Tech’s baseball team finished the Red Raider Classic in Lubbock, Texas on Feb. 19.
The Golden Eagles started the weekend with a win against Missouri State University (ranked 31st in the nation) by a score of 3-2. Tech pitcher Tristan Archer achieved his first win of the season with six scoreless innings, giving up only four hits and striking out five. Zane Morton got the save with 2 innings of work.
Contributing offensively to the victory were Austin Wulf and Chad Hayes. Wulf went 3-for-4 and Hayes batted 2-for-4, with one run batted in.
Although Tech began the season with a win, they finished the Red Raider Classic with three straight losses. In their loss to their second game against Missouri State, Tech went into the ninth inning down 10-7. However, their rally was cut short, resulting in a 10-8 loss.
The Golden Eagles also dropped two more losses in both games against Texas Tech, losing 9-5 and 8-0 respectively. For the entire weekend, Wulf had eight hits with one homerun and Zack Stephens notched one homer with three RBI’s.
“Baseball isn’t like football,” Matt Bragga, head coach, said. “[In football] you lose one game and it keeps you from reaching big time goals. In baseball, we don’t expect to lose ever, but no team went undefeated last year. We have a mentality that we will lose a few along the way, hoping to be a much better team by the time the postseason begins.”
Although Tech has started their season 1-3, they are looking forward to continuing the season against rival East Tennessee State University. Freshman Seth Lucio is expected to make his first college start on the mound against ETSU, and will also be expected to contribute with the bat as well.
“Seth will contribute very, very heavily on the mound for us this year,” Bragga said. “[He] will be our first or second guy off the bench offensively, so we expect great things out of him on the mound and offensively. He’s led the team in quality at-bats all fall and early spring [in practice]”.
Tech leads the all-time rivalry with ETSU 46-41, but last year the Buccaneers took home the victory with a 6-5 win over the Golden Eagles. Tech is looking to take revenge on ETSU’s field Feb.24.
