LUBBOCK, Texas – Winners of four of five, Texas Tech Baseball welcomes UTRGV for a two-game midweek series this Tuesday (1 p.m.) and Wednesday (6 p.m.).
Seeking another two RPI-boosting wins the Red Raider seek to ride the momentum against the 36th-ranked (RPI) Vaqueros that begin with a win at Arizona State last Saturday and included wins over
ACU last Monday and series win (2-of-3) against No. 24 Arizona last weekend.
In the weekend series against Arizona, the Red Raiders used key performances up and down the lineup including five hits and two home runs from Logan Hughes and six hits from Petyon Schulze and Damian Bravo. Three Red Raiders (Bravo, Hughes and Lopez) drove in four runs while five different Red Raiders scored three runs led by Hughes who scored five times. On his 20th Birthday, Hughes went 3-for-5 on Sunday with a crucial three run home run and three runs scored.
For the opening game of the series, Tech will turn to freshman righty Connor Mohan, who in his third career start tossed six innings of two-run ball at ACU last Monday to earn his first career victory. In the start against the Wildcats, Mohan retired the first 10 batters he faced and did not allow a run until the fifth.
The two-game series against UTRGV kicks off a busy stretch of baseball for Tech, as the Red Raiders will play 14 games over the final 19 days of the regular season. That stretch included three weekend Big 12 series against No. 16 WVU, UCF and BYU as well as midweeks contests against UTRGV (Apr. 29-30), New Mexico State (May 6), New Mexico (May 7) and Abilene Christian (May 13).
Tuesday's series opener against UTRGV has been moved up to a 1 p.m. first pitch, while Wednesday series finale is still set for a 6 p.m. first pitch.
INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:Â
GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (15-24) vs. UTRGVÂ (28-15)
DATE: Tuesday, Apr. 29, 2025Â
TIME: 1 p.m.Â
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Rip Griffin Park)Â
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Connor Mohan (1-1, 6.45 ERA) vs. RHP Robert Bonilla (1-2, 10.13 ERA)
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GAME TWO:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (15-24) vs. UTRGVÂ (28-15)
DATE:Â Wednesday, Apr. 30, 2025Â
TIME: Â 6 p.m.Â
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Rip Griffin Park)Â
PITCHING MATCHUP: TBD vs. TBD
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HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
* Texas Tech enters the midweeks series winners of four-of-five and winners of six-of-10 after an impressive series win over No. 24 (then No. 16) Arizona. This weeks midweek series provides another big home opportunity for the Red Raiders as UTRGV comes to town sporting an RPI of 36 overall and with 28-total wins. The series against UTRGV continues an eight-game stretch that began last weekend against UofA of matchups against Top-40 RPI teams. The stretch closes this weekend (Fri-Sun) at No. 16 WVU (RPI No. 15).
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* The two-game series against UTRGV kicks off a busy stretch of baseball for Tech, as the Red Raiders will play 14 games over the final 19 days of the regular season. That stretch included three weekend Big 12 series against No. 16 WVU, UCF and BYU as well as midweeks contests against UTRGV (Apr. 29-30), New Mexico State (May 6), New Mexico (May 7) and Abilene Christian (May 13).
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* It's hard to believe but the midweek series against UTRGV will mark the final two games that Tech will play in the month of April and the close of the second-longest homestand (Five Games) of the season. The Red Raiders will play a six-game homestand from May 6-13 against NM State, UNM, UCF and ACU before closing the regular season at BYU.
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SERIES NOTES:Â
LAST FIVE HAVE BEEN GOOD
The Red Raiders bats seem to be coming alive at the perfect time as starting with last Saturday's win over Arizona State the Red Raiders have won four of five. Key to that stretch has been the bats, as Tech has scored at least eight runs in all four wins over that span. This weekend against Arizona the Red Raiders scored 22 runs in three games bringing their last five total to 43. In that five game span, the Red Raiders are 4-1 with the lone loss being Saturday's night cap, 2-1 loss over Arizona. In the last five games, the Red Raiders are hitting .363 as a team with 25 extra base hits (15 doubles, 10 home runs) . In that stretch three Red Raiders (Schulze, Bravo and Hughes) have hit over .400, while Savattere and Lopez have both hit .350 or better. The Tech arms have also been solid as the Red Raiders five starters (Petty (2x), Mohan, Heuer and Boudreau) have combined to allow just 12 runs in 35 innings (ERA of 3.09). So far this season, the Red Raiders are 14-7 when scoring at least six runs and 9-2 when scoring at least 10 runs.
SCHULZE IS COMING ALIVE
Since earning a game three start at third base against Arizona State, Cal transfer
Peyton Schulze has taken off, as the senior is now 13-for-22 (.591) over that stretch with six runs scored and five RBIs. The transfer has raised his batting average over two full points in that span. Â
PITCHING SIX HAS BROUGHT WINS
With three quality starts (at least six innings pitched) in the last five games (all wins), the Red Raiders are now 7-0 this season when the starter goes at least six innings. The first quality start of the season was Tyler Bourdreau against UCSD (Mar. 5) when the righty went six and did not allow a run. The Red Raiders second six inning performance was
Mac Heuer back on Mar. 14 at Houston.
Zane Petty was the next Red Raider to go six innings in the Sunday win over Cincy (Apr. 6), followed by another six inning start on Apr. 11 by Heuer. The Red Raiders got eight innings from
Zane Petty last Saturday, before getting six from
Connor Mohan last Monday at ACU and six from Heuer on Saturday against Arizona. Conversely, the Red Raiders are just 6-18 in the 24 starts where the starting pitcher has not seen the fifth inning. Tech has lost just twice all season when a starting pitcher has reached the sixth, the Sunday (Mar. 30) loss at K-St where
Zane Petty went 5.1 innings in a 5-4 loss and Saturday's 2-1 loss when
Tyler Boudreau threw 5.1 innings of two run ball.  Â
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BULLPEN HAS SHINED
Outside of
Logan Bevis' tough ninth inning at Arizona State last Saturday, the Red Raiders pen has shined the last five games, as relievers
Jack Cebert,
Lukas Pirko,
Trendan Parish and
JT Drake have combined to throw 14.1 innings of the last five games and have allowed just one total run (.064 ERA). Cebert has pitched 5.1 of those innings and allowed just one run, while Pirko (4.1 scoreless), Parish (3.2 scoreless) and Drake (1.0 scoreless) have not allowed a run in nine innings of work. Â
PIRKO AND PARISH HAVE TURNED THE CORNERÂ
With
Parker Hutyra down with injury and Jacob Rodgers continuing to work his way back from injury the Red Raiders have leaned more heavily on
Trendan Parish and
Lukas Pirko recently. As of late, both Parish and Pirko have been excellent their last two apperances. Pirko has pitched 4.1 innings scoreless dating back to a rough start against Baylor and a tough-luck outing against Arizona State in the rain on Friday night. The other righty in the equation, Parish has also been good his last two outings as the righty has now just allowed one run in his last 9.1 innings and three appearances since blowing a save against Cincy back on April 4. In fact, other than the blown save and a tough outing against KST back on Mar. 30, Parish has pitched well the six apperances, giving up just seven runs in 16.2 innings that includes a four-run outing aaginst KST and a two-run outing against TCU where he pitched four scoreless innings before allowing a two-run home run on a spiked slider that Saywer Stronsider golfed out into the jet stream. Parish's ERA over those six outings is just 3.89.Â
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HOW DO YOU GET THE NATION'S SECOND-HARDEST SCHEDULE?
Through the seasons first 12 weeks the Red Raiders have played one of the nation's toughest schedule (Tech enters the weekend with both the No. 2 Overall schedule and the No. 2 non-conference schedule), as the Red Raiders have faced six 30 win ballclubs so far in Texas (37-5) and UNC (33-10) UC Irvine (32-9), TCU (31-13), Oklahoma (30-11) and Arizona (30-13). In total, of the Red Raiders 16 opponents, 15 enter the weekend above .500 and 10 have at least 25 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. 11 UC Irvine, No. 16 TCU, No. 26 Arizona, 43 Kansas State, and No. 46 Arizona State, in addition to singular games against No. 1 Texas and No. 23 Oklahoma. Of the 20 games that Tech has played against the Top-50 in the RPI, just nine have come at Rip Griffin Park, three against UCI (Feb. 21-23), three against TCU (Mar. 21-23) and three against Arizona (Apr. 26-27). Once Tech finishes its two games against UTRGV (RPI No. 35) and three games at WVU (RPI No. 15), Tech will have played 25 games against RPI top-50 teams (entering the week) and just 12 games (nine road) against Sub-70 RPI teams (three games at Houston, three games at GCU, two vs. UCSD, Tarleton State and games against Illinois and Washington in Vegas). The lowest RPI team thus far Tech has played at home for more than a two-game series has been No. 63 Baylor. Only Auburn has played a harder overall schedule and only North Dakota State has played a harder non-conference schedule.Â
MOHAN LOOKS TO KEEP IT GOINGÂ
True Freshman Connor Mohan will look to build upon the strongest start of his young career last Monday at ACU on Tuesday afternoon against UTRGV. In the 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. The freshman pitched a career-high six innings and allowed just four hits. He walked just one and struck out five needing just 88 pitches to toss the first quality start of his career. Mohan is taking the ball in the midweek for the fourth straight time after making his first career start in Frisco against No. 10 Oklahoma and another midweek start in Albuquerque at New Mexico.
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UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders will hit the road once again for a weekend series at No. 16 West Virgina. First pitch from Morgantown is set for 5:30 p.m. (CT) on Friday night.
