The coach in charge of the Texas Tech baseball team in 2027 will be the same one who’s been in charge since 2013.
Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt said through an athletics department spokesman on Thursday, May 21, that Tim Tadlock will return next season.
Tadlock is 500-304 in 14 seasons as the Tech head coach, including making the College World Series four times between 2014 and 2019 and winning or sharing the Big 12 championship three times between 2016 and 2019.
It’s been rough sailing lately, though. The Red Raiders were 27-28 this season, their second year in a row to finish below .500 and their third in a row to miss the NCAA tournament. Last year’s 20-33 was Tech’s fewest wins and worst winning percentage since 1985, and this week’s elimination from the Big 12 tournament marks the Red Raiders’ first consecutive losing seasons since the three in a row from 2008 through 2010.
“I told the guys we appreciate the way they went about things,” Tadlock said after the tournament exit in Surprise, Arizona. “They showed up every day and made the effort to play the game the right way. Results, obviously, weren’t there. We’ve got some things we’ve got to get better at.
“I think there’s a lot of high-character guys, a lot of really good baseball players. We just weren’t good enough to kind of do what we wanted to do.”
Tech hopes that boosting scholarships next year will make a difference. Hocutt has committed to providing 34 scholarships for baseball, the maximum established under the House v. NCAA settlement, compared to 11.7, the previous limit under NCAA rules. Tech plans to add about 80 scholarships, $2.5 million worth, to non-revenue sports including baseball while reallocating $1 million of NIL revenue-sharing money from non-revenue sports to football.
Hocutt has also spoken publicly about needing more third-party NIL support, possibly even a new for-profit collective.
Asked in Arizona what has to be done to get the program back on track, Tadlock said, “Obviously, we’ve recruited a good group of guys. I think it starts, though, on the mound. In the years we were really good, I think everybody (opponent) knew when you stepped in the box, you better be ready to hit. Strike one was coming.
“I think we played defense at a real high level. The combination of those two things is where it starts.”
Tadlock, 57, has five years left on a contract that’s scheduled to pay him $1.5 million this year (Sept. 1, 2025, through Aug. 31, 2026) and $1.525 million next year. The seven-year contract he signed in June 2021 added another season every year unless Tech or Tadlock gave written notice. Hocutt gave notice last summer, giving the contract an August 2031 endpoint.
The contract mandates a review every two years — the next commencing Sept. 1, 2027 — to ensure Tadlock’s combined base salary and rights fees for outside athletics-related income remain among the top five of college head baseball coaches’ guaranteed salary, excluding bonuses and other perks.
When last season ended, Tadlock dismissed longtime pitching coach Matt Gardner, whose staff ERAs of 6.19 in 2024 and 6.49 in 2025 were next to last in the Big 12. This year, Tech yielded 10 or more runs in 23 games and finished with an ERA of 7.92.
After Gardner was let go, Tech hired former Colorado Rockies pitching coach Steve Foster and added Steve Merriman, a former staff member with six Major League organizations, as director of pitching development.
Several Tech pitchers went on the shelf with injuries this season, chief among them weekend starters Lukas Pirko and Jackson Burns and key relievers Parker Hutyra, Ryan Free, Will Jordan and Jesse Rusinek. Hutyra pitched only in the season opener. Free last pitched on March 14, Jordan on April 3, Pirko on April 10, Rusinek on April 19 and Burns on April 25.
The pitching struggle put pressure on an offense that averaged 8.64 runs per game, 13th in NCAA Division I out of 304 teams.
Logan Hughes and Connor Shouse earned first-team all-Big 12 recognition, Caden Ferraro made the second team, and Tracer Lopez and Rusinek received honorable mention.
Lopez was a senior. Hughes, Ferraro and Shouse are eligible for the Major League draft July 11-13, Shouse as a sophomore who turns 21 in June.
In February 2025, Tadlock said after being resistant to name, image and likeness in its first year, he had seen the necessity and been on board beginning with the roster assembled for the 2023 season. Explaining his shift in viewpoint in February 2025, he said, “You have to have aspirations to get impact guys here.”
In baseball, Tech reported NIL funding of $53,769 in the 2021-22 school year; $338,714 for 2022-23; then $26,758 for 2023-24; and $1,086,538 for 2024-25. That figure for this year has not been disclosed.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Tim Tadlock to return as Texas Tech baseball coach in 2027
Reporting by Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
