Shockers soar past Falcons in a two-game sweep

The Wichita State Shockers keep winning when they face the Air Force Falcons at home.

Aaron LaBrie pitched four perfect innings out of the bullpen and Joe Haddox’s eighth inning two out two RBI single gave the Shockers a 4-1 victory over Air Force.

The Falcons (8-15) have lost nine straight meetings against the Shockers (14-11) since 1998.

The Falcons looked to buck that trend with their former Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Week Alex Baker taking the mound. He gave them a quality start, striking out four batters through six innings.

However, WSU starter Zach Beringer was sharp to start the game as well, having faced just 16 batters to begin the sixth inning. But he found himself in trouble when he walked two batters and gave up a bunt single to load the bases.

So WSU coach Gene Stephenson made the change to Aaron LaBrie.

LaBrie came in and got the Shockers out of a jam in the sixth inning with just one run on a sac-fly which tied the game 1-1.

“I just came in and tried to hit my spots and make some pitches. We were doing a good job at limiting them all series so I was just trying to hit my spots and let my defense take care of it,” LaBrie said.

The confident junior is having is having his best season out of the bullpen, striking out a career high 17 batters in just 11 appearances.

When Stephenson calls his number this season he delivers quality innings.

“He’s a quality guy. He doesn’t let the hype get to him like some people do. He’s very calm, very collected and he focuses on what he needs to do,” Stephenson said.

Taylor Doggett advanced home on a bases loaded walk which gave WSU a 2-1 lead with one out in the eighth inning.

Stephenson’s goal coming into the game was to get more runners on base—the Shockers had seven men on base in the eighth inning alone. He said his team’s approach at the plate will have to improve.

“I’m a little disappointed in our overall offense. We had had too many really poor at-bats when we had a chance to crack the game open a little bit,” Stephenson said.

“That must stop because we are going to be facing a team that can hit a lot of good pitches and score a lot of runs and if we hit like we did against these guys we are going to be in big trouble.”

Joe Haddox’s two RBI single gave the Shockers a 4-1 lead and put the game away. Falcons’ pitcher Bo Wilson tried to keep Haddox off balance with a few curveballs, but he finally got a fastball and squared it up.

“Give it a chance, that’s what I was trying to do today. (Jim Thomas) was talking about our two strike approach and that’s what I was doing,” Haddox said. “He threw that fastball, it kind of got in on me a little bit, just tried to fight it off and it ended up working out right.”

After a miserable two week road trip in which WSU went 1-6, the Shockers needed to string together a couple of good performances to improve the team morale.

“We were just embarrassed we didn’t play the way we were capable of playing. It was an embarrassment so we just wanted to come back here and get on a good tone again,” LaBrie said.

The Shockers begin conference play against Illinois State on Friday.

“Every conference weekend is important,” Beringer said. “You can’t take any of them off. We have to go this weekend and get three quality starts from our pitchers.”