Recapping a short Texas Tech baseball season...what could have been?

Thursday, March 12, 2019 is a day that will forever be engraved in the minds of sports fans everywhere. A day that included the NCAA cancelling all college sports and their respective championships through the end of the school year. For the sake of the topic at hand, I would like to go ahead and say thank you. Thank you to all the seniors that took part in building this team up to what it is. A team is nothing without strong leadership from the guys who put the foundation down for the young guys to follow. You seniors are a large part of what made this team the best we’ve ever seen and the fact that the opportunity to compete was stripped from you, is ludicrous. Not just Tech fans, but college sports fans around the country need to acknowledge the seniors and give them the love and support they need through this.

The Texas Tech baseball team started the year hot and finished at 16-3 and ranked the no. 2 team in the country. This team was stacked with talent at every position; bullpen depth was at a premium, with every pitcher being able to turn a game on its head in an instant. Something that was shown in comeback wins throughout the year. The infield had a chemistry unlike anything I’ve ever seen and it didn’t even come close to hitting it’s peak. In the outfield, it was like customizing a Jeep; easy. Every part was interchangeable, no matter who was out there, we knew that the team was in good hands. We also played witness to head coach Tim Tadlock earn his 300th win in an incredible comeback against Rice.

Photo courtesy of Texas Tech Athletics

The stats speak for themselves: at the plate, the team combined for an average of .319, 166 RBI’s and 23 home runs. Freshman catcher Nate Rombach led the team in home runs with 6 and redshirt freshman shortstop Cal Conley led the team in RBI’s with 45. On the mound, the Red Raiders finished with an ERA of 3.36 and 222 strikeouts. The rotation of Beeter, Bonnin and Becker, better known as “The Killer B’s” was lethal, combining for 71 strikeouts.

Photo courtesy of Texas Tech Athletics

Before the season started, I put out a season preview and I said that I didn’t think that this team could get back to Omaha and repeat what they did in 2019. But after the comeback against Rice, I found myself eating my words, realizing this team could not only repeat what they did in 2019, but they could’ve gone on to win the whole damn thing. So I say again, thank you seniors for all the things you’ve done to build this squad up and bringing joy to Red Raider nation for the last 4-5 years, to what would’ve been a National Championship year.