West Texas vs. West Coast

For the third straight season, Texas Tech has the opportunity to win two games in Lubbock and book its spot in Omaha for the College World Series.

The Red Raiders will be taking on The Stanford Cardinal in a best-of-three series that will be played Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (if necessary).

The Cardinal are the number nine overall seed in the tournament and many felt like they should be hosting this Super Regional instead of Texas Tech. They did not win the Pac-12 but they finished in third, two and a half games back. Maybe if they would’ve been another half game back they would’ve gotten unnecessary hate from around the country too.

Anyway, The Cardinal come to Lubbock after beating UC Irvine in a winner take all game on Monday night by a score of 11-8. Stanford used a seven run first inning on their way to a comfortable victory over the Anteaters.

Stanford will most likely throw Brendan Beck, their ace, in game one. Beck boasts a 3.00 ERA over 93 innings. He has struck out 115 batters while throwing two complete games this season. He will be the toughest pitcher that the Red Raiders have faced this postseason. After Beck, the bullpen for Stanford is good, not great. I’m not sure who they’d start in Game Two, other than Quinn Mathews. He comes in with a 6.15 ERA in 60 innings and has struck out 54 batters in that span. Zach Grech is the go to closer, he boasts a 3.17 ERA and 13 saves on the year in 48 innings.

Offensively, Stanford has three guys that hit over .300 but none over .315, so they’re right around there when it comes to average. The names you need to know are Christian Robinson, Vincent Martinez, Nick Brueser, Brock Jones, and Tim Tawa. Jones leads the team with 13 homers and 47 RBIs this season.

Tech will most likely stick with their regional rotation, Chase Hampton- Patrick Monteverde- Mason Montgomery. I can’t really see any deviance from that order unless something terrible were to happen in game one or two. Micah Dallas will be staying in the bullpen to provide some more stability as he did in the regional. After the way this bullpen performed last weekend, I really can’t provide a reason why anything should change. It was the best all around weekend for this pitching staff this season, so lets hope they’re getting hot at the right time.

Kurt Wilson started in center field over the weekend and I expect that to stay the same as well. I’m also not anticipating much change in the lineup either. If it stays the same it will be:

Dru Baker-7, Braxton Fulford-2, Jace Jung-4, Cole Stilwell-DH, Cal Conley-6, Easton Murrell-9, Nate Rombach-3, Kurt Wilson-8, Parker Kelly-5.

Bottom Line

Tech should win this Super Regional and head back to Omaha for the third straight season. I don’t think Stanford has enough starting pitching depth and they will be dealing with a packed Dan Law Field and 100+ degree temperatures. Tech doesn’t need to get cocky however, just play the game like they did this past weekend and Omaha will be calling for the Red Raiders.

Game One:

Friday-2:00 p.m.- ESPNU, TTSN

Game Two:

Saturday-2:00 p.m.- ESPNU, TTSN

Game Three:(if necessary)

Sunday-2:00 p.m.- ESPNU, TTSN

Let’s pack the Law this weekend and continue our postseason home-field advantage!

Follow Along

Be sure to follow @vivathematadors and @homershub for all of your Texas Tech Sports updates. @JackBellSports will also have some in game updates as well as post game thoughts after each game this weekend.