Texas Tech’s pitching problems continue to be a major issue for Tim Tadlock and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. It didn’t matter that the Red Raiders managed to rack up 42 hits in just three games against the Houston Cougars. It didn’t matter that Texas Tech was able to score 27 runs in three games.
The Red Raiders came up short in two of them and lost the series at home against one of the absolute worst teams in the Big 12.
That doesn’t feel good.
Yes, the 11-2 win to cap off the series is a little cathartic after the Red Raiders were unable to win the first two games of the series, but still, as a whole, this one stings a bit.
Houston entered the series with a 14-14 overall record and was 2-8 in Big 12 play. The Coogs were truly near the absolute bottom of the conference. And yet, they managed to take two away on the road against the Red Raiders.
The Houston Cougars take the series from the Red Raiders in Lubbock and Texas Tech baseball’s frustrating pitching struggles continue
On Thursday, the Red Raiders just simply didn’t have much fun as Lukas Pirko struggled on the mound. In total, through five innings pitched, Houston managed to get eight hits and six earned runs against Pirko while striking out just three times. Texas Tech ended up losing 8-6 in Game 1.
When the Red Raiders and Cougars took the field on Friday, they managed to go 11 innings of back-and-forth scoring against one another. UH would take a large lead and then TTU would chip away at it steadily. And this continued until Texas Tech just didn’t have an answer for Houston’s 11th inning scoring burst. And the Red Raiders lost 13-10.
Game 3 didn’t start off all that great as Houston jumped out to a 2-0 lead early on, but the Red Raiders managed to pour on a bunch of runs in the sixth and seventh innings to be able to walk away with an 11-2 win over the Cougars. And while Jackson Burns wasn’t exactly perfect, he and Logan Bevis were really solid and managed to combine for eight strikeouts in eight innings of work between the two of them.
So yeah, things went well in Game 3 on Saturday, but that doesn’t do enough to offset the fact that Texas Tech lost a very winnable series at home. And that’s frustrating. The season isn’t over, but the Red Raiders sure are struggling in ways that I wish they wouldn’t.