By George Watson | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

To say the least, expectations went unfulfilled in the Texas Tech baseball team’s eight-game trip through Southern California.

The Red Raiders won just one of those eight games and are assured of being below .500 to open Big 12 Conference play on Friday against Nebraska. Aside from one game – the one they won against Gonzaga – they were never consistent in all three phases of the game, falling short in at least one of three areas, pitching, offense or defense.

As bad as the results were, though, the players say they’re not that far off from where they want to be. They’ll get one last shot to prove that before conference play begins when Tech (6-8) hosts Dallas Baptist (9-3) at 3 p.m. today at Dan Law Field.

“I think maybe we found out some things about ourselves,” senior first baseman Chris Richburg said. “In order for us to have the kind of season we want to have we have to learn to win on the road, and we didn’t win as many as we wanted to out in California. But we have to play better, not only at home but on the road from here on out.”

All-around consistency seems to be the Red Raiders’ biggest hurdle at the moment.

Offensively, Tech averaged just 4.4 runs per game in California, compared to 9.0 in the first six games of the season, all at home. Tech scored five runs or fewer in five of the eight games and hit just .259 (70 of 270) on the trip, dropping the team overall batting average from .340 to .293.

On the mound, the Red Raiders actually saw their team ERA drop from 5.00 before the trip to 4.92 afterward. But they allowed seven or more runs in five games – all losses – and surrendered nine runs in three of those. Tech also struggled late in games, allowing 31 of 78 runs over the eight games after the sixth inning. Tech starters finished with a 3.61 ERA while the bullpen ballooned to 6.32.

Defense was also a culprit, and a big one at that. Tech had committed just eight errors in the first six games of the season, but booted 17 balls in eight games during the trip, moving from the friendly Dan Law Field Field Turf to natural grass. Tech leads the Big 12 in errors (25) and is last in fielding percentage (.955), and had three or more errors in four of the eight games on the trip.

“It felt like we were a different team when we were out there, letting up in an inning and that kind of stuff,” said junior outfielder Michael Reed, who played at second base for the injured Willie Rueda in the first four games of the trip. “We let down our guard, one person would make a mistake and everyone else would start contributing to it. But after we had a few games under our belt we started to come around and gave fewer errors.”

Indeed, the defense did improve toward the tail end of the trip, committing just one error in the final three games. Pitching was also better, allowing a single run in two of the final three games. And the offense finished strong, beating Gonzaga 7-1 and rallying for a 6-5 lead against No. 24 Oregon State before falling late, 9-6.

So there’s hope of improvement before Big 12 play commences, and some positive results from that hope would benefit Tech since, after this weekend, the Red Raiders have just one more home game the rest of the month.

“We’re in a good position mentally,” assistant coach Trent Petrie said. “The guys believe in what we’re doing and they’ve stuck with each other. We’ve just never really played a complete game. The one game we played clean baseball and threw strikes and made all the plays, we won. We’ve been in every game until the last couple innings and then just let them get away. You’ve got to win the ones you’re supposed to win and when you’ve got the lead you have to hang on to them.”

College baseball

• Who: Dallas Baptist at Texas Tech

• When: 3 p.m. today

• Where: Dan Law Field

• Records: Dallas Baptist 9-3; Texas Tech 6-8

• Radio: KKAM 1340 AM

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