How Texas Tech baseball coach Tim Tadlock views his myriad middle-infield options

Texas Tech baseball coach Tim Tadlock calls his shortstop situation "a nice little luxury." Others might describe the Red Raiders' middle infield in general as a logjam of young talent.

Five players, none older than sophomore level, are legitimate options to play the two positions. When No. 22 Texas Tech opens the season against No. 8 Tennessee at 7 p.m. Friday in Arlington, Tadlock expects to write true freshman T.J. Pompey and sophomore Tracer Lopez into the lineup at shortstop and second base, respectively.

But Travis Sanders' return from a back injury has been encouraging, and the Red Raiders' believe athletic sophomore Will Burns could be ready to turn a corner. Then toss in second baseman Landon Stripling, a highly regarded high-school signee.

Tadlock believes Lopez and Burns, who shared time last year, and Sanders and Pompey are viable Big 12 shortstops.

"All those guys can go out there and play that position," he said. "Sometimes you're playing guys that are shortstops their whole life at shortstop because it's the most comfortable spot for them. I don't know if that's the case with this. We really tinkered as much as we could and tried to figure out the best combination."

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The Red Raiders have so many young middle infielders that senior Austin Green, last year's starting second baseman, has moved to an outfield corner, probably right field. Lopez, who spent most of his freshman season starting at shortstop, is now pegged for second base.

Pompey, a 6-foot-4, 200-pounder from Coppell, and Stripling, a 6-foot, 200-pounder from Lawrenceville, Georgia, were national top-100 prospects in Perfect Game's assessment. Sanders was a Boston Red Sox 14th-round draft pick in 2022, then was sidelined by a back fracture last season.

When Burns and Lopez arrived in January 2023, Tech coaches didn't necessarily foresee the logjam now.

"At this time last year, you really didn't think you were getting Pompey," Tadlock said, because of the Major League draft, "and really didn't know Sanders was going to be healthy. This time last year, you were just wanting Sanders to have a normal life.

"He went out and played in the summer and kind of got caught back up, and then we survived the draft with T.J. And so they've battled it out."

Sanders was continuing to make a push, Tadlock said, until a bout of sickness in the past couple of weeks set him back.

The Red Raiders have some possible solutions, thanks to the athletic traits and defensive ability shown by Burns and Sanders.

"They catch the ball wherever you put them," Tadlock said. "If you ever got into a position where you need to catch the ball better, you can put them on the field and somebody can DH."

Sanders, he said, "could definitely be our swing guy at third, short and second."

Burns offers even more positional flexibility. So much depends on his bat, though. Burns played in 29 games as a freshman, starting 20, but hit only .169.

With his athletic ability, though, he's getting more chances. During Burns's year-plus on campus, aside from being a quarterback on the Tech football team, he's already practiced at second base, shortstop, third base and, lately, center field, though Gage Harrelson's not likely to be displaced from the latter.

"So you're talking about a guy that, on a roster's, pretty valuable," Tadlock said. "To me, the speed he has creates runs if he gets on base. That's intriguing, and I think everybody knows it's there. He's just a really talented kid that we're kind of waiting for the at-bats to click, and swing decisions have been pretty good of late."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech baseball has middle-infield surplus for Tim Tadlock to sort