On the Diamond

Texas Tech softball earned the #11 overall seed and will be hosting the Lubbock Regional with Ole Miss, Boston University, and Marist in Lubbock Regional. This comes on the heels of having lost the Big 12 Championship to Arizona State on Saturday, 4-0. Texas Tech will open against Marist on Friday with first-pitch at 3:30 p.m.

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Nathan Giese with head coach Jerry Glasco on the seeding:

“They have to see it in the manner that will fit the whole tournament, 64 teams,” Glasco said. “So you come down to, is the formula for seeding 64 teams equal? And they have to stick to that formula. Is that going to be closer to seeding us correctly or is the coaches poll where coaches vote independently, whatever they think, who’s the best five teams in the country at the top? I think they did a great job. I think they did their job well.”

Much of Texas Tech’s lower RPI in comparison to its level of talent and statistical metrics is due to the lack of high-quality non-conference opponents. Over half of a team’s schedule is made up of non-conference games and the Red Raiders only played three teams (Nebraska, Florida State and Texas A&M) who wound up being nationally-seeded teams in the field, beating two of them.

Texas Tech baseball defeated BYU on Saturday, 15-11 to win the series. Connor Shouse went 5 for 5 and threw 2 innings of shut-out ball while Kyeler Thompson, Logan Hughes and Matt Quintanar all homered. This group will hit the road and take on Cincinnati starting Thursday night, first-pitch is at 6:00 p.m.

On the Gridiron

ESPN has award candidates for every top 25 team:

LB Ben Roberts, Butkus Award (best linebacker)

How about back-to-back Butkus Award winners at Texas Tech? It’s not impossible. Roberts put together a terrific junior season in his first year under defensive coordinator Shiel Wood with 90 tackles, four tackles for loss, four interceptions and two forced fumbles. He also took home Most Outstanding Player honors for his two picks in the Big 12 championship game win over BYU. The Red Raiders must replace the incomparable Jacob Rodriguez but have three potential All-Big 12 performers in Roberts, John Curry and Kansas State transfer Austin Romaine. Just like last season, this defense will be tough to run on with elite line play creating easy playmaking opportunities for Roberts and his fellow linebackers. — Max Olson