Red Raider Hardball :: Texas St. Beats Up Red Raiders

Texas Tech (8-10) vs. Texas St. (9-6)
Location: Dan Law Field : Lubbock, TX
Radio: Affiliates

Outfield:
LF - Michael Reed (Sr.); CF - Barrett Barnes (Fr.); RF - MaModrick McGruder (Fr.)
Infield:
SS - Joey Kenworthy (Sr.)     2ND - Garrett Totten (So.);
3RD - Justin Berry (SO.)                                  1ST - Stephen Hagen (Jr.)
C - Jeremy Mayo (So.)
DH - Scott LeJeune (So.)

*Click on the score for boxscore. Texas Tech series preview (pdf).

The Game: It's really tough covering losing teams, and the baseball team is no different. Pitching, defense, and according to LAJ's Watson, clutch hitting with 2 outs. Nevertheless, the pitching staff gave up 13 runs, all earned, and the defense had 2 errors, another game with multiple errors. P Louis Head (2.1 IP; 5 H; 4 ER; 2 BB; 1 SO) started the game, but couldn't get out of the 3rd inning. Colt Farrar (2.2 IP; 4 H; 3 ER; 1 BB; 2 SO) got the loss, but it was former closer, Jay Johnson (2.0 IP; 4 H; 3 ER; 1 BB; 1 SO) that bothers me the most. Johnson was supposed to be one of the top pitchers for this team, but he has struggled mightily thus far this season. Offensively, RF Jamodrick McGruder is getting more and more playing time, and producing (2-4; 2 R; 1 RBI; 1 BB) and C Kevin Whitehead (1-4; 1 HR; 1 R; 2 RBI) homered, but that just wasn't enough to keep pace.

Recap: As mentioned above, LAJ's George Watson has a great recap of the action:

When a team is in a slump like Texas Tech has been the last two weeks, it can seem like each night something different keeps things going in the wrong direction.

On Tuesday, it was Tech’s lack of two-out hitting and Texas State’s ability to do just that.

The Bobcats scored six runs with two outs in an inning, and that helped them run Tech’s losing streak to five straight with a 13-7 win at Dan Law Field.

The Red Raiders (8-10) now must go into their Big 12 Conference series opener Friday at Texas A&M having lost eight of their last nine and with no momentum to speak of. Another loss would tie last year’s season-high six-game losing streak, from which the Red Raiders struggled to recover.

Post Game Quotes (Link: Head coach Dan Spencer is typically pretty up-beat, but he sounds pretty down right now:

On his thoughts heading into the Texas A&M series this weekend:
"We'll adjust those things tomorrow. I didn't say a lot to them at the end of the night tonight. We'll adjust those things and try to correct them for A&M. We are what we are right now. We're kind of scuffling and that's a tough place to go when you're not playing well but that's what is next on the schedule."