Texas Tech baseball’s Josh Jung has been invited to play for USA Baseball’s 2018 Collegiate National Team this summer, it was announced today.
 
The sophomore infielder is the ninth Red Raider to earn an invitation from USA Baseball and marks back-to-back years the Red Raiders have had a student-athlete play for the squad. Last summer, left-handed pitcher Steven Gingery pitched for the collegiate national team.
 
In 1997, catcher Josh Bard and RHP Monty Ward played for the team, while Larry Hays served as assistant coach. The next year, Bard joined RHP Shane Weight on the squad, as outfielder Miles Durham was also selected for the team. Outfielder Roger Kieschnick was named to the summer squad in 2006 & 2007, while RHP Chad Bettis pitched for the stars & stripes in 2009.
 
Jung has started all 50 games this season for the Red Raiders at third base and leads the team in several offensive categories. He paces the squad in hits (80), RBI (69) and runs (57), while putting together a team-leading 27 multi-hit & 20 multi-RBI performances at the plate in 2018.
 
He also leads the Big 12 in batting average, hits, RBI, runs, total bases and on-base percentage heading into the final weekend of the regular season, helping Tech lead the conference in average. Jung has been named Big 12 Player of the Week twice and earned NCBWA Co-Hitter of the Week honors after hitting for the cycle on April 17 at New Mexico.
 
The 2018 Collegiate National Team will train at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina, and compete against teams in the Coastal Plain League from June 26-27, before hosting the 18th USA vs. Chinese Taipei International Friendship Series from June 28-July 2. All seven of these games will be streamed live on USABaseball.com and Facebook Live. The team will then host the 42nd USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series from July 3-9.
 
Jung and the Red Raiders return to action for their final series of the regular season on May 17-19, traveling to Stillwater to take on No. 14 Oklahoma State at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.

COURTESY OF TEXAS TECH ATHLETICS