FROM PRESS RELEASE
A total of 34 home games and eight NCAA Tournament teams highlight the 2008 Texas Tech Baseball schedule that was announced today by Head Coach Larry Hays.
The 2008 season marks the first under the new NCAA guidelines that mandate a universal start date for all of college baseball and that date will be Feb. 22. The Red Raiders will kick of the 2008 season at home with a four-game series against Northern Illinois Feb. 22-24 with a doubleheader set for Saturday, Feb. 23.
Following a midweek trip to New Mexico on Tuesday, Feb. 26, Texas Tech will take part in the Eighth-Annual Minute Maid College Classic where the Red Raiders will face Houston, Tennessee and Rice. The game against Tennessee will mark the first-ever meeting between the two schools while the game against Rice will mark the first of eight opponents that the Red Raiders will face who advanced to last year’s NCAA Tournament. The Minute Maid College Classic is set for Feb. 29-March 2 at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Texas Tech will return home for a six-game homestand beginning on March 4 as the Red Raiders will play their first Tuesday-Wednesday series of the year against Central Arkansas. Due to the reduction in the number of days allowed for competition in 2008, Texas Tech will play a total six, two-game midweek series. Other midweek series for the Red Raiders will be at home against UC-Riverside (March 25-26), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (April 1-2), New Mexico (April 8-9), and Dallas Baptist (May 13-14) while on the road at UNLV (April 15-16).
Texas Tech will kickoff the Big 12 Conference season on the road at Texas A&M as the Red Raiders and Aggies open league play against each other for the third time since 2002. The Texas Tech-Texas A&M series is scheduled for March 14-16 at Olsen Field in College Station.
The home portion of the 2008 Big 12 season will begin with a three-game series against the Texas Longhorns, March 20-22. The series against Texas is being played Thursday through Saturday due to the Easter Holiday falling on Sunday, March 23.
The Red Raiders will take on Missouri (March 28-30), Kansas State (April 18-20), Oklahoma (April 25-27) and Baylor (May 16-18) all at Dan Law Field while facing Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma State on the road.
Texas Tech will wrap up the regular-season schedule at home for the first time in four years as the Red Raiders will face the Baylor Bears, May 16-18. The Big 12 Championship at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City is set for May 21-25 while the NCAA Regionals are set for May 30-June. The Road To Omaha continues with the NCAA Super Regionals June 6-9 and the 2008 NCAA Champion will be decided at the College World Series at Rosenblatt Stadium June 13-23.
