5/14/2024 baseball Edit

Tech using series in Tempe to reset ahead of urgent Big 12 tournament

Justin Apodaca • RedRaiderSports

Staff Writer

Texas Tech's baseball program has quickly found itself in danger of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2015 after an eight-game Big 12 conference slide since late April.

Having completed Big 12 play for the regular season last weekend in Stillwater against Oklahoma State, where the Red Raiders dropped two-games before a rained out Sunday finale, Tech has clinched a spot in the Big 12 tournament in Arlington as the ten-seed, which starts on May 21st.

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Heading into the final two weeks until Selection Sunday, it seems the Red Raiders lone path to the NCAA tournament will be winning the conference tournament.

Before the Red Raiders head to the metroplex, a trip to Tempe awaits where Tech will take on Arizona State and UNLV with a lone matchup against future Big 12 opponent Arizona State on Thursday night before a doubleheader with matchups against both on Friday.

Tech's strategy for the weekend in Tempe could be unorthodox given the urgent nature of the Big 12 tournament looming just three days later, head coach Tim Tadlock echoed.

"Probably shuffle the deck a little bit, with the results we've been getting," Tadlock said. "And with pitching we probably won't extend anybody to the extent where they couldn't come back on Tuesday or Wednesday."

Tadlock seemed to believe that the starting pitchers that threw in Stillwater in LHP Ryan Free and RHP Kyle Robinson are unlikely to get a start in Tempe, but might be used in a limited role on a "bullpen" day.

"Yeah, I mean, we're gonna staff each game. Kyle won't start, I don't think. If he does, it would be a really short start. We're probably going to bring Free out of the bullpen," Tadlock said. "And so you got a bunch of bullpen guys to pick from who's going to start we we've kind of talked about Parker Hutyra starting one of them."

With the season on the line next week, Tadlock echoed a sense of urgency that didn't seem to be there up until this point, and it could change some decision making for his ballclub in Arlington.

"Yeah, it'll be it'll be all hands on deck each day. There won't be any hey, here's who's starting on Tuesday. Here's who's starting on Wednesday. Here's who's going Thursday," Tadlock said.

"It'll be win day one and then go from there. Which can be a lot of fun. I mean, really. I think we've gone through seasons here where we've done that daily. I think back to 2014 with Chris Sadberry as really the one guy you had, where you go, Hey, this guy's this guy's going six innings."

The Red Raiders will play against the No. 3 seed in the Big 12 tournament first round on Tuesday night with a scheduled 7:30 p.m. start time, with likely opponents being Texas, who took the series from the Red Raiders to open Big 12 play and West Virginia, who Tech swept before the eight game skid.