Shockers beat Sooners at home

Jacqueline Elson, Reporter|March 21, 2018

Wichita State’s Jordan Boyer fields the ball during the game against Oklahoma.

Wichita State baseball hosted Oklahoma on Tuesday night and brought home a win 2-1, giving them a 14-4 record so far this season.

Both teams scored their first runs in the second inning, but the Shockers saw a better hit at the plate.

Senior Trey Vickers hit a home run out of right field in his first at bat of the game, getting WSU even with Oklahoma 1-1.

Freshman pitcher Alex Segal started the game and went for two innings, then later junior Clayton McGinness pitched for a little over two.

Sophomore Keylan Killgore also came in for the eighth inning, and senior Chandler Sanburn finished out in the ninth.

In the top of the seventh, McGinness recorded three strikeouts from the first three batters from Oklahoma. He had a total of four the entire game and Segal was right behind with three, and Sanburn had two when he came in at the end.

“Clayton McGinness stood out tonight, Keylan Killgore was really good, and Sanburn closed it out,” head coach Todd Butler said. “Mid-week games we haven’t scored many runs like Oral Roberts, Mizzouri, and tonight. That’s a good team we beat tonight.”

The Shockers held the Sooners at a halt after they scored in the second, even with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.

After some slow innings at the plate for both teams, WSU finally broke the tie.

Junior Mason O’Brien reached on a fielding error by the pitcher, and sophomore Jacob Katzfey pinch ran for O’Brien.

Then Vickers grounded out to the pitcher on a sacrifice bunt, which let Katzfey take second. When freshman Paxton Wallace was at bat, on a wild pitch Katzfey ran all the way from second and scored at home, giving the Shockers the lead 2-1.

“Jacob Katzfey was pinch running and we brought him over and he scores on a wild pitch, that nearly goes into the dugout, but he’s so fast he scored,” Butler said. “So that was a deciding run right there.”

“That was a well-played game by both teams, not a lot of offense, but a lot of pitching.”

WSU will play their three game series against Furman at Eck Stadium starting Friday at 6 p.m. The second game on Saturday is set for 2 p.m. and the last one on Sunday will be at 11:30 a.m.