Tech heads to No. 16 WVU for weekend set

GRANVILLE, W.Va. – Texas Tech Baseball opens May on the road when they head to No. 16 West Virginia for a three-game weekend series.

The weekend begins on Friday night with a 5:30 p.m. (CT) first pitch and continues Saturday with a 3 p.m. (CT) first pitch. The series finale is set for Noon (CT).

Tech enters the weekend tied with Cincinnati at 10-11 for seventh in the Big 12 with just three Big 12 weekends left. After the weekend the Red Raiders will close the regular season against
UCF (May 9-11) and at BYU (May 15-17).

INSIDE THE SERIES:
GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (15-26, 10-11 Big 12) at No. 16 West Virginia (37-6, 16-3 Big 12)
DATE: Friday, May 2, 2025
TIME: 6:30 p.m. (ET)/5:30 p.m. (CT)
LOCATION: Granville, W.Va. (Monongalia County Ballpark)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Mac Heuer (2-2, 5.67 ERA) vs. LHP Griffin Kern (4-0, 3.38 ERA)

GAME TWO:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (15-26, 10-11 Big 12) at No. 16 West Virginia (37-6, 16-3 Big 12)
DATE: Saturday, May 3, 2025
TIME: 4 p.m. (ET)/3 p.m. (CT)
LOCATION: Granville, W.Va. (Monongalia County Ballpark)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Tyler Boudreau (1-3, 8.10 ERA) vs. RHP Gavin Van Kempen (2-0, 6.27 ERA)

GAME THREE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (15-26, 10-11 Big 12) at No. 16 West Virginia (37-6, 16-3 Big 12)
DATE: Sunday, May 4, 2025
TIME: 1 p.m. (ET)/Noon (CT)
LOCATION: Granville, W.Va. (Monongalia County Ballpark)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Zane Petty (1-2, 5.66 ERA) vs. RHP Jack Kartsonas (5-1, 2.19 ERA)

HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
* The Red Raiders hit the road for the first time in nearly two weeks when they head to West Virginia for a weekend set with the first-place Mountaineers. The weekend provides a major opportunity for Tech as WVU sits at No. 18 West Virginia meaning a win this weekend in any of the three games for the Red Raiders will serve as a Quad One opportunity.

* The Red Raiders enter the weekend tied for seventh in the congested and crowded Big 12 standings. The Red Raiders sit just two games behind Kansas State and three games behind Arizona. The Red Raiders have the tiebreaker with UofA but do not have the breaker with Kansas State.

* Sophomore Logan Hughes continues to rake for the Red Raiders, as the Stetson transfer despite taking an 0-for-4 did walk to extend his on-base streak to 27 straight games. Hughes did have an 11-game hitting streak snapped on Wednesday night with his 0-for-4. The Floridian leads the Red Raiders in home runs and in RBIs. Hughes is one of two Red Raiders: Tracer Lopez (16 games) that currently have an on-base streak of at least 15 games. Hughes' 14 long balls are the second-most in the Big 12 this season and rank 50th nationally. He has homered in three of the last five games and four of the last seven.

MATCHUP NOTES:

HUGHES LOST ONE STREAK, KEPT ONE GOING

After homering and walking twice in four trips to the plate on Tuesday night, sophomore Logan Hughes took an "O-Fer" on Wednesday night, as the outfielder went 0-for-4 in five trips to the plate. Despite not recording a hit, Hughes did walk once, extending his team-high on-base streak to 27 games. Hughes is one of two Red Raiders: Tracer Lopez (16 games) that currently have an on-base streak of at least 15 games. Hughes' 14 long balls are the second-most in the Big 12 this season and rank 50th nationally. He has homered in three of the last five games and four of the last seven.

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 15-for-30 (.500) over that stretch with six runs scored and five RBIs. The transfer has raised his batting average over two full points in that span. For the first time all season, Schulze hit in the two-hole on Wednesday night against UTRGV

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.

T-LO IN THE LEAD-OFF SPOT

Since sliding into the lead-off spot for the series finale against Cincinnati on Apr. 6, junior Tracer Lopez has taken off at the plate, as Lopez is now 24-for-62 (.387). He has reached base in all 14 of those games and has scored 14 runs and driven in 12 runs, launching six doubles and two home runs. He has struck out just nine times and walked four times.

SAVATTERE HAS TAKEN THE DH ROLE AND RUN WITH IT

After spending part of the season as a part-time player, Odessa College transfer Antonelli Savattere has also taken off the last 15 games. Savattere has started the last 14 games consecutively at either designated hitter or at second base. Coinciding with him entering the starting the starting lineup, Savattere also has started to produce at the plate, as he's now 20 for his last 51 (.392) at the plate with 12 runs scored and 10 RBIs. Savattere's on-base percentage over that span sits at .459.

PIRKO AND PARISH HAVE TURNED THE CORNER

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.

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 seven-30 win ballclubs so far in Texas (37-5) and UNC (34-10) UC Irvine (32-9), TCU (32-13), Oklahoma (30-11), Arizona (31-13) and UTRGV (30-15). 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.

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders return home for the final and longest homestand of the season (six games) beginning on Tuesday night when New Mexico State pays a visit.

Tech heads to No. 16 WVU for weekend set

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Tyler Boudreau

Mac Heuer

Logan Hughes

Parker Hutyra

Tracer Lopez

Connor Mohan

Trendan Parish

Zane Petty

Lukas Pirko

Antonelli Savattere

Peyton Schulze

Tech heads to No. 16 WVU for weekend set

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Tyler Boudreau

Mac Heuer

Logan Hughes

Parker Hutyra

Tracer Lopez

Connor Mohan

Trendan Parish

Zane Petty

Lukas Pirko

Antonelli Savattere

Peyton Schulze

Related Videos