No. 17 West Virginia Travels to Texas Tech Looking to Bounce Back in Big 12 Play

The No. 17 West Virginia Mountaineers (22-7, 8-4) are on the road to take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders (19-13, 5-7) for a three-game weekend Big 12 series at Rip Griffin Park. Game one is set for Friday at 7:30 p.m. EST, game two will be on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. EST and the series finale is scheduled for Sunday at 2:00 p.m. EST. All the action will stream on ESPN+.

UPDATE: Game two schedule for Saturday has been moeve up to 1:00 p.m. EST.

West Virginia dropped its first series of the season after UCF took two of three games from the Mountaineers in Morgantown (WV) last weekend to take the top spot in the Big 12 standings.

Leading the Mountaineers at the plate is sophomore Gavin Kelly. The Pittsburgh (PA) product is batting .417 with a Big 12 leading 15 doubles, a team-high 31 RBI and four home runs. Senior Paul Schoenfeld is second on the team with a .381 batting average, 11 doubles and 29 RBI, while Senior Sean Smith has clubbed a team-best five home runs.

West Virginia is expected to start junior right-hander Dawson Montesa (3-4, 5.87 ERA) in the series opener, redshirt junior southpaw Maxx Yehl (5-0, 2.30 ERA) is set for game two, and sophomore Chansen Cole (4-1, 3.32 ERA) is scheduled for the finale.

Texas Tech opened the Big 12 slate with a series win over Kansas and at Arizona before the Red Raiders were swept at TCU, then lost two of three at home to Houston last weekend.

Junior Caden Ferraro is hitting is tied for a team-best .426 with Freshman Jesse Rusinek. Ferraroo has five home runs, 35 RBI, and is right behind West Virginia's Kelly in the league with 14 doubles. Rusinek has a club-best three triples. Sophomore Connor Shouse leads the team with 46 RBI and his nine home runs is tied for the team lead with graduate senior Robin Villeneuve.

The Red Raiders will start junior right-hander Lukas Pirko (3-3, 6-75 ERA) in the series opener, sophomore righty Jackson Burns (2-2, 7.00 ERA) in game two, and freshman right-hander Adam Hayes (2-0, 5.06 ERA) in game three.

Texas Tech leads the all-time series 23-20. The Mountaineers took two of three from the Red Raiders in Morgantown last season.