TECH OPENS FIVE-GAME HOMESTAND
Texas Tech opens up a five-game homestand on Friday night with the start of a three-game Big 12 series against No. 24 Kansas. The series with the Jayhawks will get underway at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and will continue at 5 p.m. on Saturday. The third and final game of the weekend will begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Advance tickets for all three games can be purchased online at www.texastech.com or by contacting the Texas Tech Athletics Ticket Office at (806) 742-TECH. The Dan Law Field Box Office will open two hours before first pitch on all three days.
UP NEXT
The Red Raiders continue their homestand next week as Tech will welcome the UNLV Rebels to Dan Law Field for a two-game series. The midweek series gets underway at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night and concludes with a noon first pitch on Wednesday. Following the series with UNLV, Texas Tech will hit the road again for a weekend Big 12 series at Missouri (April 24-26).
THE TEXAS TECH-KANSAS SERIES
Texas Tech and Kansas resume their annual series this weekend at Dan Law Field and the Red Raiders will be looking for a little redemption following last year's sweep by the Jayhawks. In fact, Kansas has won seven of the last 10 meetings between the two clubs and that includes a three-game sweep of the Red Raiders at Hoglund Ballpark in 2008. Friday's game will mark the 39th meeting between the two teams with Texas Tech holding a 24-14 lead in the all-time series. The Red Raiders won the last series played at Dan Law Field (2-1 in 2007) and own a 12-5 record against the Jayhawks in Lubbock.
SCOUTING THE JAYHAWKS
The red hot Kansas Jayhawks bring a No. 24 national ranking and a six-game win streak to Dan Law Field this weekend for a series against the Red Raiders. The Jayhawks, who are ranked for the first time since 2006, swept No. 17 Oklahoma State last weekend in Lawrence and then dropped Creighton 7-6 in 10 innings on Tuesday night at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha. Kansas is skippered by Ritch Price who is in his seventh season with the Jayhawks.
Offensively, the Jayhawks have a team batting average of .300 and feature one of the most dangerous hitters in the Big 12 Conference. Third baseman Tony Thompson leads the squad (third in the Big 12) with a .391 average along with 13 doubles, nine home runs and 44 RBIs. Thompson also owns a .681 slugging percentage.
On the mound, the Jayhawks have been led by their three weekend starters all season as they have a combined record of 10-4. Friday starter Shaeffer Hall leads the way with a 3-2 record and a 2.52 ERA along with two complete games (one no-hitter).
RED RAIDERS ON THE AIR
Texas Tech's entire schedule in 2009 including both regular-season and post-season action will be carried live on the flagship station of the Texas Tech Sports Network, KKAM-1340. The Texas Tech Sports Network begins its 16th season of full coverage of Red Raider Baseball. Robert Giovannetti will handle the play-by-play duties for the second year in a row and will be assisted by Matt Miller and Blayne Beal. Network pregame coverage begins 30 minutes prior to first pitch and concludes with a postgame show. Live audio streams will be available for all road games through RaiderVision All-Access while live video/audio will be available for all home games.
SHORT HOPS
The Red Raiders are in the middle of a home run drought that has reached six games, the longest of this decade. When the Red Raiders failed to "go yard" at TCU on Monday that gave Tech a six-game streak without a home run. Prior to that sixth game, the Red Raiders had gone five-straight games without a home run a few times over the last nine years. Tech's last home run drought that reached five games was back in 2006 (Feb. 14-24). Jeremy Mayo was responsible for the team's last home run that came in the second inning of the series finale against Texas A&M on April 5.
Junior shortstop Joey Kenworthy has regained the team lead in batting average with a .340 clip ... he is second on the squad with eight doubles and fifth with 20 RBIs ... first on the team with 16 multiple-hit games and third on the squad with seven multiple-RBI games.
After a hitting slump that consisted of six hitless games (0-for-17), junior left fielder Michael Reed has posted six hits in Tech's last three games. He went 3-for-4 in the series finale at Oklahoma and 2-for-4 on Monday at TCU.
The weekend series against No. 24 Kansas will mark the fifth-straight Big 12 opponent that the Red Raiders have faced that is ranked in the Top 25. After opening the year with Nebraska, Tech faced No. 9 Baylor and No. 8 Texas in back-to-back weekends on the road before coming home to face No. 11 Texas A&M. Last weekend, the Red Raiders went to Norman for a series against No. 11 Oklahoma.
The upcoming five-game homestand is the second longest of the year for the Red Raiders after playing their first six games of the season at Dan Law Field (Feb. 20-25).
Senior first baseman Chris Richburg is the team leader in both home runs (9) and RBIs (37) but has not homered since the second game of the Texas series on March 28 ... he has hit safely in 30 of Tech's 39 games this season ... posted a 15-game hit streak earlier this season.
Texas Tech has loaded the bases on four different occasions and has been unable to drive in a single run. The latest was on April 1 in Albuquerque when Tech loaded them up in the fourth only to allow UNM reliever Ryan Escarcega to retire three straight batters without allowing a run.
Texas Tech has surpassed its sacrifice hit total from last season as the Red Raiders now have 37 in 2009. Tech managed just 36 sacrifice bunts in all of 2008.
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