Red Raiders Open Conference Play against Oklahoma State

The Red Raiders open Big 12 conference play at home against the No. 12 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Cowboys come to Lubbock with a 15-3 record on a 13-game win streak. The series against the Cowboys will be Tech’s highest-ranked matchup so far this season. 

Pitching

Brian Hendry has been named the Cowboy’s Friday starter for this series, he will go up against  Brendan Girton (2.95 ERA) for the Red Raiders. Hendry comes enters the series with a 4.09 ERA in 3 appearances and 11.0 innings. Hendry has allowed 10 hits and 5 runs as well as recording 13 strikeouts and just 3 walks on the season. Juaron Watts-Brown will get the start for the Cowboys on Saturday. Watts-Brown comes to Lubbock with a 1.99 ERA over 4 appearances and 22.2 innings. Watts-Brown has not pitched in a loss this year and has allowed 13 hits, and 5 runs, and recorded 35 total strikeouts and just 7 walks this season. He will be up against Mason Molina (2.21 ERA) for the Red Raiders. Though the Sunday starter for the Cowboys is TBD, Brennan Phillips has started on the mound for the Cowboys for the last three Sunday games. Phillips comes into the series with a 9.88 ERA in 4 appearances and 13.2 innings. Phillips has allowed 15 runs and has recorded 11 strikeouts and 5 walks this season. The Red Raiders Sunday starter is also TBD, though Kyle Robinson (7.20 ERA) started the previous Sunday’s matchup.

Batting

The Cowboys come to Lubbock with 7 regular batters currently batting over .300. Nolan Schubart leads in batting average at .426, he ties David Mendham (.388 AVG) for most hits at 25, and leads the team in both RBI (24) and home runs (6). The Cowboys have a .323 team batting average compared with Tech’s .326 team average. Tech leads the Big 12 in batting average and OSU comes in at a close second. Of the 8 regular batters for OSU, all have more than one home run on the season and all but one batter have double-digit RBIs. 

Fielding is Tech’s weakest point in this matchup, OSU ranks first among the Big 12 in Fielding whereas Tech is dead last. Limiting the number of errors from the Red Raiders will be a key point in securing wins in this matchup. The weaker point for OSU will come from pitching particularly relief pitching, Tech currently has the second-lowest team ERA in the Big 12 while OSU sits at 7th.