The Lack of Success From Texas Tech Baseball is no Reason to Hit the Panic Button

Photo CC: (Brad Tollefson/ Lubbock A-J)

The Red Raiders are coming off of one of the worst weekend outings in recent memory dropping three straight games. All of these opponents were ranked in the Top-10 but three losses is not what anyone expected. While this was not the start the program expected, there’s no need to hit the panic button.

The combination of a blown save, a bad start, and one horrible meltdown have put the Red Raiders in an 0-3 hole to begin the season. If you take out these three bad events, the weekend did not go as poorly as it appears. The offensive side of things gives the program something to look forward to. The Red Raiders did not get a ton of hits off the incredible pitching it faced this weekend. They did, however, draw 25 walks.

The Pitching group is talented but throwing that many new arms in big situations would not have gone well for anyone. Six freshmen in total took the mound this weekend and three of them allowed earned runs. Your other guys that took the mound were honestly probably shaking off some rust and it also didn’t help that the week before opening day there was a snowstorm.

That’s not to say that thing didn’t go wrong this weekend. You should have come out with wins in at least two of those games. This team needs to find its’ closer and needs to find it fast. Going into the season, I thought it was going to be Andrew Devine. It could still be Devine but man that outing was terrible.

You also have to remember that everyone was on a pitch count this weekend. In most other situations (when you hadn’t just had 11 months off) Mason Montgomery and Patrick Monteverde would have stayed in the game. The high-level experience was good for some of the arms that I do not think will get much work when conference season arrives. Another crazy stat to consider is that nine of your fifteen pitchers gave up a run this weekend.

This weekend was awful, but there’s little to no reason to start spamming that panic button yet. You played arguably the top two teams in the nation that have more experienced players. It was a great experience for the younger guys to go out and play on a huge stage this early in the season.
Honestly, this weekend will most likely be a learning experience and propel this team into the remainder of this season, starting this weekend with a match-up against Houston Baptist.