We should have an entertaining series this weekend in Lubbock with two powerful offenses in Texas Tech and Duke.
Both teams took very different paths to get here as the Red Raiders breezed through their regional, while Duke worked its way through the loser’s bracket.
Texas Tech scored 9, 10 and 11 runs in their three games, beating another ACC team (Louisville) twice along the way.
Meanwhile, Duke lost their first game to Troy, but then won four straight elimination games to advance to the super regionals. They scored 0, 16, 15, 8 and 8 runs in their five regional games.
Pitchers to Watch:
Texas Tech – Caleb Kilian, Ryan Shetter and Davis Martin are their top three starters and have been solid all year, but none of them are as dominate as Steven Gingery who they lost at the beginning of the season. Ty Harpenau is an arm they’ve come to rely on in high leverage situations out of the bullpen.
Duke – If you look at their three starts (Ryan Day, Adam Laskey and Mitch Stallings) neither have impressive numbers, and none of them were great in the regionals. Stallings ended up starting two games and was solid in game seven to help them advance. Jack Labosky is the best arm they have an will pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen. He has a 0.71 ERA this year in 38 innings pitched with 10 saves and 29 strikeouts.
Hitters to Watch:
Texas Tech – This is where things get fun as there are a lot of talented hitters on both sides. Josh Jung is one of the best hitters in the country with a .384 average, 12 home runs and 77 RBI. Grant Little is right behind him with a .380 average, 12 home runs and 70 RBI. Those two are fun to watch in the middle of the Red Raider order. In fact, 8-of-9 hitters in their lineup are hitting .290 or better.
Duke – The top two hitters entering the season were Jimmy Herron and Griffin Conine. Herron has been solid all season hitting .298 with 59 runs scored. Conine has been more up-and-down, but he does lead the team with 18 bombs and 52 RBI. Similar to the Texas Tech lineup, they have eight players in their lineup hitting .278 or better.
Final Thoughts and Prediction:
While I certainly wasn’t sold on Georgia, what Duke did to come back and win that regional in Athens was remarkable. I have been down on the Blue Devils all year because of their inconsistency, but they were able to string together four hard-fought wins to advance.
At the beginning of the year many picked Texas Tech to reach Omaha, but after losing Gingery it took a little sparkle out of the Red Raiders. There is no doubt they have the offense to not only get to Omaha, but to make a run.
Duke can’t afford to fall behind against Texas Tech like they did in the regionals. The Red Raiders have the offensive firepower to keep up with any run the Blue Devils make.
Winner: Texas Tech
