Tech welcomes Penn State for final non-con weekend set

Friday, March 6

6:30 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

Penn State

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Tech welcomes Penn State for final non-con weekend set

March 05, 2026 | Baseball

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The weekend will feature the first home night game of the season on Friday as well as the debut of the brand-new Mahomes “Gladiator Red” uniforms Saturday

By: Andrew Stern

LUBBOCK, Texas – Highlighted by the first night contest of the season at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park on Friday, as well as the debut of the brand-new Mahomes "Gladiator Red" uniforms on Saturday, Texas Tech Baseball continues its season-long 15-game homestand this weekend when the Nittany Lions of Penn State come to town for a three-game set.

The weekend series will be the first all-time meeting between Texas Tech and Penn State and will mark the Red Raiders first home series with a Big 10 foe since 2019 when Michigan came to Lubbock for a three-game set in late March.

Winners of 7-of-8 and 6-of-7 at the friendly confines of Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park, the Red Raiders will look to build off the momentum of back-to-back weekend series victories against UAlbany and CSU Bakersfield that have seen the Red Raiders outscore the two opponents 88-37 overall.

The series against Penn State will be the final of four non-conference weekends for the Red Raiders who opened the 2026 season at the Shriners Children's College Showdown (Feb. 13-15) before returning home for the weekend sets with UAlbany and CSU Bakersfield.

This weekend's three-games also kicks off the Red Raiders busy to close to the month of March, that will see the ballclub play 17 times over the final 26 days of the seasons second month and a busy eight-game in 10-day span that features a midweek series with No. 25 UTSA and the first of 10 Big 12 series against Kansas.

INSIDE THE SERIES:

GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (7-4) vs. Penn State (4-6)
DATE: Friday, March 6, 2026
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Lukas Pirko (2-1, 4.02 ERA) vs. RHP Colin Fitzgerald (1-2, 3.52 ERA)

GAME TWO:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (7-4) vs. Penn State (4-6)
DATE: Saturday, March 7, 2026
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
TIME: 2 p.m.
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Connor Mohan (0-1, 3.12 ERA) vs. Ben Hudson (1-2, 2.16 ERA)

GAME THREE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (7-4) vs. Penn State (4-6)
DATE: Sunday, March 8, 2026
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
TIME: 1 p.m.
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Jonny Lowe (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Isaiah Shayter (0-1, 12.00 ERA)

HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
* The Red Raiders continue a 15-game homestand this weekend for the final non-conference weekend series of 2026 this weekend when the Nittany Lions of Penn State make their first-ever trip to Lubbock for a three-game weekend set. The weekend series against PSU also marks the third-straight series against an opponent Tech has not faced before in program-history. That span started with the four-game series against UAlbany before continuing with the three set against CSU Bakersfield. On Saturday afternoon against PSU, Tech will debut their brand-new Mahomes "Gladiator" red uniforms for the first time. Tech announced those uniforms on Wednesday afternoon. The weekend series will also feature the first home night contest of the 2026 season on Friday night. The Red Raiders have played their first seven games at home and 10 of their first 11 games during the day/afternoon.

*The three-game set with PSU also kicks off a busy close to the month of March where the Red Raiders will play 17 games over the final 26 days of the month. Following the weekend set with the Nittany Lions, Tech will welcome UTSA for its first two home midweek contests of the year Tuesday and Wednesday night before a three-game series with KU opens Big 12 play.

* After going a disappointing 12-13 at Rip Griffin Park a season-ago (tied for most home losses in ballpark history), the Red Raiders are already halfway to equaling the 2025 mark in wins, as Tech has gone 6-1 to open play at "The Rip" in 2026. In their seven home games, the Red Raiders are now hitting .414 with 32 doubles (4.6/game) and 14 home runs. The Red Raiders have outscored opponents 88-37 on the homestand and have held CSU Bakersfield and UAlbany to a batting average against of .234.

WEEKEND NOTES:

UNDER THE LIGHTS, NEW OPPONENT AND A NEW UNIFORM UNLOCKED

This weekend series between Texas Tech and Penn State will feature a pair of "firsts" either overall or this season. First for the matchup, the Red Raiders will face Penn State for the first all-time meeting between the two schools in program history. The Red Raiders last played a Big 10 school in Lubbock in 2019, when Michigan came for a three-game series from Mar. 21-23. The Red Raiders won all three games. The Nittany Lions will be the third-straight brand-new opponent for Tech, as the Red Raiders had not yet previously faced its last two home opponents in UAlbany and CSU Bakersfield. In addition to being the first all-time matchup between Texas Tech and Penn State in program history, the Red Raiders will also play their first night home game of the 2026 season and just the second overall night contest in 12 games thus far (lone being at UTRGV back on Feb. 17). And the final first of the weekend for the Red Raiders will be the debut of the Red Raiders new "Red" Mahomes Gladiator uniforms on Saturday afternoon. The "Mahomes Reds" join the Black Mahomes uniforms the Red Raiders debut a season ago to open the weekend series with TCU.

HOME COOKIN'

Despite Sunday's setback to CSU Bakersfield (the first home loss of the season for Texas Tech), the Red Raiders have enjoyed the 15-game, 25-day homestand as Tech has won six of its first seven home games for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons. At the midpoint of the 15-game homestand, the Red Raiders are 6-1 and have outscored UAlbany and CSU Bakersfield 88-37. Tech is hitting .414 over this stretch with 11 different players hitting above .300 over that span. That group is led by Logan Hughes who is 13-for-26 (.500) with three home runs and six doubles and 17 RBIs and freshman Linkin Garcia who is 14-for-29 (.483) with five doubles, a home run and 14 RBIs. Hughes has walked seven times and struck out just twice and has recorded an OPS of 1.683. Despite Sunday's odd offensive explosion from CSU Bakersfield, the Red Raiders have pitched it well at Rip Griffin Park, as the Tech pitchers are holding opponents to a .234 batting average and have allowed just 17 total extra-base hits in 205 at-bats. The Red Raider arms have also limited the walks, as Tech has walked just 26 batters in the seven home games.

PIRKOLATING

Junior Lukas Pirko has contributed back-to-back strong performances for the Red Raiders in a pair of victories. After recording a seven-inning run rule complete one run performance against Albany, Pirko again was good last weekend, tossing five innings of one-run ball in another run-rule Red Raider win. After struggling in his opening start against Vanderbilt, Pirko has rebounded to toss 12 innings of two-run ball the last two weeks and has struck out 11. He has held batters to a .190 batting-average-against and has allowed just two extra-base hits. Last Saturday against Albany, Pirko delivered one of the best performances of his Texas Tech career, taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning and a shutout deep into the seventh inning before allowing a two-out run in that frame. Pirko whiffed seven Great Dane batters and needed just 90 total pitches to fire the first complete game since Brandon Birdsell threw a CG against the West Virginia Mountaineers in the back end of a doubleheader. Birdsell's complete game effort came on the backs of a CG from rotation mate Andrew Morris in the first game of the double dip against WVU. According to the Bill James formula for game score (0-100 where a 50 is deemed an average performance), Pirko earned a 67, becoming the first Red Raider starting pitcher to pitch into the seventh inning since Zane Petty tossed eight innings in the Saturday win at Arizona State last Apr. 19 in a 12-8 Red Raider victory.

BROOKS WALLACE RECOGNITION FOR LINK

On the eve of the annual Brooks Wallace Memorial Classic named after former Red Raider SS Brooks Wallace, the Red Raiders current SS was named to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list Wednesday. After hitting .400 with three home runs and 20 RBIs through his first 45 official at-bats as a Red Raider, Garcia was one of 100 shortstops to be named to the National SS of the Year watch list that is named in memoriam of the former Red Raider infielder whose No. 22 uniform number was retired by Texas Tech Athletics and Tech Baseball after his death from Leukemia at the age of 27 in 1985. The Red Raiders are no stranger to having the Brooks Wallace Award winner as in 2021 Tech SS Cal Conley was named the 2021 winner of the award after hitting .329 with 15 home runs and 55 RBIs. Conley struck out just 38 times in 225 at-bats and walked 21 times hitting safely in 34-of-56 games. Like Conley, Garcia has also shined in his first season with the Scarlet and Black, as the infielder has recorded at least one hit in eight-straight games and has a base hit in 10 of the 11 games this season. Garcia was named the Big 12s Newcomer of the Week last week (Feb. 23) and was named a Player to Watch for National Freshman of the Year by Baseball America.

HERE'S JONNY

In his second season in Lubbock with the Red Raiders righty Jonny Lowe has been one of the breakout stars of the 2026 season, as the Tyler JC and Cisco CC product has pitched extremely well in his four appearances thus far, tossing 6.2 innings of scoreless baseball. Lowe has not walked a batter and has struck out eight. Lowe started the season with a strong 1.2 inning performance against Arkansas where he needed just 17 pitches to record the five outs. After two scoreless innings against UTRGV, Lowe tossed 2.0 hitless innings against UAlbany before adding a scoreless inning on Saturday against CSU Bakersfield. Lowe will be making his third career start, and his second weekend start as a Red Raider on Sunday. Dating back to the 2025 season, Lowe has now allowed just one run over his last 12.0 innings pitched as he closed the season with 2.0 scoreless against UTRGV and 3.1 innings of one-run ball against BYU. Lowe started back on Mar. 4 of last season against UC San Diego and was the Red Raider start on Friday night (Mar. 28) against Kansas State.

TWO-WAY STANDOUTS

Also, part of this week's College Baseball Foundation was the announcement of the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year watchlist highlighting the best two-way (hitter and pitcher) players in the country. In the announcement, the Red Raiders saw RHP/INF/OF Connor Shouse selected to the list as well as freshman Jesse Rusinek. Shouse is currently hitting .333 with three home runs and 15 RBIs through the Red Raiders 11 contests. On the mound, Shouse has appeared just once against Vanderbilt. The Red Raiders other two-way standout, Rusinek, has also shined at the plate, as in six appearances (all starts) the Brock native has hit .435 with one home runs and seven RBIs. Rusinek has struck out just twice in his first 23 at-bats and scored eight times. On the mound, Ruisnek has appeared in two contests tossing 2.2 innings of two-run ball. He has struck out three and has not walked a batter. Rusinek was a two-way star for Brock, as he went 11-1 with a 1.24 ERA in 14 games. Rusinek allowed just nine earned runs and struck out 84 batters en route to being named a Class 4A Second Team Pitcher and Class 4A First Team Outfielder. At the plate, Rusinek hit .526 with four home runs, 37 RBIs, 42 runs scored and 28 stolen bases. Rusinek was named District 4 6A MVP and was a Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association All-Star.

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders welcome No. 25 UTSA for a two-game midweek series on Tuesday and Wednesday night. First pitch from Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park is set for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.