Red Raiders host Houston Baptist in 2021 Home Opener

This weekend starting on Friday, at 2:00 PM Texas Tech Baseball hosts the Houston Baptist Huskies in the home opening series for the 2021 season.

The Red Raiders are coming off of an 0-3 weekend in Arlington in The College Baseball Showdown, looking a little shaky in certain areas at times during the three game stretch. Meanwhile, the Huskies are 1-2 coming off of an opening weekend series against the Rice Owls in a cross town series that Rice hosted.

Last year, Texas Tech hosted Houston Baptist in the season opener at Dan Law Field and beat the Huskies in both games by a combined score of 29-4. However, considering the last two games of last season and the first three this season, The Red Raiders find themselves on a 5 game losing streak. In fact, the last time the Red Raiders won a game was the last time they played at the Law, beating Rice 7-6 in 11 innings on March 8, 2020. If you remember Tech trailed 6-2 in the bottom of the 8th in that one and wound up walking off on a double in the 11th.

It seems like last season was a lifetime ago so here is a quick rundown of who to watch and who Tech could possibly face this weekend against the Huskies.

Houston Baptist

• Pitching

The Huskies used 9 pitchers over their first three games, and had a brilliant performance from starter Austin Spinney who went 6 scoreless innings giving up only 4 hits over that span.

The other two starters (Tyler Zarella and Jacob Coats) had a little rougher time both going 5 innings with Coats giving up 3 runs and Zarella giving up 4, respectively.

• Batting

Freshman IF Sebastian Trinidad led the Huskies in the Rice series, going 5-for-10 with 3 RBI over three games.

Senior IF Nathan Soriano also had a good weekend for the Huskies going 4-for-11 with a triple and 4 RBI over three games.

Junior IF Jake Miller went 4-for-12 and scored 4 runs over three games against Rice.

Texas Tech

• Pitching

Patrick Monteverde had a great season opening outing for the Red Raiders going 4 innings giving up 1 hit and striking out 5 against a very good Arkansas team.

Micah Dallas started against Ole Miss and went 2 ²⁄₃ innings giving up 5 runs on 3 hits.

Mason Montgomery went 4 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits against Mississippi State.

Brendan Girton went 3 ¹⁄₃ innings of relief giving up 0 runs on 2 hits against Ole Miss.

• Batting

The usual suspects were hitting well for Tech and expect them to do the same against HBU.

Cal Conley and Braxton Fulford both had 4 RBI over the weekend

Dylan Neuse only hit .222 over the weekend, but his OBP was .556 having walked 5 separate times.

Kurt Wilson hit .333 in two games with a double and two runs over the weekend and has played well on the infield as well.

Look for the Red Raiders to get into the win column this weekend, however, do not underestimate this HBU team. In 2 of the 3 games this past weekend, they were in one run games against a solid Rice team that gave Tech everything they could handle last season. The last thing the Red Raiders need to do is overlook a competitive HBU squad that is looking for some redemption after last year’s series.

The games this weekend are slated for:

• 2 PM Friday, February 26, Dan Law Field
• 2 PM Saturday, February 27, Dan Law Field
• 1 PM Sunday, February 28, Dan Law Field

Season tickets this year are sold out, and fans looking to purchase single game tickets should visit texastech.com as tickets are sold on a game by game basis.