BY GEORGE WATSON l AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

In terms of team accomplishments and not so much the record, Texas Tech had just completed its best baseball season in three years and, in several cases, set marks only teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s had accomplished.

Yet, there head coach Dan Spencer sat in Lubbock on Monday afternoon. Bummed. Sixty-four teams were still playing. The Red Raiders were not one of them, even though two teams that finished behind them in the Big 12 Conference standings were.

“I’ve been a little down all week,” Spencer said Thursday. “It’s a tough time of the year when you’re not in the playoffs. That’s our goal. We want to get to a point where we’re playing for championships. This is a good reminder for the kids how big every game is and how big every series is. All those wins at the end of the year add up.”

When it was all totaled up, though, the Red Raiders (25-32) simply didn’t have enough victories outside of Big 12 play to warrant an at-large berth to the NCAA playoffs. Baylor and Oklahoma State, teams that finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in the league but have RPIs in the 20s and 30s due to their non-conference success, did get berths despite playing poorly down the stretch or winning just two conference series all year.

Tech simply didn’t have the horses, either on the mound or at the plate, to match those two, and that led to a dismal non-conference record (13-17) and, ultimately, the deciding factor both in the season and in the Red Raiders’ run to the Big 12 tournament.

Competitive on the weekends. Struggling in the midweek.

“We got to a point where we had to make a realization that we were limited where we were as a club with the depth we had to attack the weekends,” Spencer said. “With the bodies we had we had to get to a point to where we could pitch 27 innings like we wanted, which we didn’t. We didn’t create enough depth to be competitive enough to go out on the mound each time and get solid starts.”

For all those flaws, however, 2009 was still a year of big accomplishments for the Red Raiders, who finished seventh in the league after being predicted to end up eighth.

– Making the Big 12 Championship for the first time since 2006 and coming within one win of playing in the tournament title game.

– Beating every team in the Big 12 at least once, which Tech had not done since 2000 and had done only four times in Big 12 history.

– Winning four Big 12 series and posting double-digit victories in league play, the most since 2004.

– Winning a Big 12 road series for the first time since 2004, breaking a 23-series losing streak away from Lubbock.

“I would say maybe we exceeded (expectations) in conference,” Spencer said. “I don’t think overachieving is the right word because we’ve got some achieving guys and some talent. But I think what we’ve done now is when we talk to kids, and when people talk about Tech, they say we’re a rival member of the Big 12 now and a place that you can win. We have won and will win again in the future.”

Not, however, without some big strides being taken next year and in the years to come.

First and foremost is building pitching depth. By the end of the season, Tech could barely pitch consistently in a three-game series, much less competitively in the midweek. Spencer will have to replace at least two-thirds of the starting rotation — Nate Karns is a draft-eligible junior — and several members of the bullpen.

One player he doesn’t have to replace is ace reliever Chad Bettis. The right-handed sophomore finished 6-1 with a 3.59 ERA and was involved either as a starter or reliever in 11 of Tech’s 12 conference victories. He has shown value both as a starter and as a reliever with seven saves.

Outside of Bettis, however, no returning Tech pitcher who threw more than 31 innings finished with an ERA lower than 6.00, and gone is the experience of seniors like AJ Ramos, Brian Cloud, Miles Morgan and Cory Large. Of the 11 players signed for next year, four are full-time pitchers.

“I think we’re going to make some big steps,” Spencer said. “Of course we’re really not going to be able to take care of it until it’s been about three, four years down the line and we have freshmen behind juniors. But I think we’ll be another stop closer. We’re bringing in some good arms and we won’t know exactly who we are until we get through the first couple days of the draft and see who shows up in the fall. The difference is we’re going to be more talented on the mound, but we’ll be trading some experience for some new guys.”

Playing with new guys didn’t hurt Tech in the field. Of the eight regular position starters plus the designated hitter, three were freshmen, two others were new Division I starters and senior Chris Richburg played at a new position.

Tech will lose only Richburg and senior Willie Rueda from that group, although outfielders Michael Reed and Taylor Ashby, infielder Joey Kenworthy and catcher Jeremy Mayo are draft-eligible. Plus, freshman third baseman Justin Berry will be having surgery within the next week to repair the torn labrum in his hip with which he played all year.

If everyone returns, Tech will bring back six of its top eight hitters and a group that will have a combined 356 games of starting experience. That group also hit .299 as a team, which was not expected by the coaching staff. Tech will have to replace Richburg’s power numbers (14 home runs, 60 RBIs) but has a candidate in mind in slugging infielder Stephen Hagen, who hit 29 home runs and drove in 89 for Eastern Oklahoma State this season.

“A lot of guys bought into what we were doing offensively,” Spencer said. “With the little guys we have up front to get on base, we have a good core group of guys back. We have to find another (power) guy who’s not here yet, and the guys that were here will get better. Berry, (Scott) LeJeune, Ashby, Kenworthy, Mayo, all those guys had good years and will continue to get better. Hagan can come in and hit in the middle of the order. We feel strongly he will come in and show up, but we have to get through the first couple of days of the draft first.”

If Hagan and the rest of the signing class make it to campus, if everyone comes back healthy, if the 15 players sent to summer ball come back improved and if pitching depth grows, then maybe, this time next year, Spencer won’t be moping around the house as the NCAA playoffs open.

“The biggest step they need to understand is every game is important,” Spencer said. “Not that we didn’t this year … but we should be able to do some of the things we couldn’t do this year with our infielders. We have to keep everyone accountable.

“It’s nothing about what we did or didn’t do this year. I’m proud of the guys this year and the jumps they made and how close they really are. They work well and understand the commitment it takes to be a factor in this conference. I wouldn’t say we have to do more work, but we have to continue with the same sense of urgency to get where we want to go.”

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