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Texas Tech Red Raiders baseball
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The Texas Tech Red Raiders baseball team represents Texas Tech University in NCAA Division I college baseball. The team competes in the Big 12 Conference and plays at Dan Law Field.
nd football and men's basketball, baseball is the third oldest sport at Texas Tech. The initial team organized in 1925 and the first game, an 189 victory over West Texas State Teachers College, was played in 1926. In the following game, the team suffered its first ever loss, 149 to the team it had previously defeated.
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Encyclopedia
The Texas Tech Red Raiders baseball team represents Texas Tech University in NCAA Division I college baseball. The team competes in the Big 12 Conference and plays at Dan Law Field.
History
Early years
Behind football and men's basketball, baseball is the third oldest sport at Texas Tech. The initial team organized in 1925 and the first game, an 189 victory over West Texas State Teachers College, was played in 1926. In the following game, the team suffered its first ever loss, 149 to the team it had previously defeated. The third game in the team's historythis one against Daniel Baker Collegeended in a 33 tie after 11 innings.
E. Y. Freeland was the first coach of the Red Raiders, though the team was known as the Matadors at the time. He remained in the position for three years before R. Grady Higginbotham took the role. Higginbotham coached for only two years. From 1930 to 1953, Tech did not field an intercollegiate baseball team. When the program returned in 1954, Beattie Feathers became the head coach of the Red Raiders and remained until 1960. He was followed by Berl Huffman (1961-1967), Kal Segrist (1968-1983), and Gary Ashby (1984-1986). Upon Ashby's departure, Larry Hays became the head coach of the team.
Larry Hays era
Larry Hays took over the Red Raiders baseball team in 1987. Under Hays, Texas Tech endured only two losing seasons, his first and last, and enjoyed their greatest success in baseball. Hays took Tech from having a losing tradition to being a national contender. When Hays started with the Red Raiders, the team's overall record stood at 550576. By the time he left, he was the fourth-winningest coach is college baseball history and the team's record had improved to 1,3651,0549. The Red Raiders reached eight straight NCAA tournaments from 1995-2002 and again in 2004, three of which were held at Dan Law Field. They also won two conference championships, in 1995 (while still in the Southwest Conference) and 1997, and two conference tournament championships, in 1996 and 1998.
Dan Spencer era
On June 2, 2008, Larry Hays announced his retirement, paving the way for assistant coach Dan Spencer to take over. Spencer, a former Tech player, one of which was during Hay's first year in 1987, has won back-to-back national championships as an assistant head coach for the Oregon State Beavers.
Head Coaches
Year-by-year results
*Through the end of the 2008 season.
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Texas Tech in the NCAA Tournament
Red Raiders in the Major Leagues
At least 20 former Texas Tech Red Raiders went on to play Major League Baseball. Seven more Red Raiders were taken in the 2008 MLB Draft.
External links
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