{"id":164819,"date":"2026-02-14T17:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/164819\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T17:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:11:08","slug":"vanderbilt-baseball-vs-texas-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/164819\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanderbilt Baseball vs. Texas Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than 18 hours<\/a> after Tommy Goodin’s popup to TCU Shortstop Lucas Franco stranded the tying-run<\/a> at second base, Vanderbilt is back on the diamond looking to even its 2026 record. <\/p>\n

The beauty of early-season tournament baseball is the lack of time to dwell. At the Shriners Children’s College Showdown<\/a> in Arlington, Texas, the schedule moves quickly, and Saturday presents another tough Big 12 matchup in Texas Tech.<\/p>\n

Like Vanderbilt, Texas Tech is still searching for its first win of the weekend after a 10-3 loss to Oklahoma on Friday. Still, the Red Raiders bring a potent offense \u2014 led by outfield slugger Logan Hughes \u2014 and hand the ball to right-hander Lukas Pirko . <\/p>\n

For Vanderbilt, the formula remains similar to yesterday’s which, despite the loss, was a promising showing against a top-10 team. Colin Barczi and Brodie Johnston will aim to pick up where they left off at the plate, with the pair combining for seven batted balls over 100 MPH off the bat. More consistent production from the bottom of Vanderbilt’s order is key if it wants to keep the pressure on opposing pitchers.<\/p>\n

The good news for Vanderbilt? Texas Tech’s bullpen struggled mightily against the Sooners, allowing nine runs in 4.1 innings of work in the season opener. If the Commodores can drive Pirko out of the game quickly, there’s a path to scoring double-digit runs. Tommy Goodin replaces Mack Whitcomb into the lineup at DH, while Carter Johnstone remains at the top of the order with Mike Mancini on the bench.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Austin Nye will get the ball for Vanderbilt, returning to the mound after a standout freshman campaign on West End in which he manned the weekday role. Saturday will be a good test to see if Nye is ready to start on Saturday’s in SEC play.<\/p>\n

First pitch between Vanderbilt and Texas Tech is set for 11:00 a.m. CST, streaming on FloSports.<\/p>\n

Follow along here for live, inning-by-inning updates as the game rolls on.<\/p>\n

Live BlogStarting Lineups<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt<\/p>\n

1. 2B Carter Johnstone<\/p>\n

2. C Colin Barczi<\/p>\n

3. 3B Brodie Johnston<\/p>\n

4. DH Tommy Goodin<\/p>\n

5. CF Braden Holcomb<\/p>\n

6. 1B Max Jensen<\/p>\n

7. LF Rustan Rigdon<\/p>\n

8. RF Logan Johnstone<\/p>\n

9. SS Ryker Waite<\/p>\n

P. Austin Nye<\/p>\n

Texas Tech<\/p>\n

1. CF Kyeler Thompson<\/p>\n

2. 2B Tracer Lopez<\/p>\n

3. RF Connor Shouse<\/p>\n

4. LF Logan Hughes<\/p>\n

5. 3B Linkin Garcia<\/p>\n

6. DH Caden Ferraro<\/p>\n

7. C Matt Quintanar<\/p>\n

8. 1B Robin Villeneuve<\/p>\n

9. SS Ryan Coleman<\/p>\n

P. Lukas Pirko<\/p>\n

Starting Pitcher Preview<\/p>\n

Sophomore Austin Nye gets the ball for Corbin on Saturday after a stellar freshman campaign in which he pitched to a 3.55 ERA and struck out 58 batters across 15 starts. Now, a year stronger, Nye is aiming to take a leap into the weekend role for Vanderbilt. The right-hander brings a diverse pitch mix, headlined by a carry fastball that’s touched 97 MPH and a fading changeup that gets significant horizontal run. With two solid breaking balls rounding out his arsenal, Nye has the ability and command to get hitters out at a high level.<\/p>\n

For Texas Tech, junior Lukas Pirko gets the start after a treachorous 2025 season. Pirko pitched to a 7.25 ERA across 23 innings last season, but don’t let that fool you. His stuff is solid, and if the righty can command it in the zone, he’ll present a tough challenge a Vanderbilt lineup that was quiet at the plate outside of two hitters yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than 18 hours after Tommy Goodin’s popup to TCU Shortstop Lucas Franco stranded the tying-run at second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-164819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}