Texas Tech opens home stand against GCU

The Texas Tech baseball team has a five-game home stand this week with two games against Grand Canyon and three against Baylor.

Tech (25-12, 6-6 in the Big 12) and Grand Canyon (20-15, 11-7 in the Western Athletic Conference) square off at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and noon Wednesday at Dan Law Field/Rip Griffin Park. Tech hosts Baylor (13-23, 5-10) at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Tech, coming off a split of a two-game series at No. 10 Stanford and two victories in a three-game series at Oklahoma, moved up two spots to No. 18 in the weekly poll of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

On Monday, Tech players swept the weekly Big 12 awards. First baseman Gavin Kash was named Big 12 player of the week, lefthander Ryan Free was named pitcher of the week, and freshman center fielder Gage Harrelson was earned recognition as newcomer of the week.

Kash had hits in all five games last week, batting .450 with three home runs and 10 runs batted in. In Tech's 13-7 victory Friday at OU, he drove in six runs and had two homers, including a grand slam in the 10th inning.

Free pitched a scoreless 1 2/3 innings in Tech's 11-2 victory Tuesday at Stanford and retired all 15 batters he faced, striking out nine, in the Red Raiders' 9-5 triumph Saturday at OU.

Harrelson batted .480 for the week with four multi-hit games. He had two doubles, two triples, seven runs batted in and five scored.

Kash leads the Big 12 with 16 home runs and 59 RBI, and his .404 average ranks second. Third baseman Kevin Bazzell (.367-4-41), second baseman Austin Green (.328-7-41) are tied for fourth in the conference in RBI and Harrelson (.356-1-35) is eighth in RBI and second in the Big 12 in runs scored with 43.

Grand Canyon, the preseason WAC favorite for the sixth year in a row, is coming off two wins in a three-game conference series at Abilene Christian. The Lopes won a game this season against No. 21 Tennessee.

Grand Canyon shortstop Jacob Wilson (.468-2-38) is ranked among the top 10 prospects for this summer's Major League Baseball draft by Baseball America and MLB.com. He's a son of Jack Wilson, who was an All-Star and Silver Slugger award winner during 12 seasons as a big-league shortstop with the Pirates, Mariners and Braves.

Center fielder Homer Bush Jr. (.410-2-29, 14 stolen bases), son of the former seven-season Major League outfielder, bats leadoff for the Lopes and is the No. 88 prospect for this summer's draft on the MLB.com ranking.

Wilson leads the WAC in batting average, Bush leads the conference in runs scored (48) and 290-pound freshman designated hitter Zach Yorke (.352-6-42) is the WAC co-leader in RBI.

Tech men's golf

Texas Tech senior Ludvig Aberg is among the 10 semifinalists announced Monday for the Ben Hogan Award, which is presented annually to the player of the year in college golf.

Aberg won the award last year. Since the award's inception in 1990, the only two-time winner is Jon Rahm from Arizona State, who did it in 2015 and 2016. Rahm has gone on to win the U.S. Open in 2021 and the Masters this year.

Texas A&M's Sam Bennett, this year's low amateur at the Masters, also is among the semifinalists. The others are Illinois' Adrien Dumont de Chassart, North Carolina's David Ford, North Florida's Nick Gabrelcik, North Carolina's Austin Greaser, Georgia Tech's Christo Lamprecht, Pepperdine's William Mouw, Vanderbilt's Gordon Sargent and Stanford's Michael Thorbjornsen.

Men's basketball

Texas Tech swingman Jaylon Tyson announced Monday he is having his name entered into the NCAA transfer portal, confirming a report Sunday that that action was forthcoming. Tyson said he is keeping open the option to return to the Red Raiders.

Tyson, a 6-foot-7 graduate of Plano John Paul II, averaged 10.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game this past season as a sophomore for the Red Raiders.

Tech track & field

The Texas Tech men moved up two spots to No. 2 in the weekly ranking by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. It's the program's highest ranking since the 2019 team was ranked No. 1 all season and won the NCAA championship.

Two Red Raiders ran Division I-leading marks over the weekend at Florida's Tom Jones Memorial meet. Terrence Jones ran a wind-legal 9.91 seconds in the 100 meters, and Caleb Dean ran a school-record 48.47 in the 400-meter hurdles.

Tech pole vaulter Zach Bradford also has the Division I top mark in his event with the 19-2 3/4 he cleared at the Texas Relays in Austin.

LCU men's golf

THACKERVILLE, Okla. — Lubbock-Cooper graduate Hayden Bowman shot 76-71 and was tied for 24th in a field of 60, leading the Lubbock Christian University contingent after Monday's first two rounds of the Lone Star Conference championships.

Bowman is 3 over par. Also playing for the Chaparrals are Braxton Floyd (77-74), Garrett Auger (79-79), Tiaan de Jager (82-78) and Jackson Comer (80-80). LCU is last among the 12 teams.

WinStar Golf Club's Scissortail Course is the site of tournament, which continues with 18 holes on Tuesday and the final four teams advancing to match play on Wednesday.

LCU track & field

Four Lubbock Christian University athletes achieved NCAA Division II provisional marks in meets over the weekend.

Three of the four happened at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California. Anna Salisbury and Frenship graduate Jozlyn Arana ran the 400 meters in 54.42 and 55.79 seconds, respectively, and George Garcia ran the 400 in 47.19.

Sundown graduate Bryce Spencer achieved the other provisional mark with a hammer throw of 202 feet, 7 inches at Long Beach State's Beach Invitational.

Idalou graduate Madelyn Merrell, also competing in Azusa, ran personal record times of 2 minutes, 14 seconds in the 800 meters and 4:34 in the 1,500 meters.

Most LCU athletes competed at the Ross Black Open in Hobbs, New Mexico. LCU's top finishers included Frenship graduate Reanna Argullin, second in the women's 400 meters (57.30); Haley George, second in the women's long jump (17-6 1/2); Dustin Bryant, second in the men's long jump (23-0 1/2); and Lockney grad Jayda Rosales, third in the women's triple jump (34-6 3/4).

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech opens five-game home stand with two against Grand Canyon