KU on deck for Texas Tech's last series
With two losses in a three-game Big 12 series last weekend at West Virginia, the Texas Tech baseball team did little to help itself in the conference standings.
To the extent RPI ranking shapes the makeup of the NCAA tournament, though, the Red Raiders helped themselves just by winning a game against the Big 12 leaders. Tech moved up from No. 51 in the RPI before last weekend's series to No. 41 as of Wednesday.
Now the Red Raiders close out the regular season against a team out of the hunt. No. 28 Tech (35-18, 10-11) hosts Kansas (23-28, 7-14) in games at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday.
Asked Wednesday where he believes his team's postseason prospects sit, given Tech's bump-up in the RPI, Tech coach Tim Tadlock said the Red Raiders need to devote more of their energy elsewhere.
"As far as RPI goes, again, I think you can spend a lot of time on that," he said. " ... You need need to go play good baseball. Play what's right in front of you, win the day in front of you and let the chips fall, really, as far as all that goes."
The last regular-season series for all Big 12 teams is moved up a day from the usual Friday through Sunday schedule because of the conference tournament that begins with four first-round games Wednesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
The scramble for seeding could go to the last pitches in Saturday's regular-season finales with only three games in the standings separating No. 22 Oklahoma State (35-15, 13-8) in second place from five other teams in the middle. On the lower end of that spectrum are Tech and Oklahoma (29-22, 10-11) in a tie for sixth.
The Red Raiders and the Sooners are one game behind TCU (31-21, 11-10) and two back of Texas (35-18, 12-9) and Kansas State (32-20, 12-9).
The other three-game Big 12 series remaining are West Virginia (39-13, 15-6) at Texas, TCU at Kansas State, and Oklahoma State at Oklahoma.
The schedule being moved up one day this week means pitchers will have one day less rest than normal. That'll happen more often starting next year with Brigham Young joining the Big 12 and not playing games on Sunday.
"In future years, with BYU coming in," Tadlock said, "you're going to do that every time they (play), every week. Every team in the league's going to do it, so I guess you'd better get used to it."
Honoring the seniors
Tech plans to honor its six seniors on the roster in conjunction with Saturday's regular-season finale. Those are pitchers Bo Blessie, Ethan Coombes and Garrett Crowley, designated hitter Ty Coleman and outfielders Nolen Hester and Zac Vooletich.
Benefiting from NIL
Texas Tech soon will be one of the few college baseball programs with a teamwide deal compensating players for use of their name, image and likeness. That will come courtesy of The Matador Club collective that supports Tech athletes in exchange for the athletes doing community service and promoting Lubbock-based non-profits.
Cody Campbell, a founding member of The Matador Club board of directors, said the deals are for $10,000 each, to be paid out over the school year for up to 39 players.
"There's 40 here that will be taken care of pretty well from the standpoint of what The Matador Club's doing for our guys," Tadlock said. "I think you've got a few other places across the country that are trying to attack it the same way, but you're probably talking about in the 1 percentile across the country. If it's more than five (schools) that have a collective in college baseball, that's probably three more than I would think in college baseball at this time."
Whereas Division I football teams have 85 full scholarships, women's basketball teams have 15 full scholarships and men's basketball teams get 13 full scholarships, Division I baseball teams have the money of 11.7 scholarships to divide up among 27 players.
Having the NIL deals gives Tech's partial scholarship baseball players and walk-ons another factor in decision-making. Tadlock said it could influence college players to stay with their teams longer.
"We're still definitely trying to teach guys the value of their education," he said. "As juniors, instead of signing (professionally) just to sign, 'Hey, I'm going to go back to school.' It's very doable to go back to school for them. It's going to give some guys a chance to kind of bet on themselves a little bit."
Tadlock said helping college baseball players also fits with the spirit of what some College Baseball Hall of Fame coaches spent years lobbying for, even if they didn't have NIL in mind specifically.
"The Ron Polks of the world and Ron Frasers and Skip Bertmans, all those guys talked about for years is trying to get our sport to where guys are taken care of off the field," Tadlock said. "That's what this is going to allow us to do."
College baseball
Who: Texas Tech vs. Kansas
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Dan Law Field/Rip Griffin Park
Records: Kansas 23-28, 7-14 in the Big 12; Texas Tech 35-18, 10-11
Rankings by National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association: Kansas unranked; Texas Tech No. 28
Online streaming: All games on ESPN+
Pitching matchups: Thursday, Texas Tech LHP Mason Molina (4-2, 4.20 earned-run average) vs. Kansas RHP Collin Baumgartner (5-1, 3.95). Friday, Texas Tech RHP Trendan Parish (3-2, 5.74) vs. Kansas RHP Hunter Cashero (3-1, 6.32). Saturday, Texas Tech RHP Zane Petty (2-0, 6.31) or LHP Taber Fast (1-0, 5.87) vs. Kansas RHP Sam Ireland (4-6, 6.64).
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: KU on deck for Texas Tech baseball team's last regular-season series
