Texas Tech Baseball is Good
I really can't believe I'm having to say this but, Texas Tech Baseball is good.
I know, I know, the Red Raiders probably won't host a regional. They definitely won't be a top-eight national seed, but they are a long way from a bad baseball team. The latest NCAA Tournament projection from d1baseball.com has the Red Raiders as a two-seed in the Coral Gables Regional.
The last time the Red Raiders made the NCAA Tournament, and didn't host, was a trip to Coral Gables where the Red Raiders beat Miami and the rest of the regional field and moved on to the Super Regional, which ended up being in Lubbock. That trip to Miami ended in Omaha.
The Red Raiders ended their non-conference regular-season slate on Tuesday, May 3rd, in a contest at ACU that took an eternity and took 18 pitchers between the two teams to complete. Texas Tech won 16-12 to finish the split with ACU and finish above .500 against the WAC.
With d1baseball.com continuing to rank the Red Raiders in the top ten, it feels weird that I even feel compelled to reiterate how good the Texas Tech team is, but an 0-for stretch in the midweek during the month of April and getting swept by a conference opponent for the first time since 2015 has some fans a little on edge.
The RPI is also at a less than ideal spot with only two Big 12 series remaining, but even at 45th in the RPI, three games against Oklahoma State and Oklahoma could drastically improve that down the stretch. To that the Negative Nancies are screaming, "But how are you saying Texas Tech is good if they only have two starting pitchers?"
I'll admit, that's not ideal. But those two, Andrew Morris and Brandon Birdsell, are really damn good. And even with a weak bullpen and lack of depth with frontline pitching, the Red Raiders still lead the Big 12 in conference games in NET runs per game. Moreso, they've only allowed the 5th most runs per game in conference play while scoring the second most per game.
Is Texas Tech baseball perfect? No.
Would the 2022 team beat the 2017 team in a series? Probably not.
Is the 2022 Texas Tech baseball team good? Yes, they are.