No. 8 Texas Tech baseball is set to take part in its fourth Super Regional on June 7-9 against No. 9 Oklahoma State in front of a sold out Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park.
The 2019 Big 12 champion Red Raiders (42-17) will face the Cowboys (39-19) in the first game of the best-of-three series on Friday at 2 p.m. on ESPN 2. Game two of the set will be at 5 p.m., Saturday on ESPNU while the Sunday if necessary game is currently slated for 5 p.m. on ESPNU.
All of the weekend’s games can also be streamed on the ESPN app or on WatchESPN.com. As always, fans can listen to Red Raider games on the Texas Tech Sports Network on 97.3 FM, the 97.3 app, the TuneIn app and online at TexasTech.com. Live stats will be available via NCAA.com.
The 2019 postseason marks the 14th appearance for the Red Raiders and the fourth year Tech has advanced to Super Regional action. The previous three came in 2014, 2016 and 2018 with all three clubs winning Supers to continue their seasons.
The Red Raiders have secured a berth in the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament during an odd year for the first time. Tech has been in every even year since 2014, which was the first in school history. The first Supers was clinched at the Coral Gables Regional in 2014. In 2016, the Red Raiders earned the No. 5 National Seed and advanced to Supers before doing so again in 2018 as the No. 9 National Seed.
This year, Tech swept its regional in impressive fashion, dispatching Army 11-2 in the opener before putting the clamps on Dallas Baptist in the next two games for a 3-2 win Saturday and a 3-0 shutout Sunday. It was the second straight year Tech has swept its Regional after doing so for the first time last season.
This year’s Super Regional will feature a Big 12 foe in Oklahoma State. The Red Raiders swept the regular-season series against the Cowboys in Lubbock. Tech outscored OSU 27-8 in the series, racked up 33 hits and struck out 46 Pokes on the weekend. It was the first of consecutive sweeps against Oklahoma schools.
The Cowboys advanced to Supers by winning the Oklahoma City Regional on Monday. OSU topped UConn, 3-1, in a deciding Game 7 after falling to them the night before. Key to their regional win was a three-run home run down two with two outs in the ninth against Nebraska that gave them a 2-0 mark and sent them to the regional finals.
The Red Raiders entered the postseason as the No. 8 National Seed to make them one of three teams in the nation to earn a national seed three of the last four years. Texas Tech hosted the opening round in Lubbock for the seventh time in school history and the fourth straight year. The streak is a school record and makes Tech the only school in the country to do so.
Tech heads into Supers with the league’s top scoring offense and No. 2-ranked pitching staff. Led by Big 12 Co-Player of the Year Josh Jung and senior Cameron Warren, the Red Raiders are averaging 7.6 runs per game with a .301 average that ranks second in the conference. On the mound, the Tech staff has compiled a 3.84 ERA and has gone 13-2 with its starting rotation over the last five weeks.
The Pokes, meanwhile, lead the league with 87 home runs and rank fourth with a .269 average. Their staff ranks fourth in the league with a 3.97 ERA, led by reliever Peyton Battenfield and starter Jensen Elliot.
Overall, Texas Tech is 35-28 in NCAA Tournament play with a 21-11 mark in Lubbock. Since 2014, under head coach Tim Tadlock, the Red Raiders are 22-12 in postseason action. Tech has won all three previous Super Regionals with a record of 6-2 overall. Offensively, junior Trevor Boone leads the Big 12 with 20 home runs.
The Red Raiders were crowned Big 12 Champions for its regular-season mark of 16-8. It’s the seventh conference title for the program and the third time Tech has captured the regular season championship in the last four years. No other Big 12 team has had a comparable run atop the league standings since 2009-11.
Texas Tech had seven players drafted in the 2019 Major League Baseball Draft, highlighted by junior infielder Josh Jung going No. 8 overall to the Texas Rangers. Jung is Tech’s second first round selection in school history with the other coming in 1989. Four total Red Raiders were drafted in the first 10 rounds for the second straight year, a program best.
The winner of the 2019 NCAA Lubbock Super Regional will head to Omaha, Nebraska, for the 2019 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park.
Courtesy of TexasTech.com
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