Texas Tech Baseball: Losing ace Steven Gingery puts a damper early in the season
Texas Tech baseball lost their ace this week when pitcher Steven Gingery was diagnosed with a torn UCL
The college baseball season is just underway, but already one of the contenders has suffered a major blow.
Coming into the season, Texas Tech baseball was ranked in the top 5 in a number of preseason polls due to the strength of their front two in their rotation, but on Monday, the Red Raiders found out that their lefty ace Steven Gingery would miss the rest of the season with a torn UCL, requiring Tommy John surgery.
Texas Tech’s title shots
Though they didn’t experience a change in their ranking in the first week’s rankings, due to having a 4-0 weekend, the Texas Tech baseball team will have difficulty holding onto a top 5 slot in the rankings without their ace as the season wears on.
Gingery and right-hander David Martin made a formidable 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation, both rated in the top 100 of 2018 draft prospects in some lists (#49 and #102 on Baseball America’s most frequent list before the Gingery surgery).
Texas Tech does have an impressive recruiting class coming in, but they will lean heavily on their returning hitters to power them through to a possible chance at the title.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
After a win on Tuesday to bump them up to 5-0, Texas Tech has now scored 61 runs over their first 5 games, using an offense that many thought could be one of the best in the entire nation.
In their third game of the season, one of the major players that will need to step up had a solid first start as sophomore John McMillon struck out 7 over 5 innings, though he did walk 4 as well, which is not surprising as he has a tremendous fastball and breaking ball, but issues with his control. Junior Ryan Shetter certainly showed well in his first start of the season as well, going 6 innings with one hit, walking none and striking out 9 against New Mexico State.
However, if Texas Tech baseball is going to find itself in Omaha in June, it will be due to the bats of guys like Josh Jung and Grant Little, who were both excellent as freshmen last season and have already combined for 5 home runs between them over the team’s first five games as the offense has powered out 11 home runs in those games.
While a loss of a special arm like Gingery is never a good thing, the Texas Tech baseball team could have the firepower to still find their way to Omaha without him!