Red Raider Hardball | Texas Tech Wins Three of Four

The Red Raiders won 3 out of 4 this past weekend and dealt with winds blowing about 35 mph and gusting at 50 mph yesterday, which made the boxscore a bit ugly, but winning I'll take winning 3 of 4 any day of the week.  You can click on the score to pull up the boxscore for all of this weekend's games. 

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

There are a couple of things.  In the one loss for the weekend, starting pitcher Daniel Coulombe pitched 5.0 innings, walked 2, struck out 9 and gave up only 3 earned runs.  Most of the time that's going to be enough, but the defense failed the Red Raiders on Friday night, giving up 4 errors.  That's what cost Texas Tech that game more than anything else. On Saturday and yesterday, the defense was better, giving up only 1 error in those 2 games.  Head coach Dan Spencer talked about the approach of the team after the loss to BYU:

On what has changed since losing to BYU:  I think it is just a commitment to approach. It’s not a physical deal, we have a lot of physical kids or kids with a lot of skill. It is just understanding what we are doing and understanding the approach. You can hit with the wind blowing across, and you can hit with the wind blowing out but don’t change your approach, they are young. You get in the early spring and you start playing on back-to-back days. You play nine innings, four days in a row, and I think young guys especially, and some of those guys aren’t in the lineup, you get a little complacent as the games get long, when you are into your 34th or 35th inning. We have to do a good job of not worrying about who our opponent is and taking care of out business, just executing the game plan in all three phases."

The all-tournament team for the Brooks Wallace Memorial Classic (pdf) and Texas Tech placed 7 players on the all-tournament team (out of 14) and LF JaModrick McGruder was named the MVP.  C Bo Altobelli, SS Kelby Tomlinson, McGruder,  CF Barrett Barnes, UTL Reid Redman, SP Robbie Kilcrease, and SP Daniel Coulombe were those on the all-tournament team.

More after the jump.

You can find highlights of each of the games by also clicking on the boxscore.  LAJ's George Watson and DT's Jose Rodriguez filed their game stories yesterday.  Here's a bit from Watson's article:

Days like Sunday, where the wind is blowing out to left at a steady 35 mph with gusts to 50, are nothing new in Lubbock.

But that doesn’t make it any easier on an ERA, especially for a team like Texas Tech trying so hard to improve on the mound from the last few seasons. Luckily for the Red Raiders, no matter who’s in the lineup, they know how to use that wind.

The Red Raiders topped double digits in runs and hits for the second straight day, starting with a six-run first inning and finishing with a five-run eighth, and Tech got just enough relief pitching to outlast Northern Illinois 14-8 in the finale of the Brooks Wallace Memorial Classic at Dan Law Field.

DT's Andrew Nepsund has a re-cap of the this weekend's series (excellent work):