Red Raiders Host Tough Jayhawk Squad In Weekend Series
April 26, 2001 | Baseball
April 26, 2001
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THE RED RAIDERS
Texas Tech will host the Kansas Jayhawks this weekend in a three-game series beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday at Dan Law Field. Texas Tech is 1-0 this week after dropping TCU 14-4 on Tuesday afternoon at the TCU Diamond in Fort Worth.
The Red Raiders are 10-1-1 in their last 12 games and will look to move higher in the Big 12 standings but they will have to deal first with a tough Kansas squad. Kansas comes into series on a three-game win streak that includes a win over then No. 3 Nebraska.
Texas Tech appeared in the NCAA statistics this week in one team category and two individual. Tech's defense is ranked 15th while Chris Phillips is tied for fifth place in total wins (10). Austin Cranford debuted this week in the national batting averages and ranks 41st at .407.
Following the Big 12 series with Kansas this weekend, the Red Raiders will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi May 1-2.
RAIDERS ON THE AIR
For the eighth consecutive season, the entire Texas Tech baseball game schedule will be broadcast live on the Red Raider Radio Network and made available to its statewide affiliates. Play-By-Play voice of the Red Raiders Mark Finkner will make the call in this his sixth season. He will be joined by popular color commentator Ryan Hyatt who will be in the broadcast booth for his fourth season. Finkner and Hyatt will host a 20-minute pregame show and will have postgame interviews with players and coaches. Tech baseball games can be heard locally on KKAM 1340 AM.
For the first time since 1988, Texas Tech ended a game in a tie. The Oklahoma Sooners erased a 7-3 deficit by scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game which was eventually called due to Texas Tech's return travel plans to Lubbock.
Austin Cranford led of the game with a home run for the second straight day but this time his solo shot came on the first pitch instead of the second. Oklahoma took the lead in the bottom of the second on an RBI double by Chris Haggard that scored Denver Kitch. Texas Tech countered in the top of the third on an RBI single to shallow right field by Nick Blankenship. Tech was able to take the lead off a wild pitch by Sooner pitcher Austin Mix that plated Jason Rainey giving Tech the 3-2 lead.
As has been the case over most of the series, Oklahoma issued a counter punch in the bottom of the third as Sean Smith hit an RBI single that scored Greg Dobbs to tie the game. Smith's RBI single came with two outs in the inning and brushed the glove of third baseman Nick Blankenship before sailing out into left field. Texas Tech reclaimed the lead in the top of the fifth when Austin Cranford scored on an RBI single by Gera Alvarez. Oklahoma kept Tech from padding its lead in the inning as the Sooners were able to turn a double play off an infield grounder by Bryon Smith to get out of the inning.
Roberts handed the Red Raiders a run in the top of the ninth on wild pitch that plated Gera Alvarez to give Tech a 6-3 advantage. Second baseman Bryon Smith added the final run of the inning as he hit a sacrifice fly to deep left field allowing Nick Blankenship to score putting Tech in the lead 7-3 heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Oklahoma rallied from a 7-3 deficit to tie the score in the bottom of the ninth with back-to-back home runs, a three-run shot by Greg Dobbs and a solo homer by Sean Smith.
TECH IN THE NCAA STANDINGS
After winning 10 of its last 12 games, Texas Tech's success is also showing in the NCAA standings. The NCAA statistics, released on Tuesday, had two Red Raiders in the individual standings and the team in one. As a team, Texas Tech's defense is ranked 15th with a fielding percentage of .970 (prior to TCU game). Austin Cranford has the 41st best batting average (.416) in the nation while Chris Phillips is tied for fifth in number of wins (10). Note: Phillips' 10 wins are just one shy of the mark of 11 shared by four players while five other players have 10.
A TIE GAME?
Oklahoma needed just two consecutive pitches (back-to-back home runs) to tie Sunday's game with Texas Tech giving the two teams the unfortunate honor of participating in the first tie in Big 12 baseball. Tech and OU's 7-7 tie on Sunday is the first tie in a Big 12 baseball game and was Tech's first tie since the 1988 season when the Red Raiders tied New Mexico 10-10 in the third game of the season.
CRANFORD NAMED BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Texas Tech's Austin Cranford was named the Big 12 Conference Player of the Week for his performance against the Oklahoma Sooners this past weekend. Cranford went 7 for 10 at the plate (.700) with four walks to put him on base 11 times in 14 plate appearances. He tallied two home runs on the weekend and punched out a slugging percentage of 1.500.
HAYS WINS 1,250TH CAREER GAME
Texas Tech Head Coach Larry Hays earned his 1, 250th career victory on Tuesday, March 13th against the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds. Coach Hays is currently the fourth winningest active baseball coach in the nation behind Augie Garido (Texas), Chuck Hartman (Virginia Tech) and Gene Stephenson (Wichita State). Hays is the eighth winningest coach in the history of the NCAA.
TECH SET TO HOST THE KANSAS JAYHAWKS
Texas Tech will host its final home Big 12 Conference series of the season this weekend as the Kansas Jayhawks come to Lubbock for a three-game series. Texas Tech leads the all-time series with Kansas 11-3 with two of the losses coming in Lawrence and the other in Lubbock in 1997.
Last season, Texas Tech won the series in Lawrence 2-1 as the Jayhawks avoided the sweep by posting 4-0 shutout on Saturday (4/22). Here is a look at the last four regular-season series between the two teams:
2000 Season (Lawrence) Texas Tech won the series 2-1
1999 Season (Lubbock) Texas Tech won the series 3-0
1998 Season (Lawrence) Texas Tech won the series 2-1
1997 Season (Lubbock) Texas Tech won the series 2-1
GARCIA TO THROW OUT FIRST PITCH
Former Red Raider sensation Ruben Garcia will throw out the first pitch on Friday night in the first game of the home series with Kansas. Ruben Garcia, Jr., a standout pitcher for Texas Tech, lettered for the Red Raiders between 1970-73, was an All-SWC performer in 1971 and 1972 and was an All-America selection in 1971. Garcia currently serves as the Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigative Division with the F.B.I. in Washington, D.C..
TECH AMONG NATION'S BEST IN STOLEN BASES
Texas Tech is unofficially tied for ninth place in the nation for total number of stolen bases. Since the NCAA does not release team stolen base standings until the end of the season, Jeff Muir (Univ. of Tennessee) complied a Top-10 list according to statistics made available to each conference. North Carolina A&T leads the nation with 129 stolen bags while Texas Tech is tied with Florida (98).
LEAGUE'S BEST FIELDERS SQUARE OFF THIS WEEKEND
Texas Tech and Kansas are the two best fielding teams in the Big 12 Conference. Texas Tech leads the conference with a .969 fielding percentage and is 15th nationally while Kansas is tied for second in the league with Iowa State at .967.
NOTING THE RED RAIDERS
- Senior pitcher Brandon Roberson (9-3) has won his last six games and is just one win shy of 10 for the season.
- Texas Tech will be looking to improve its position this weekend in the Big 12 standings and to maintain its hopes of hosting a sub-regional in the NCAA Tournament. Tech is currently one game behind Texas and Baylor who are tied for second in the league standings.
- Senior hurler Cory Metzler struckout a career-high eight batters against TCU this past Tuesday while picking up his fourth win of the season.
- Texas Tech will play its final five home games of the regular-season in a span of six days beginning on Friday. Texas Tech hosts Kansas in the final Big 12 home series of the season and closes out the home schedule with a Tuesday/Wednesday match-up with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
- Heading into the Iowa State series, Texas Tech needed to win all of its 13 remaining home games in order to post Tech's ninth consecutive 25+ win home season. With sweeps of Iowa State and Texas A&M and a single game wins over TCU and West Texas A&M, Texas Tech needs to win its final five home game to accomplish the feat.
- Texas Tech has the second best batting average in the Big 12 Conference with a mark of .314. The Kansas Jayhawks currently rank 10th in the league with a .268 batting average.
HITTING NOTES
- Designated hitter Austin Cranford, 41st in the nation with a .407 batting average, is Tech's hottest hitter. Cranford picked up Big 12 POW honors this past week after hitting .700 in the series with Oklahoma.
- Kerry Hodges tallied the first five-hit game of his career on Tuesday against TCU in Fort Worth. Hodges went a perfect 5 for 5 at the plate and became the second Red Raider to accomplish the feat this season. Stephen Leist is the only other Red Raider to pick up five hits this season and he did it against Howard in the opening series of the year.
- Texas Tech is batting .323 with runners in scoring position and .674 with runners on third with less that two outs.
- Nick Blankenship and Gera Alvarez are 13 and 17 hits away respectively from breaking into the Top 15 for most number of hits in a single season by a Tech player.
- The Tech offense has tallied 12 double-digit hit games in the last 14. During that span of 14 games, Tech has put up 12+ hit games eight times.
- Tech has seven players with 35+ RBI on the season.