Texas Tech Wednesday Morning Notes - Very Exciting For Me Edition

Red Raiders to Take on Jayhawks

Both LAJ's Jeff Walker and Alex Ybarra write about the seniors that are about end their home careers at Texas Tech: Alan Voskuil, Michael Prince, Esmir Rizvic, Damir Suljagic and Rogdrick Craig. Center Esmir Rizvic sounds grateful for the opportunity to earn his degree:

"It’s kind of overly emotional," Rizvic said. "All the stuff that’s coming true is a big deal, like getting my degree. That’s very exciting for me."

Guard Alan Voskuil knew that he was going to have to work:

"I look at (my career) as a steady incline," Voskuil said. "… That’s something I’ve looked forward to when I got here. I knew I wasn’t going be a stud as a freshman, but I figured if I just kept working at it I could get as good as I’ll be while I’m here and see what I can do with it."

And Rogdrick Craig wants to win the last one:

"It'd be big," Craig said of upstaging Kansas, who sits first in the Big 12. "We are due for one, and this season didn't go as well as planned, but if we get this big upset it would just make everything better. It'd be something that we can always remember for the rest of our lives."

The Slide Continues

*Click on the score for boxscore.

Texas Tech 8, UC Riverside 9

Another tough loss, but this time it was the defense, 4 errors, that lead to a the loss to the Highlanders (recap). Here's the bottom of the 8th inning, that led to the go-ahead run:

UC-Riverside 8th - Farrar to p for Foster. Hur, M. reached on a fielding error by ss (2-0). Goetz, R. reached on a fielder's choice (0-2); Hur, M. out at second 3b to 2b. Goetz, R. advanced to second on a passed ball. Goetz, R. advanced to third on a wild pitch. Nix, T. reached on a fielding error by 3b (2-2). Nix, T. stole second. McConkey, B. flied out to cf, SAC, RBI (2-2); Goetz, R. scored, unearned. Brantly, R. flied out to cf (0-0). 1 run, 0 hits, 2 errors, 1 LOB.

Yuck. Starter Robbie Kilcrease (4.0 IP; 8 H; 3 ER; 1 BB; 5 SO) seemed like he was okay, but he had a ton of pitches (84) for going only 4.0 innings. The bullpen was a little bit of a mess, some of it their faults, some of it not, going 4.0 innings, giving up 5 hits and 6 runs, all unearned.

The offense was led by Joey Kenworthy (3-4; 2 RBI) and Chris Richburg (2-4; 2 RBI), but the 4 errors was the impetus of this loss: Kengray Fleming, Joey Kenworthy, Justin Berry and Ben Flora. The offense does deserve some credit for knocking around a UC Riverside pitching staff that was on a roll before meeting the Red Raiders.