LUBBOCK, Texas – Riding a two-game winning streak after a pair of key road wins, Texas Tech Baseball kicks-off a five game homestand this weekend when it welcomes No. 16 Arizona to Lubbock for a three-game weekend set.
The series begins on Friday night with a 6:30 p.m. first pitch, followed by a pair of afternoon games on Saturday (2 p.m.) and Sunday (12:30 p.m.).
In addition to the weekend being the first time Tech and UofA meet as conference foes, it also marks the start of a key eight-game stretch of games against RPI Top-40 teams entering the weekend.
Following the Red Raiders series with No. 16 Arizona, they will welcome RPI No. 36 UTRGV for a two-game midweek series on Tuesday and Wednesday night before boarding a plane for a weekend series at No. 17 WVU who enters the weekend at No. 15 in the RPI.
Originally scheduled to be a six-game homestand, Tech instead will play just five times at 'The Rip' this week after Tuesday's midweek contest with ACU was postponed to May 13. No game time has been announced.
Friday's contest against Arizona will be Margaritaville Night while Sunday's contest against the Wildcats will be Military Appreciation Day, as the first 500 fans will receive a Texas Tech USA Rope Hat.
INSIDE THE SERIES:
GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (13-23, 8-10 Big 12) vs. No. 16 Arizona (29-11, 12-6 Big 12)
DATE: Apr. 25, 2025
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Mac Heuer (1-2, 6.15 ERA) vs. RHP Collin McKinney (0-1, 2.79 ERA)
GAME TWO:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (13-23, 8-10 Big 12) vs. No. 16 Arizona (29-11, 12-6 Big 12)
DATE: Apr. 26, 2025
TIME: 2 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Tyler Boudreau (1-2, 9.00 ERA) vs. RHP Owen Kramkowski (6-3, 5.08 ERA)
GAME THREE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (13-23, 8-10 Big 12) vs. No. 16 Arizona (29-11, 12-6 Big 12)
DATE: Apr. 25, 2025
TIME: 12:30 p.m. (NOTE NEW TIME; First Pitch was changed from 1 p.m. to 12:30)
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Zane Petty (1-2, 5.82 ERA) vs. RHP Smith Bailey (1-1, 3.46 ERA)
HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
 * Texas Tech opens a season-long five-game homestand to close the Month of April this week when they welcome new Big 12 foe Arizona for a weekend set. The weekend series against UofA provides a major opportunity for the Red Raiders, as the Wildcats enter the weekend ranked No. 16 in the D1Baseball poll and No. 18 in the RPI providing a chance for Tech to record key Q1 wins. The Red Raiders enter the weekend at No. 75 in the RPI and with the No. 3 strength of schedule in the country.Â
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* This weekends series against UofA also kicks off an eight-game stretch for the Red Raiders against teams ranked inside the Top-40 in RPI, as following the three-game series with UofA Tech will play host to No. 36 (RPI) UTRGV for a two-game set before traveling to No. 15 RPI West Virginia for a weekend series. Once through the weekend at WVU, the Red Raiders will have played No. 2 Texas, No. 7 UNC (3x), No. 14 UC Irvine (3x), No. 15 West Virginia (3x), No. 17 TCU (3x) and No. 18 Arizona (3x).  Â
* The Red Raiders enter the weekend set with UofA with a bit of momentum after a pair of road wins at ASU (12-8) and at ACU (9-2). The Red Raider starters have been the key the last two games as Zane Petty (8.0 IP/3ER) and Connor Mohan (6.0 IP/2ER) have combined for 14.0 innings and have allowed just five total runs. Mohan and Petty's performances have allowed the Red Raiders to need just two relievers in the last two games as sophomore Lukas Pirko threw three innings and Logan Bevis threw the ninth at ASU.
SERIES NOTES:
FIRST TIME WITH UOFA AS BIG 12 FOES
The Red Raiders and UofA will face-off for the first time this weekend as Big 12 foes. The Red Raiders and Wildcats last played in 2022 at Shriners College Showdown in Arlington. The last time UofA came to Lubbock was the 2017 season when Arizona and Tech played a mid-week contest against the Wildcats. Ironically, Arizona also ended up in Lubbock for the 2017 Lubbock Regional but did not face Tech. The Red Raiders last faced UofA on a weekend in the 1974 season when the Red Raiders went to Tuscon for a weekend series with UofA.
BACK-TO-BACK ROAD WINS, BACK-TO-BACK QUICK STARTS
The Red Raiders enter the weekend having won back-to-back road games for just the second time all season. The last time the Red Raiders won back-to-back games on the road was at Houston (Mar. 14-16). The Red Raiders defeated Arizona State on Saturday afternoon in Tempe, 12-8, before cruising to a 9-2 victory over Abilene Christian. In those two games the Red Raiders enjoyed early leads of 6-2 and 9-0 before holding on for the two wins. The last two games the Red Raider have scored 11 runs in the first three innings outscoring ASU and ACU 11-2 in the first two innings. Tech has now scored first in three straight contests.
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THREE STRAIGHT WEEKENDS AGAINST THE TOP-FIVE
Continuing this weekend against UofA, Tech is in the midst of an April stretch of three-straight weekends against the top-five schools in the Big 12 standings. The span started last weekend against fifth-place Arizona State and continues this weekend with UofA who is in a three-way tie for second place. The span continues next weekend when the Red Raiders head to West Virginia for a three-game weekend series at first place West Virginia. The Red Raiders final two series are against BYU and UCF who are currently in third-to-last and second-to-last in the Big 12 standings.
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PLAYED SOME OF THE NATIONS BEST ALL OVER THE PLACE
Through the seasons first 11 weeks the Red Raiders have played one of the nation's toughest schedule (Tech enters the weekend with both the No. 3 Overall schedule and the No. 3 non-conference schedule), as the Red Raiders have faced a pair of 30 win ballclubs in Texas (34-5) and UNC (31-9) and three 29 win teams in UC Irvine (29-9), TCU (29-12) and Oklahoma (29-11). In total, of the Red Raiders 16 opponents, 14 enter the weekend above .500, eight have at least 25 wins and four more have 24 wins. Of the 10 schools that have at least 24 wins, Tech has played five of them in true road contests and two more (OU and Texas) in neutral site. The Red Raiders have played weekend series either in conference or out of conference play against the following teams (based on RPI): No. 7 UNC, No. 14 UC Irvine, No. 17 TCU, No. 40 Kansas State, and No. 48 Arizona State, in addition to singular games against No. 2 Texas and No. 28 Oklahoma. Of the 17 games that Tech has played against the Top-50 in the RPI, just six have come at Rip Griffin Park, three against UCI (Feb. 21-23) and three against TCU (Mar. 21-23). The Red Raiders this weekend will close the season's 11th weekend with three more games against No. 18 Arizona, meaning over the seasons first 39 games and 11 weeks the Red Raiders will have played 20 games against the RPI Top-50. By the end of next week, (assuming UTRGV stays inside the top-50; The Vaqueros check in at No. 36) the Red Raiders will have played 25 of 44 games against Top-50 RPI teams and just 11 of the 25 games at home.
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HERE COMES THE OFFENSE
Over the last seven games the Red Raider offense has come live, as Tech has scored 55 runs over its last seven contests. That span which began with a pair of nine run games against Baylor has featured three games with nine runs, a game with 12 runs. So far this season, the Red Raiders are 12-7 when scoring at least six runs and 8-2 when scoring at least 10 runs. Over the last three games, the Red Raiders have scored 29 runs.
BACK-TO-BACK GEMS
In back-to-back games against Arizona State and Abilene Christian the Red Raiders have gotten back-to-back gems from
Zane Petty and
Connor Mohan. The Red Raider starters have been the key the last two games as
Zane Petty (8.0 IP/3ER) and
Connor Mohan (6.0 IP/2ER) have combined for 14.0 innings and have allowed just five total runs. Mohan and Petty's performances have allowed the Red Raiders to need just two relievers in the last two games as sophomore
Lukas Pirko threw three innings and
Logan Bevis threw the ninth at ASU. On Saturday afternoon, Petty turned in the longest and best outing of his career, as he allowed just three runs (two in the first inning) in the start. A week after lasting less than three innings and giving up four home runs, Petty was magnificent in a bounce-back performance pitching into both the seventh and eighth innings for the first time in his career. After a rocky first, Petty recorded three straight 1-2-3 innings in the second, third and fourth, before working around a lead-off double in the fifth. Petty ended a scoreless sixth on a groundball double before closing another 1-2-3 inning in the seventh with a strikeout. In the eighth, Petty allowed a pair of doubles and a run before winning an eight-pitch battle with ASUs Matt King. In the Monday night win over ACU, Mohan retired the first 10 batters he faced and did not allow a run over the first four innings of the contest, helping the Red Raiders get out to a 9-0 lead in the win of ACU. Â
SCHULZE SHINES
Earning a start at third base in Saturday's series finale, Peyton Schulze had a huge day, going 4-for-5 with a double a and a home run. The home run was his first as a Red Raider while the four hits tripled his hit total for the season as entering the game, Schulze had just two hits all season. The homer was the 20th of his career, after hitting a pair of home runs at Long Beach as a Freshman and 17 home runs in two seasons at Cal. Starting once again at third for the Red Raiders on Monday night in Abilene, Schulze went 3-for-5 with a pair of runs scored and an RBI. When you extrapolate it out, Schulze is now 8 for his last 10 after a tough 2-for-36 start to his time as a Red Raider. Schulze has raised his batting average by nearly 200 points.
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UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders will close a five-game homestand on Tuesday and Wednesday night when they welcome UTRGV for a two-game series. First pitch for both games is set for 6 p.m.
