No. 8 Texas Tech Looks to Overcome Key Injuries on the Road Against West Virginia

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – No. 8 Texas Tech (24-7, 5-4 Big 12) heads to Morgantown to face West Virginia (13-14, 4-5 Big 12) in a three-game weekend series.

West Virginia is coming off of a weekend series loss to the Baylor Bears where Baylor took two of three from the Mountaineers. West Virginia then took a midweek game versus the Marshall Herd (9-3).

Pitching

On the hill, West Virginia will most likely be starting a combination of Jackson Wolf (3.05 ERA), Ben Hampton (3.10 ERA), and Adam Tulloch (7.03 ERA).

Wolf is undoubtedly their ace as he is the only pitcher on their staff that has over 25 innings pitched with 41.1 IP. Hampton is a consistent option that has been able to keep his ERA and walk count down. Tulloch is the wildcard of the group. He is one of the team leaders in ERA, but is also second on the team in strikeouts with 37 and leads the team in strikeouts per inning with over one and a half strikeouts per inning.

In the pen, the Mountaineers have four players that have recorded 10 appearances. Their stats are listed below

Hitting

The hitting lineup for West Virginia is one of the least efficient in the Big 12 as they rank 8th in the Big 12 and 192nd in the country in batting average with a mark of .254.

Despite this statistic, three common Mountaineer starters are currently batting over .300.

West Virginia has also failed to hit home runs with much consistency as they have accumulated 19 home runs as a team this season. By comparison, Jace Jung has recorded only four fewer home runs than the entire Mountaineer lineup with 15. West Virginia’s home run leaders on the year are Matt McCormick and Kevin Brophy, both with six.

Injuries

Texas Tech baseball has been bitten by the injury bug a lot this season with news of pitchers, Austin Becker, Jacob Brustoski, and Brandon Birdsell who will reportedly miss significant time/ the rest of the season due to various injuries.

Injury news has seemed to get even worse with a pair of outfielders suffering injuries. This time with Dylan Neuse and Kurt Wilson. Neuse is out for the season with a back injury and Wilson is out at least six weeks with a broken thumb.

Dru Baker is also nursing an injury, but is expected to make a return to the lineup relatively soon.

Series Notes

• Texas Tech has not won a series on the road this season (1-2 vs Kansas State)
• Texas Tech is fourth in the Big 12 standings
• West Virginia is fifth in the Big 12 standings
• West Virginia won the last matchup between the two programs, 2-0, in the Big 12 tournament
• West Virginia is 7-5 at home this season
• Each of these games will be featured on ESPN+ (4/16 @ 5:30, 4/17 @ 3, 4/18 @ 12)
• *times are central*

Up Next

Texas Tech will be heading to Amarillo to face off against the Oklahoma Sooners for a “non-conference” game. First pitch will be at 6:30 p.m. CST at Hodgetown and the game will be on ESPNU.