Texas Tech Red Raiders baseball


The Texas Tech Red Raiders baseball team represents Texas Tech University in NCAA Division I college baseball. The team competes in the Big 12 Conference and plays at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park. Their head coach is Tim Tadlock and he is in his 7th season with the Red Raiders.

History

Early years

Along with the football and men's basketball teams, the Texas Tech baseball team was founded during the university's initial academic year, in 1925–26. The team's first series was against the West Texas A&M Buffaloes in 1926, an 18–9 victory in the first game and 14–9 loss in the second. The third game in the team's history—this one against Daniel Baker College—ended in a 3–3 tie after 11 innings.
E. Y. Freeland was the first coach of the Red Raiders, though the team was known as the Matadors at the time. He remained in the position for three years before R. Grady Higginbotham took the role. Higginbotham coached for only two years. From 1930 to 1953, Texas Tech did not field an intercollegiate baseball team.

Revival era

When the program returned in 1954, Beattie Feathers became the head coach of the Red Raiders and remained until 1960. He was followed by Berl Huffman, Kal Segrist, and Gary Ashby. Texas Tech joined the Southwest Conference in 1968, but experienced little success. During this 26 season period, the Red Raiders had only seven winning seasons; only twice finishing as high as third, with only three winning records in conference play.

Modern era

took over the Red Raiders baseball team in 1987. Under Hays, Texas Tech endured only two losing seasons, his first and last, and enjoyed their greatest success in baseball. Hays took Texas Tech from having a losing tradition to being a national contender. When Hays started with the Red Raiders, the team's overall record stood at 550–576–5. By the time he left, he was the fourth-winningest coach in college baseball history and improved the team's record to 1,365–1,054–8. The Red Raiders reached eight straight NCAA tournaments from 1995–2002 and again in 2004, three of which were held at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park. They also won the 1995 Southwest Conference championship, and the inaugural Big 12 Conference championship in 1997. The Hays-led Red Raiders also won the SWC Tournament in 1995, and the Big 12 Tournament in 1998.
On June 2, 2008, Larry Hays announced his retirement, paving the way for assistant coach Dan Spencer to take over. Spencer, a former Texas Tech player, won back-to-back national championships as an assistant head coach for the Oregon State Beavers. In Spencer's four seasons as head coach, he led the Red Raiders to only one winning season. Prior to Spencer's fourth, and final, season as head coach, Tim Tadlock was hired as associate head coach for the Red Raiders under Dan Spencer. The following season saw Tadlock replace Spencer as the ninth head coach of the Red Raiders following Spencer's firing.
Tadlock was a starting shortstop for the Red Raiders during the 1990 and 1991 seasons. Tadlock previously led the Grayson College Vikings to back-to-back NJCAA Division I World Series championships in the team's five appearances over his 9 seasons as head coach. Tadlock's first season saw the team finish 26–30, and 8th of 9 in Big 12 play. Prior to the 2014 season, the Red Raiders were selected to finish in 8th place in the Big 12 Conference in the preseason polls. In only his second season, the Red Raiders won their first NCAA Tournament Regional Championship, defeating the Columbia Lions and host team Miami Hurricanes to advance to the program's first Super Regional appearance. The team would host College of Charleston in the Lubbock Super Regional before shutting them out twice in two 1–0 games, earning the programs first berth in the College World Series on the back of a 0.65 post season earned run average produced by assistant coach Ray Hayward's pitching staff. The Red Raiders have since gone on to win back-to-back Big 12 regular season conference championships and again host both Regional and Super Regional rounds of the NCAA Tournament in Lubbock.

Ballpark

Season-by-season results

Source:

Head coaches

Individual accomplishments

Unanimous All-American
National Pitcher of the Year Award
Big 12 Conference Player of the Year
YearPlayer
1997Joe Dillon
2016Eric Gutierrez
2017Hunter Hargrove
2019Josh Jung

Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year
Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year
Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year
Big 12 Conference Tournament MVP
Skip Bertman Award
Southwest Conference Coach of the Year
Southwest Conference Tournament MVP
NCAA Division I Regional Tournament MVP
RegionalYearPlayer
Coral Gables2014LHP Dylan Dusek
Lubbock2016LHP Hayden Howard
Lubbock2018DH Zach Rheams
Lubbock20191B Cameron Warren

Retired jerseys

Red Raiders in the Major Leagues

At least 25 former Texas Tech Red Raiders went on to play Major League Baseball. Seven Red Raiders were taken in the 2008 MLB draft and three were drafted in 2009.
PlayerMLB Career DatesRound DraftedTeam Drafted
Doug Ault1976-1980Free AgentTexas Rangers
Josh Bard2002-2011
2016- Present 		3rdColorado Rockies
Dallas Braden2007-201124thOakland Athletics
Mark Brandenburg1995-199726thTexas Rangers
Stubby Clapp2001
2019 - Present 		36thSt. Louis Cardinals
Joe Dillon2005, 2007 - 2009
2018 - Present 		7thKansas City Royals
Travis Driskill2002 - 2005, 20074thCleveland Indians
Donald Harris1991-19931st Texas Rangers
Chuck Harrison1965-1969, 1971N/AN/A
Mike Humphreys1991-199315thSan Diego Padres
Keith Ginter2000-200510thHouston Astros
Jeff Karstens2006 -201219thNew York Yankees
Brandon Kolb2000-200138thOakland Athletics
Trey Lunsford2002-200333rdSan Francisco Giants
Matt Miller2001-20022ndDetroit Tigers
Ryan Nye1997-19982ndPhiladelphia Phillies
Chris Sampson2006-20098thHouston Astros
Travis Smith1998-200619thMilwaukee Brewers
Zach Stewart2011- Present3rdCincinnati Reds
Steve Watkins200416thSan Diego Padres
AJ Ramos2012- 201721stFlorida Marlins
Chad Bettis2013 - Present2ndColorado Rockies
Nathan Karns2013-2017, 201912thWashington Nationals
Josh Tomlin2010 - Present19thCleveland Indians
Roger Kieschnick2013 - 20143rdSan Francisco Giants