more Big 12 series against Oklahoma and TCU.

Softball battles against Oklahoma State but falls short, Hartwell shines

In a three game series against Oklahoma State, Texas Tech just couldn’t catch a break. The softball team took a good lead in each of their games against the Cowgirls but were hard-pressed to fend them off. The Red Raiders fell to Oklahoma State Friday, 3-2, Saturday, 8-7, and Sunday 6-5. One run defeats on consecutive nights are hard, but the softball team is looking to bounce back in a double-header against New Mexico State. One bright spot against Oklahoma State was senior All-American Jessica Hartwell. She became the thirteenth Texas Tech softball’s all-time career home run leader with 46 home runs in her career. The previous record of 45 home runs was set by Mikey Kenney from 2010-2013.

Dakota Allen drafted by the Los Angeles Rams

Texas Tech’s hero of last season made his dreams of getting another chance a reality. From dismissal from the football team, a road of redemption laid ahead of linebacker Dakota Allen. After a stint at Last Chance U, Allen made his way back to Texas Tech under the blessing of Kingsbury who knew all to well the change in Allen’s character. Since being welcomed back on to the team he quickly earned honors of captain and played the leader role perfectly. The defense made tremendous strides this past season, and that effort is directly attributed to Allen’s leadership and grit. In the draft process, Allen wrote an open letter to NFL GMs explaining his path in his own words. He asked only for one thing: a chance. In the seventh round of the NFL draft, the Los Angeles Rams decided to take that chance and called out his name as the 251 overall pick. Congratulations Dakota!

Red Raider golf finishes fifth in Big 12 Championship

This past weekend the Red Raiders notched a fifth place finish in the Big 12 Conference Championship at the Greenbrier. Junior Sandy Scott shot 4-under-par to earn that tie for fifth, leading the No. 10-ranked Texas Tech team in performance. Scott earned the all-tournament honors. Coach Greg Sands said “Sandy played great and has really come on this spring to lead this team in a big way. We never gave up and finished the last few holes well and had a realistic shot of moving up to second or third place. It was very close between those top six teams.” Up next for the Red Raiders is the NCAA Regional Tournament which will have its selection show on May 1st at 8pm.

In Lubbock shooting, freshman defensive lineman John Scott III injured

Last Saturday, shots were fired at the Park East Student Living Apartments around 6p.m. injuring two persons - Kiana Pipkins and redshirt freshman John Scott III. As of now, police have disclosed that the shooting followed a fight involving a number of people at the pool of the apartment complex. The shooter has since turned himself into the police, and Scott III remains at UMC in critical condition. We’ll keep you updated as news surfaces.