LUBBOCK - The Texas Tech baseball team has made an adjustment to its opening weekend schedule.
The Red Raiders will open their season on the road for the first time since 1998, instead of playing a four-game series with Northern Illinois at Dan Law field. NIU has cancelled all athletic events through this weekend in light of the shooting on its campus Thursday that killed five people and the gunman.
Tech has instead elected to play in the UTSA Baseball Classic in San Antonio, where it will face off against Oral Roberts, Army, UTSA and No. 19 Louisiana-Lafayette.
If Tech did not replace the games, it would lose four games off its schedule. Tech coach Larry Hays said with playing five games a week this season because of new scheduling rules that require all teams to start on the same day, rescheduling all of those games would have been extremely difficult.
"We are very grateful to UTSA for allowing us to sneak into their tournament," Hays said in a press release. "It was absolutely crucial that we get some games in this weekend and have our pitching staff in a position to be ready for next week's tournament at Minute Maid Park."
The tournament originally was scheduled to be a championship-style tournament, but with the addition of Tech, it will now be a round-robin, said Brian Hernandez, sports information director at UTSA.
"Tech was looking to get some games in, and we were able to accommodate them with little-to-no inconvenience," he said. "Anytime you can add a team the quality of Texas Tech, that's always exciting. Now we'll be looking at a team that'll feature five teams that can potentially be playing in regionals later this year."
Hays said he understands the situation at NIU and the cancellation of athletic events.
"We are disappointed that we won't be able to open our season at home like we had planned," he said. "This is just something that can't be helped, and like I said last week, we want (NIU) coach (Ed) Mathey and his staff at Northern Illinois to know that we support them in every way. Their school is going through a terrible time right now, and we want them to know that the Red Raiders are behind them."
Mathey said Hays has been there for him for many years and has been a steadying influence since the incident.
"Coach Hays has taken a liking to me, and I'm not sure why, but he has been more of a mentor and a voice of wisdom for me," Mathey said. "When we first talked (since the shooting), the first thing we talked about wasn't baseball but life."
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