Tech welcomes No. 17 WVU for weekend series

Friday, April 10

6:30 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

No. 17 West Virginia

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Tech welcomes No. 17 WVU for weekend series

April 09, 2026 | Baseball

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The Red Raiders and Mountaineers will meet for three games this weekend

By: Andrew Stern

LUBBOCK, Texas – Home for a second-straight weekend, Texas Tech Baseball welcomes No. 17 West Virginia to Lubbock for a three-game series beginning on Friday.

The series will be Masters Weekend at the ballpark as Friday night will feature a ball marker giveaway and Sunday will feature a branded Texas Tech Baseball giveaway travel cup.

Also, part of the weekend festivities will be a Texas Tech Frat Challenge, as the fraternity with the largest attendance over the three-game series will win a batting practice session on the field at Rip Griffin Park next week.

INSIDE THE MATCHUPS:

GAME ONE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (19-13, 5-7 Big 12) vs. No. 17 West Virginia (22-7, 8-4 Big 12)
DATE: Friday, April 10
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Lukas Pirko (3-3, 6.75 ERA) vs. Dawson Montesa (3-4, 5.87 ERA)

GAME TWO:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (19-13, 5-7 Big 12) vs. No. 17 West Virginia (22-7, 8-4 Big 12)
DATE: Saturday, April 11
TIME: 2 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Jackson Burns (2-2, 7.00 ERA) vs. Maxx Yehl (5-0, 2.30 ERA)

GAME THREE:
MATCHUP: Texas Tech (19-13, 5-7 Big 12) vs. No. 17 West Virginia (22-7, 8-4 Big 12)
DATE: Friday, April 10
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Lubbock, Texas (Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Adam Hayes (2-0, 5.06 ERA) vs. RHP Chasen Cole (4-1, 3.32 ERA)

HEADLINES IN 1-2-3:
* Fresh off the an important 10-5 win over New Mexico on Tuesday afternoon, Texas Tech Baseball returns home for a weekend series with No. 17 West Virginia this Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the fifth of 10 Big 12 Conference weekend series. Entering the weekend at 5-7 overall, the Red Raiders are tied with Kansas State, BYU and Utah for eighth place in the crowded Big 12 standings. WVU, who enters the weekend at 8-4 in league play sits third in the standings behind UCF (10-2) and Kansas (9-3).

* After scoring 10 times in the Tuesday afternoon win at New Mexico, Texas Tech brought its 2026 run total to 338 through the season's first 32 games. The entire 2025 season, Texas Tech scored just 344 total runs. If you take away the five runs Tech scored in the Big 12 Championship against Cincy, the Red Raiders scored just 339 times. Tech has also already eclipsed its 2025 home offensive runs scored total, as after hitting .306 with 189 total runs scored in 25 home games, the Red Raiders are hitting .397 (276-of-696) at Rip Griffin Park this season and have scored 238 times. Tech has also eclipsed its home hit total from a season ago as the Red Raiders have recorded 276 hits as compared to 269 hits a season ago.

* In addition to the increased offensive output overall, the Red Raiders have also eclipsed their 2025 "crooked number" (3+runs) so far in 2026. After recording just 43 total crooked numbers in 2025, the Red Raiders have 49 innings with three or more runs scored this season after having three, three-run innings in the come-from-behind win over New Mexico on Tuesday afternoon. Most impressively, the Red Raiders have 30 crooked numbers without a home run including nine-straight three-plus run innings without the benefit of a long ball.

MATCHUP NOTES (West Virginia):

IT'S BEEN CROOKED

Already through the season's first 32 games the Red Raiders have recorded 49 total crooked numbers (3+ runs in an inning) this season. That total is already six more than the entire crooked number total from the 2025 season where Tech scored just three runs or more in an inning 43 times. In Tuesday's come-from-behind win over UNM, the Red Raiders scored three times in the fifth, eighth and ninth innings to improve to 19-7 in the 26 contests where they have scored at least one crooked number. Tech is also now 15-2 overall when scoring three-plus runs in multiple innings. Most impressively, the Red Raiders have 19 single innings of five or more runs and have reached three or more runs in an inning 30 times without a home run including the last nine total crooked innings.

FEEL THE BURNS
Redshirt freshman Jackson Burns continues to impress on the bump for the Red Raiders, as the righty has now tossed six innings of two run ball in back-to-back starts. Burns, who became the first Tech pitcher to record back-to-back six inning outings this season. Over his last two starts, Burns has walked just four batters and struck out 14 including a career-high eight batters in the no decision at TCU two weeks ago. Burns has now struck out 23 batters in his last 20.2 innings, that stretch includes a seven strikeout performance against Kansas (Mar. 15) as well as the eight strikeout performance two weeks ago at TCU. The Red Raider righty whiffed six against UH last Saturday, and will be making his ninth start of the season on Saturday afternoon.

SWEPT THE LOBOS
Using six late runs (three in the eighth and three in the ninth), Texas Tech defeated UNM on Tuesday afternoon in Albuquerque 10-5, to close out the series sweep over the Lobos for the first time since the 2018 season when Tech defeated New Mexico in Lubbock 7-2 and in Albuquerque 20-9. The Red Raiders win in the 505 was just the third win for the Red Raiders at New Mexico since 2019. Down 3-0 early and being no-hit into the fourth, the Red Raiders used a game-tying two-run double from Kyeler Thompson in the fifth as well as run scoring doubles from Jesse Rusinek and Connor Shouse in the eighth and ninth to close out the Red Raiders third-straight midweek win. That streak started with the 12-2 win over UNM in Lubbock and also includes last week's 15-4 run-rule win over ACU. The Red Raiders are now 5-2 in their seven total midweeks. Tech opened their midweek play at UTRGV winning 21-12 in Edinburg and also split a midweek series with UTSA. Tech fell in the road portion of the home-and-home series to DBU back on Mar. 17. In the win at UNM, Tech got four strong innings from starter Kaysen Raineri and three shutout innings from righty relievers Logan Addison (sixth), Jonny Lowe (seventh) and Connor Shouse (eighth).

BLAME IT ON THE RAIN-ERI

Toeing the rubber for his first career start, Hawai'i transfer Kaysen Raineri was sharp on Tuesday afternoon at New Mexico, pitching four innings of three-run (two earned ball). After a rocky start that saw the big righty allow three runs in the first two innings, Raineri retired the final six batters of his outing, getting stronger as the appearance wore on. Raineri struck out four batters in the win over the Lobos and did not walk a batter. Despite not going five innings, Raineri was awarded the win on Tuesday, running his record to 3-0 on the season. With his four strikeout performance on Tuesday afternoon, Raineri ran his season strikeout total to 23 in just 17.2 innings giving the righty the best K/9 (12.0) on the roster. Raineri is third on the team in total strikeouts, trailing just Jackson Burns (38) and Lukas Pirko (33).

T-LO WORKING HIS WAY UP THE RECORDS

When he recorded his 200th career hit last week against Houston, Senior Tracer Lopez continued his climb toward cracking the Red Raider top-10 hits list Sitting at 202 hits, Lopez need just 13 more knocks to catch Scott LeJeune for 10th all-time in hits in program history. In addition to chasing the top-10 in total hits, Lopez continues to work his way up the all-time games played list as on Tuesday afternoon, Lopez played in his 195th career game, and tied Randy DuRoss for seventh on the list. Lopez needs just five more games to become the seventh player in school history to reach 200 career games played. So far in 2026, Lopez is hitting .307 with a career-best 12 doubles and 23 RBIs. Lopez needs just eight more RBIs to tie his career-high in RBIs of 31, set during the 2023 season.

WEEKEND ROTATION SWITCH UP

After pitching in the eight weekends of the season, Texas Tech sophomore Connor Mohan will not be i the Red Raiders weekend rotation this weekend, as instead redshirt freshman Jackson Burns will slide in as the Red Raiders Game Two starter this weekend with true freshman Adam Hayes sliding into the weekend rotation for his first career weekend start on Sunday. Hayes who shined in three-straight starts on the midweek against DBU (Mar. 17), New Mexico (Mar. 24) and ACU (Mar. 31) is coming into the weekend having pitched to a 2.77 ERA in the last three weeks as a midweek starter. After tossing 2.1 innings of two-run (one earned) ball in the start against the Pats, Hayes tossed five shutout innings of four hit ball two weeks ago against UNM. In his most recent start and appearance (Mar. 31) against ACU, Hayes tossed 5.2 innings and allowed just three earned runs. Hayes who allowed just one unearned run through the first five innings of his outing, was tagged for a two-out three-run home run in the sixth. Ont he season Hayes has tossed 16 innings and walked just four batters.

PITCHERS WHO RAKE
With the roster limitations that went into effect before the season and with multiple arms down due to injury, the red Raiders have turned to a pair of two-way standouts on the mound in RHP Connor Shouse and LHP Jesse Ruisnek. Shouse, who tossed a scoreless eighth for the Red Raiders on Tuesday afternoon has now allowed just one run in his last four appearances on the mound after being tagged for four runs on opening weekend. That stretch began for Shouse with a scoreless innings with two punch outs against Arizona (Mar. 21) and continued with a scoreless ninth inning in a tie game at TCU back on Mar. 28. After being charged with a run and a blown save last Friday (Apr. 3) against UH, he tossed a scoreless inning on Tuesday afternoon at New Mexico. On the year, Shouse has allowed just two hits and struck out eight over his 4.1 total innings. The Red Raiders other two-way impact player, Rusinek, has also flashed on the mound, as the lefty has struck out 16 batters in just 12.1 innings of work. Rusinek, who whiffed four in two scoreless innings at TCU, has struck out at least two batters in five of his 10 appearances. Rusinek co-leads the Red Raiders in batting average (.426) while Shouse has hit the third-most home runs (8) on Red Raider squad and has driven in 46 runs. Both Shouse and Ruisnek had RBI doubles on Tuesday against UNM and pitched for the Red Raiders on the mound in both the eighth and ninth innings. Shouse who pitched the eighth, doubled in the ninth, while Ruisnek did the opposite, doubling in the eighth and pitching in the ninth.

UP NEXT:
Texas Tech returns to action on Tuesday night at ACU. First pitch from Abilene is set for 6 p.m.