Texas Tech Baseball Finishes Regular Season in Solid Postseason Position
In a lot of ways, this Texas Tech series vs Kansas was a microcosm of their season at large. It was mostly great, and Jace Jung hit some home runs.
The Red Raiders dominated most of the series. The only inning where it looked like Kansas was the better team was the 7th inning of the first game, which cost Texas Tech game 1 after a five-run inning landed the Jayhawks a 7-4 upset.
Games two and three were all Texas Tech though, with an offensive explosion leading to a 13-4 win and a dominant pitching day leading to a 5-0 win in the deciding game three.
The series victory put Texas Tech at 14-10 in league play, with series wins over Texas, TCU, Oklahoma, Kansas, West Virginia and Oklahoma State, and series losses to Baylor and Kansas State. That's good enough for a third-place finish in the Big 12 behind Texas and TCU, who may or may not be tied for first by the time you read this.
Texas Tech was 5-2 in rubber match games this season, with losses to Baylor and Kansas State. It's the first season since 2015 that Texas Tech played a full Big 12 schedule and didn't sweep a Big 12 opponent. That 2015 Red Raider team finished 31-24, missing the postseason.
The 2021 team won't suffer the same postseason blues with a final record of 35-13 and a potential national seed still on the line. The top eight-seed might be a tall task for the Red Raiders, but they won't fall out of the top 10. Texas Tech will host an NCAA Regional for sure. The Red Raiders will find out their final seed on Selection Sunday, May 30th, 2021.
Texas Tech will open the Big 12 tournament against the 6th seed, likely Oklahoma, on Wednesday, May 26th.