Somewhere between potential and production is the link missing for the Texas Tech baseball team.

The talent head coach Dan Spencer was so high on at the beginning of the season hasn’t gone away, but it hasn’t lived up to its billing, either, and that’s a big part of why the Red Raiders (8-10) are in a severe funk heading into Big 12 Conference play today at No. 23 Texas A&M (13-3).

As if winning in College Station isn’t hard enough — Tech has never won a Southwest Conference or Big 12 series at Olsen Field since it opened in 1978 — the Red Raiders go into the weekend with little to no momentum after losing eight of their last nine games. Texas A&M, meanwhile, goes into the series with all the momentum, having won 10 of their past 11.

“I think we’ve learned we’re a competitive bunch, and that the line is fine between winning and losing, especially against good people,” Spencer said. “We’ve got to find a way to start doing the little things right — making sure we score a runner from third with less than two outs, taking care of ground balls, keeping walks to a minimum. We’ve learned that we have to get better and be more consistent if we’re going to be successful against good people.”

Of Tech’s 10 losses, seven have come against teams that are ranked or have been ranked in some poll at some point this season, and the schedule doesn’t get any easier as, after this weekend, the Red Raiders host No. 2 Texas next weekend at Dan Law Field. While pitching has been the main struggle for the Red Raiders, lately it’s been all three phases of the game which have suffered.

Tech will start its third different series-opening pitcher as sophomore right-hander John Neely gets the call against the Aggies. Neely has worked solely out of the bullpen and has logged just 12 innings in his six appearances, going 0-0 with a 6.00 ERA and 11 strikeouts.

His main objective will be getting Tech out of the early innings with as little damage done as possible. The Red Raiders’ last two Friday games have come against No. 7 TCU, and the Horned Frogs have torched Tech pitchers for 12 runs in the first three innings of those games combined. Tech is last in the conference with a 6.82 ERA, almost two runs worse than ninth-place Nebraska (4.98)

“I’m not nervous or anything,” Neely said. “It’s just like any other game playing at Minute Maid Park or TCU. It’s a conference game, but I just have to throw strikes and do what I do. We’ve started off slow in throwing strikes and a lot of our starters have walked a couple of guys in the early innings. I hope that I can just throw strikes and get out of there.”

Lately, however, the problem hasn’t been just throwing strikes. After committing just six errors in their first seven games, the Red Raiders have booted the ball much more frequently lately with 15 errors in their last eight games, including five games with multiple errors. That has made Tech the runaway leader in unearned runs allowed with 27.

“Our confidence is always going to be there,” senior left fielder Michael Reed said. “We have a great bunch of guys and we all know how to play ball, we just need to think about the team and not ourselves. We just have to come out and do things like it’s any other day and do all the small things right.”

Last season, Tech survived a shaky pitching staff with a solid offense. Lately, however, the Red Raider bats have slumped along with the rest of the team.

Before the slump, the Red Raiders led the Big 12 in hitting with a .357 average, 10 home runs and 74 RBIs. Since the slump began, the Red Raiders are hitting just .260 with eight home runs and 55 RBIs.

“I think we’ve had some guys press when we’re down 4-1 and trying to hit that three-run home run when nobody’s on base instead of just playing the game 90 feet at a time,” Spencer said. “That’s a tough thing to coach out of them because they’re real guys and they want to do something big. If everyone just does their job, and that’s what we’re trying to get across to them, if everybody does their job, we’ll be just fine.”

If the Red Raiders need a reference point from which to draw on the situation, they need only look at last season. Tech entered Big 12 play in 2009 coming off a road swing to California where it lost seven of eight games, then turned around and opened conference play winning two of three against Nebraska.

But that was at home against a Cornhusker team itself on a slide. This time it’s against a surging A&M team in an environment which has never been conducive to opponent success.

“This may be exactly the wrong time to catch them,” A&M coach Rob Childress said. “Coming out of the last couple of weekends we know they’re going to be motivated and upset and ready to go this weekend. I know Dan will have them ready to go.”

Ready is one thing. Able is another.

Texas Tech at Texas A&M
-When: 6:35 p.m. today; 2:05 p.m. Saturday; 1:05 p.m. Sunday
-Where: C.E. “Pat” Olsen Field, College Station
-Records: Texas Tech 8-10, 0-0 in Big 12; Texas A&M 13-3, 0-0
-Radio: KTTU 104.3 FM
-Online: twitter.com/RaiderSports

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