Texas Tech Faces Brutal Big 12 Path

Texas Tech baseball has one path left, and it’s not for the faint of heart.

The Red Raiders enter the Big 12 Tournament as the No. 12 seed, needing five wins in five days in Surprise, Arizona, to steal the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid. That’s the math. Win the whole thing, or the season likely ends.

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Texas Tech opens Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. CT against No. 9 seed BYU on ESPN+. Both teams enter at 27-27, and there’s at least one reason for Tech to believe. The Red Raiders took two of three from the Cougars in Lubbock during the next-to-last week of the regular season.

Now they need to do it again.

Jonny Lowe gets the ball for Texas Tech after playing a key role in that series win over BYU. The senior right-hander is 4-1 with a 4.67 ERA and picked up wins in two games against the Cougars earlier this month.

BYU counters with redshirt freshman Blade Paragas, who is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in limited work.

The bracket is unforgiving. The Tech-BYU winner gets No. 8 Baylor on Wednesday. Survive that, and top-seeded Kansas waits Thursday after a double bye.

No pressure, right?

If Texas Tech is going to make a shock run, the bats have to carry serious weight. Logan Hughes has been a force with a .372 average, 17 home runs and 68 RBI.

Connor Shouse has added a .360 average, 10 homers and 66 RBI, while Linkin Garcia has produced at .339 with four home runs and 58 RBI.

Tracer Lopez leads the Big 12 with 21 doubles and nine sacrifice flies, and Caden Ferraro brings a team-best .375 average with eight homers and 46 RBI.

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BYU has danger, too, led by Ezra McNaughton, who’s hitting .342 with 15 homers and 51 RBI.

Texas Tech hasn’t won more than three straight since February.

Now it needs five in a row to save its season.

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