Shockers shuts out Furman in weekend series

Jacqueline Elson, Reporter|March 26, 2018

Wichita State’s Dayton Dugas hits against Furman in the second game of the weekend series.

The baseball team sent Furman home with three losses this weekend and now have a 17-4 record so far this season.

Friday, starting junior pitcher Codi Heuer went for six innings and recorded a career high 11 strikeouts by the top of the sixth, topping the eight he collected in the team’s series at McNeese State in February.

“As a starter, getting off to a good start is big momentum,” Heuer said. “Just being efficient and letting the guys play behind you is always good.”

WSU was the first to score in the bottom of the first, putting them ahead 2-0, and they were just getting started.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Shockers scored again when senior Gunnar Troutwine homered out of left field, keeping WSU in the lead 4-1.

Then in the bottom of the seventh, the Shockers brought home seven more runs to give them the final lead of the game 11-1.

Junior Jordan Boyer hit a home run out of left field, then doubled to right center field with two RBI and ended the game 2-for-3, also leading the team with three RBI that day.

“I’ve been trying to consistently have good at bats and bring a good at bat to the table at the bottom of the order every night,” Boyer said. “Any time I can get on base when another guy is behind me at the top of the order is probably gonna drive me in.”

“Codi Heuer was good tonight, he pitched well and gave up one hit and one run,” Head Coach Todd Butler said. “Offensively it took us a while to get going, but we played good defense tonight with no errors so that was good.”

Saturday afternoon, the Shockers would further their lead in the series after winning 14-3.

WSU had another head start in the first inning when they scored two runs.

Junior Alec Bohm had reached on a fielder’s choice, and then stole second when freshman Paxton Wallace was at bat. Then Wallace hit a home run out of right field, bringing them both home to score 2-0.

Later in the third inning the Shockers scored again. Junior Greyson Jenista, who was 3-for-3, singled to left field and then stole second when Bohm was at the plate. Then Bohm doubled to right field, letting Jenista score, keeping the lead 3-0.

In the bottom of the fourth, Troutwine hit another home run for the weekend out of right field with two RBI, bringing him and Boyer home to score with the Shockers still up 6-0.

Freshman starting pitcher Liam Eddy went for six innings and had six strikeouts that day, only giving up two hits with zero runs.

Furman scored three runs in the eighth, but the Shockers had scored five alone in that inning, the last run with Boyer scoring after junior Luke Ritter singled to right center field.

Sunday, the Shockers were slower at the plate for most of the game until the eighth inning when Ritter homered out of left field, keeping WSU in the lead with a win 3-1.

“We could always get better at staying in the zone and swinging at better pitches, and today we hit a couple pretty hard,” Ritter said.

“The pitcher was really good, he was mixing a lot of fastball changeups against us. I’m just happy we got the win, we stayed in the zone and we keep swinging the bats.”

“We’ll practice as normal,” Butler said. “We’re 4-3 on the road. We’d like to get a win against Central Arkansas on the road, and get ready for East Carolina which will be tough, they have a good team.”

The Shockers are on the road Tuesday when they face Central Arkansas at 6 p.m. WSU will be away the rest of the week starting Thursday when they play East Carolina starting at 5:30 p.m., and continuing through Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday at noon.