No. 11 Red Raiders Face New Mexico State in Midland Tuesday

Tuesday, April 9

Midland, TX / Security Bank Ballpark

7 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

New Mexico State

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No. 11 Red Raiders Face New Mexico State in Midland Tuesday

April 08, 2019 | Baseball

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Red Raiders, Aggies meet for the second time this year after Tech grabbed a 7-0 win Feb. 26 in Lubbock

By: Ty Parker

LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 11 Texas Tech baseball team makes its annual trip to Midland to take on New Mexico State on Tuesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. at Security Bank Ballpark.

There will not be a live stream of the contest, but it can be heard on the Texas Tech Sports Network on 97.3 FM, 97.3 mobile app, TuneIn app and online at TexasTech.com. Live stats will also be available here.

The Red Raiders (21-9, 5-4 Big 12) and the Aggies (22-8, 6-3 WAC) meet for the second time this season, this time at a neutral site. Tech posted a 7-0 shutout of New Mexico State on Feb. 26 to cap off a seven-game home stand to start the season at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park.

Tuesday's meeting will be the fifth time in six years the Red Raiders have traveled to Midland for a midweek tilt and the third straight time it will do so to face New Mexico State. Tech picked up wins over the Aggies in 2017 (8-4) and 2018 (2-1), defeated Abilene Christian in 2016 (5-4) and New Mexico in 2014 (6-3).

Overall, Tech is 53-18 all-time against New Mexico State, with an 8-3 mark in neutral-site contests.

The Red Raiders are coming off a series win over Kansas last weekend in Lubbock, earning a walk-off 5-4 win on Friday before a 19-4 onslaught Saturday to clinch the series win. In the finale, Tech dropped a 13-9 decision for its third home loss of the year.

Freshman short stop Dru Baker was recognized by the league office on Monday for his stellar week of play, receiving his first Big 12 Newcomer of the Week award. Baker tallied a multi-hit game in all five outings, hitting .522 and leading the league in hits.

With the series win, Tech currently sits in a tie for third place in the Big 12 standings with Oklahoma and TCU. The Red Raiders are one game back of second and 1.5 back of league-leading Baylor.

New Mexico State heads into the midweek following a series win over Grand Canyon in Las Cruces, N.M. After dropping the series opener, 7-4, the Aggies battled back with 9-4 and 9-2 victories the next two days for their third straight series win to open Western Athletic Conference action.

Tuesday will be Tech's third neutral-site game of the season and its second minor league ballpark to visit this season. The Red Raiders competed at the Frisco College Classic earlier this season at Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco, Texas. Tech battled to a pair of tight losses to Nebraska (2-1) on March 1 and No. 9 Mississippi State (4-2) on March 2. Meanwhile, this is the second neutral-site game for New Mexico State, who defeated Xavier (6-4) on March 17 in Glendale, Ariz.

The trip to Midland starts the second leg of Tech's toughest road stretch of the season. The stretch contains 10-of-13 games away from home across five different cities outside of Lubbock. Midland will be the third city for Tech to visit after traveling to Manhattan, Kan., and Albuquerque, N.M., a week ago, going 3-2 to open the stretch. After its trip to Midland, Tech will head to Morgantown, W.Va., this weekend before making the short journey down to Duke for a midweek tilt next Tuesday.

Tech has been a force offensively this season, ranking No. 7 in the country in scoring to lead the Big 12. The Red Raiders also rank in the top 25 in several statistical categories, including on-base percentage (9th), batting average (10th), walks (10th), slugging percentage (11th) and doubles per game (20th),).

Texas Tech settled in as high as No. 11 in the rankings for the second straight week. After beginning the season as high as No. 3 in the preseason rankings, Tech has been in the top 10 by at least one poll for 6-of-9 weeks this season.

Head coach Tim Tadlock plans to hand the ball over to freshman left-hander Mason Montgomery on Tuesday. It will be Montgomery's first start since Mar. 24 after coming out of the bullpen during Saturday's 19-4 win over Kansas.

New Mexico State will counter with junior right-hander Mitchell Allen, who has 11.1 innings to his name this season with a 0-0 record and 4.76 ERA.

Following the midweek contest, Tech will hit the road to continue Big 12 play at West Virginia April 12-14 at Monongalia County Park. Friday's series opener will begin at 5:30 p.m. CT before a 3 p.m. start Saturday and a noon first pitch for the finale.