February 5, 1999

LUBBOCK, Texas - The Texas Tech baseball team opened up its season at Dan Law Field with a 19-1 victory Friday afternoon against Howard. Texas Tech improves to 1-0 on the season and Howard falls to 0-4.

Senior All America pitcher Shane Wright (1-0) earned the victory in his first start of the 1999 season. Wright struck out five batters while allowing only five hits, no runs and one walk in eight innings. Wright's eight innings pitched snapped his streak of eight consecutive complete games dating back to last season. Freshman Daniel Cole pitched the final inning to end off the game.

Junior leadoff hitter/centerfielder Marco Cunningham led Texas Tech at the plate. Cunningham went 5-6 with three runs scored and an RBI. Junior second baseman Scott Holzhauer went 2-5 with four RBI and a third inning grand slam, junior outfielder Jon Weber went 2-4 with a home run and three RBI, junior third baseman Allen Marshall finished 3-4 with four RBI, outfielder Ryan Ruiz went 2-4 with two RBI and three runs scored and Josh Bard added 3-4 hitting with two RBI.

Tech used a six-run third inning to go up 7-1. Weber started the inning off with his first home run at Texas Tech, a two run shot to leftfield. With three runners on base, Holzhauer delivered a grand slam on a 2-1 pitch. Tech scored four runs in the fourth on consecutive hits by Weber, an RBI single from Josh Bard and an RBI double from Marshall. A balk contributed to two more runs. Tech scored six more runs in the sixth, fueled by Marco Cunningham's RBI single, Ryan Ruiz' two-RBI single and Allen Marshall's two-RBI single.

Texas Tech plays Howard again tomorrow in a doubleheader at Dan Law Field beginning at 1 p.m.

TEXAS TECH 19 HOWARD 1

Howard (0-4) 000 000 001 1 5 3

Texas Tech (1-0) 106 426 00x 19 21 2

HU: Spencer and Gallman (5) and Perry and Adams. TTU: Wright and Cole (9) and Bard and Lunsford. WP: Wright (1-0). LP: Spencer (0-1). Save: None. Doubles: HU- Perry, Fortune; TTU- Cunningham, Weber, Marshall. Triples: TTU- Cunningham. Home Runs: TTU- Weber, Holzhauer. Time: 2:45. Att: 1650.

TEXAS TECH SUMMARY

HITTING

Cunningham 5-6, 3 RS, RBI, double, triple

Ruiz 2-4, 3 RS, 2 RBI

Weber 2-4, 2 RS, 3 RBI, home run, double

Bard 3-4, 2 RS 2 RBI

Marshall 3-4, 2 RS, 4 RBI, double

Durham 0-0, 2 RS, 3 BB, SB

Austry 1-1, RS, 2 BB

Holzhauer 3-5, 2 RS 4 RBI, grand slam

Woodcock 1-3, RS, 2 SB

Simpson 0-1

Lunsford 0-1

O'Keeffe 0-0, BB

Hart 0-3

Burns 2-2, RS, BB

Eiguren 0-1

Sampson 0-1

PITCHING

Wright- Win, 8 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 Walk, 5 SO, 29 AB, 30 BF

Cole- 1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 4 AB, 6 BF

--TTU--