Takeaways: Red Raiders prepare for five-game home stretch
Texas Tech returns to face Michigan and Stetson after losing the Big 12 opening series to Texas in Austin. Head coach Tim Tadlock, Josh Jung and Cameron Warren talked with the media ahead of the five-game weekend.
Tim Tadlock
- On Josh Jung coming back during the Texas series, “That’s really in Bryan Simpson’s hands and Grant Stovall’s initially, and then once Josh says he might be able to go then it’s a decision based on if we feel like he’s going to hinder him later on and everything we’ve been told, it’s going to be an injury that will be nagging for a little bit then it will be gone.”
- On Caleb Kilian’s performance against Texas, “He had command of three pitches the difference is we went out and made plays behind him and kept the double play in order when we needed to. He’s a guy the more times on the mound, the better he’s going to get.”
- Erikson Lanning’s back “flared up” during the Friday matchup, which is why the Red Raiders went to the bullpen early.
- On what the message to the team is after the Texas series, “Baseball, there’s going to be some physical mistakes, you hope for not too many mental ones and all teammates have the opportunity to pick each other up, so I wish the message was that simple. I wouldn’t say we played good baseball. We play good baseball, there’s more margin for error on some of the other stuff.”
- Right now, regarding the pitching rotation, the coaches are seeing where Lanning can fit in. Micah Dallas will start on Thursday, Kilian is planned to start on Friday and Mason Montgomery and Lanning are to be put somewhere in the other games along with Bryce Bonnin.
- Tadlock praised the coaching by Michigan head coach Erik Bakich saying he is a great recruiter. He also said Stetson was a similar tough matchup and he said he does not want to group these two teams together and wants to take it one day at a time.
Josh Jung
- On returning from injury, “Haven’t sat out many games before in my career, so getting back out there and helping the team win, or at least try to win, last weekend was great. Just felt good to get back out there.”
- Jung said they are all taking it day by day with his injury. “We’ve just got to see how it is when I wake up that day.”
- Jung praised the starting pitching staff last weekend. “Our bats, we didn’t hit very much in the clutch. We were shooting ourselves at the plate and our pitching staff was keeping us in the game.”
Cameron Warren
- Warren said he has played in a five-game series before in junior college but not at Tech.
- Warren shared the same view of the Texas series regarding good pitching and not so good hitting and the mindset going into this long home stretch is to take one game at a time.