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Texas Tech baseball: A pair of comeback wins polish off perfect week

By Matthew Conner

CORAL GABLES, FL - JUNE 2: Head coach Tim Tadlock #6 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders looks on as the players warm up prior to the game against the Miami Hurricanes in during the Coral Gables Regional at the NCAA Baseball Tournament on June 2, 2014 at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, Florida. Miami defeated Texas Tech 2-1 in ten innings to force a championship game. ((Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)
CORAL GABLES, FL - JUNE 2: Head coach Tim Tadlock #6 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders looks on as the players warm up prior to the game against the Miami Hurricanes in during the Coral Gables Regional at the NCAA Baseball Tournament on June 2, 2014 at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, Florida. Miami defeated Texas Tech 2-1 in ten innings to force a championship game. ((Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images) /
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Texas Tech was sloppy in two areas that must be cleaned up

Playing a two-win Rice team might have given the Red Raiders a false sense of security.  Or perhaps Tech just had a weekend when it played down to the level of its competition.

But whatever the reason, the Red Raiders must clean up two areas of the game, fielding and walks, because both gave the Owls life and both could become problematic against better teams.

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In the field, Tech committed three errors over the weekend, two on Saturday and one on Sunday.  For the year, Tech is 42nd nationally in fielding percentage at .978.  That’s fourth-best in the Big 12.

What’s more, Tech’s eleven errors have the Red Raiders sitting at No. 50 in the country.  But this weekend, the fielding was not up to those standards.

Unfortunately, it all revolved around one very important player.

All three of this weekend’s errors were charged to third baseman Jace Jung.  Each led to unearned runs and he now has six errors on 37 chances this year.  With an .838 field percentage, he has to improve with the glove given that he’s playing such an important defensive position.

Tech also had far too many walks allowed this weekend.  After allowing only one free pass on Friday, Tech had ten on Saturday and four more on Sunday.

Allowing 3.27 walks per nine innings, Tech is 46th nationally.  But in the last two games against Rice, the pitching staff averaged seven per game.  That’s got to be a focus as conference play arises.

Rice isn’t a team that draws a ton of walks.   Prior to this weekend, they had just 46 as a team, good for just 177th nationally, thus it is concerning how many times Tech put men on base simply by not throwing strikes.

As Big 12 play ramps up, Tech is going to be in more and more high-intensity games.  That’s what we didn’t expect to experience this weekend against an awful Rice team but yet, that’s what transpired and a large reason was because of errors and walks, which will both get the Red Raiders beat if they continue to pop up when the opposition is more equipped to take advantage.

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