The weekend started off poorly for the Shockers on Friday as they dropped the first game of the series against the 9-ranked Cal State Fullerton Titans by 5-1.

A.J. Ladwig was on the mound for the Shockers and pitched seven innings, but the Titans proved to be too much. The Titans scored five runs on 10 hits with one error.

Wichita State came out strong, forcing the Titan’s ace (Eshelman) to throw 37 pitches in the first inning but it proved not to be enough as the Titans grinded out the victory.

Casey Gillaspie went 1 for 4 with a hit and a strikeout.

“We knew we had our work cut out for us and have to learn from previous mistakes and keep competing,” he said. “They are a good ball club — got to give them credit — but we need to play better offensively.”

The Shockers’ offense was definitely not there as they went one run for six hits. Those six hits all came with three guys out.

“We did everything with two outs today,” head coach Todd Butler said. “And the bullpen wasn’t very good, but we have had some injuries and we need to keep grinding and we have two more games against Cal State and the Titans.”

The second game of the matchup was close the entire way through and the Shockers pulled out the victory by a score of 3-2. Both teams came out ready to hit in the first inning as Cal State first baseman J.D. Davis doubled and scored Austin Diemer.

Wichita State answered as Tanner Dearman singled. Then Casey Gillaspie homered, bringing the score to 2-1. In the fourth inning Titans infielder Greg Velazquez homered to right to tie up the game at 2 apiece.

A pitching duel went on for five innings. In the bottom of the ninth, after back-to-back walks, WSU infielder Tanner Dearman singled up the middle for the walk-off win. The entire team piled on top of him before he could get to second base.

Wichita State (16-10) Cal State Fullerton (14-10) matched up for the final game of the weekend and the Shockers went on to take the game by a score of 4-2 to take the weekend series.

Wichita State scored four runs on 12 hits with no errors. Third baseman Chase Simpson led the way, going 3-4 with 2 doubles and a single and 2 RBIs.

“Their pitching staff as a whole is great, and they don’t walk a lot of people so you know they are going to be in the zone,” Simpson said. “I definitely came out swinging.”

Center fielder Micah Green also had a fantastic day at the plate going 2-3 with an RBI, a single and a double. He also had a sacrifice.

“My approach was to see the ball up and stay away from anything in the dirt and looking forward to keeping this thing going,” Green said. “We know our pitchers are going to come out and do their thing and we just need to put good at-bats together.”

WSU will next face the University of Kansas at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. The game will be televised on Kansas22.