Wichita State baseball scored double-digit runs in all three games at Memphis to close out its regular season, winning two games before losing the finale by a single run.
The Shockers finished the regular season at 29-27 overall and 15-12 in the American Athletic Conference. Memphis remained in the AAC cellar, closing out its season at 10-17 in the conference.
Thursday
Wichita State closed out game one in eight innings, run-ruling the Tigers, 14-1.
Freshman Tommy LaPour started on the mound and pitched six scoreless innings, only allowing one hit. Offensively, the Shockers had a 3-0 lead after six innings. A four-run seventh and seven-run eighth scoring outburst ended the game due to the 10-run rule.
Five Shockers managed multi-hit games. Redshirt junior Jordan Rogers smacked two home runs, the first multi-homer game of his career. Senior Dayvin Johnson reached base five times with two hits and three walks, scoring three runs.
Memphis’ pitchers struggled with their control all game, putting 15 Wichita State batters on via walks or hit-by pitches, the most of any Shockers game since 2017.
Friday
Game two of the series turned into a 13-inning, nearly six-hour back-and-forth marathon where Wichita State eventually prevailed, 12-10.
Memphis took the lead, 8-5, after a six-run offensive rally in the fifth inning. The Shockers scored a run in the seventh before tying the game with another Rogers homer in the eighth. Wichita State loaded the bases in the ninth with two outs but failed to push a run across as the game went into extra innings.
In the top of the 11th inning, Wichita State appeared to seal the win when freshman Lane Haworth doubled to score two runs to give his team a 10-8 lead. With two outs in the bottom of the inning, a Memphis single tied the game back up, extending the already lengthy game.
The Tigers appeared poised to win the game with runners on second and third and one out in the 12th, but freshman Ryan Geraghty coaxed consecutive strikeouts to keep the battle going.
In the next half-inning, three consecutive two-out walks for the Shockers plated another two runs, giving the team a 12-10 lead. Memphis earned a leadoff walk but couldn’t put anyone else on in the bottom of the 12th to finally end the game.
Wichita State used 10 pitchers in the game. Junior Mason Munz and senior Nate Adler combined for five scoreless relief innings between the fifth and 10th, giving the Wichita State offense time to come back in the game. Freshman Jeremiah Arnett closed the 12th to earn his first career save.
Haworth collected four hits and three RBIs in eight plate appearances. Junior Derek Williams was another key contributor, scoring two runs with a seventh-inning double and walking another three times.
In time elapsed, the game was the longest for Wichita State since 2017 and the longest in Memphis baseball’s history.
Saturday
Game three was another close game, but this time Memphis came out on top, sealing a come-from-behind 11-10 win over Wichita State. The loss ended a seven-game Shocker win streak.
Wichita State scored the first four runs of the game in the second and third innings, aided by a home run and RBI double from senior Seth Stroh. Memphis responded by scoring seven unanswered through the sixth as the Shockers’ bats went cold.
Junior Josh Livingston capped off a seventh-inning rally with a grand slam to retake the lead for Wichita State, 9-7. Memphis responded with a two-run bomb of its own in the bottom of the inning and took the lead again with two runs in the eighth.
Freshman Camden Johnson hit his second homer of the season in the ninth to cut the Tiger lead to one run, but the Shockers were unable to score again to tie the game.
Livingston, Stroh and Camden Johnson, the six-seven-eight hitters in the Wichita State lineup, combined for seven hits and nine RBIs in the game. The Shockers rolled out six pitchers in the game, with all except Arnett and Munz allowing a run.
Wichita State had an opportunity to rise up to third in the AAC standings with a sweep but instead will settle for the fourth seed going into the double-elimination conference tournament.
The Shockers will take on the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), a team they took two of three games from in March, in the opener. First pitch is scheduled for Tuesday at 8 a.m.
