Kent State University
Texas Tech University
Flashes Travel to Lubbock to Clash with #20 Texas Tech
2/24/2022 4:33:00 PM | Baseball
LUBBOCK, TX- The Golden Flashes hit the road for their second weekend series of the season, traveling to the lone star state for a meeting with the #20 Texas Tech Red Raiders.
The weekend series starts with a Friday matinee with a 3 p.m. ET/ 2 p.m. CT start. Saturday will have an identical start time and Sunday's finale will have a 2 p.m. ET/ 1 p.m. CT first pitch.
Kent State took the finale of their three-game opening weekend, defeating Coastal Carolina 2-1. Aidan Longwell and Justin Miknis paced the offense last weekend, each collecting six hits. Miknis led the weekend with three runs batted in, twice driving home Longwell who scored four times in the first three contests. Longwell also added two shutout innings of relief and picked up Sunday's victory.      `        Â
On the mound, Richie Dell will get the ball to start the weekend, he came in out of the pen on opening day and provided three and two-third innings of solid relief. Saturday's starter will be left-hander Collin Romel, Romel pitched into the sixth against West Virginia on Saturday and struck out seven. Sunday will see freshman right hander Rocco Bernadina get the ball. He was brilliant on Sunday, going four-and-a-third innings of one-run baseball. Fellow freshman Peyton Cariaco was equally superb and will likely see action out of the bullpen again this weekend.
Texas Tech comes into the weekend at 2-2 on the season having defeated Dallas Baptist in their home opener on Tuesday. They were pegged third in the Big-12 pre-season poll, the first time they weren't the conference pre-season favorites since the 2017 season.
Offensively, they are led by consensus All-American infielder Jace Jung, who was a pre-season Golden Spikes Award nominee. The draft-eligible sophomore crushed the competition last year, hitting .337 with 21 homers and 67 driven in. The Flashes' pitching staff will look to keep him and a Red Raider offense that has only two extra-base hits so far through four games.
Texas Tech will start the weekend with right-hander Andrew Morris.The righty was a Division-II All-American for Colorado Mesa last season and was the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Pitcher of the Year. He pitched into the fourth against Michigan, allowing four hits, four runs and four walks while striking out six in an eventual Tech victory.
Saturday, the Flashes will see righty Brandon Birdsell. Birdsell has twice been drafted, once out of high school (39th round-Houston) and last year (11th round-Minnesota) but elected to first attend Texas A and M before transferring to Texas Tech. He went 4-1 with a 3.06 ERA last season for the Red Raiders and went four innings allowing two runs against Auburn last weekend.
Sunday projects to be a battle of freshmen as righty Mason Molina is slated to start the finale. Molina was named All-League MVP and All-League first team for Trabuco Hills (California) last season. He pitched well in a loss to Arizona last weekend, going four innings allowing three hits and two runs while striking out five.
The Golden Flashes have been to Lubbock and played in RIP Griffin Stadium as part of the 2018 NCAA Regionals, but have never faced Texas Tech.
The series will be streamed on ESPN+/Big-12 Network Now and live stats will be available all weekend. The links can be found on the baseball schedule page.
Kent State will wrap up the road portion of their weekend non-conference schedule next week with a trip to Clarksville, Tennessee to take on Austin Peay in a three-game series.
