Wichita State softball took two of three games on the road against Memphis over the weekend — but it wasn’t enough to earn a bye in the upcoming American Athletic Conference Championship.
After losing the opener to the Tigers, the Shockers closed out the regular season with two consecutive wins.
WSU, at 15-11-1 in AAC play, will be the No. 5 seed in Tampa, Florida, next week for the conference tournament. The Shockers missed out on a top-four seed and a bye in the first round of the tournament by a half-game, the result of a tie in March against South Florida.
Wichita State finished the regular season at 28-24-1 overall, the worst winning percentage for the team since 2020. Memphis finished at 18-35 and 5-22 in the AAC, entering the tournament as the lowest seed, No. 10.
The Shockers relied heavily on freshman pitchers throughout the series. Freshmen Ryley Nihart and Ava Sliger pitched every single inning, each making two appearances and throwing complete games.
Friday
A Memphis rally in the fifth inning gave the Tigers the win in the series opener, 4-3, and ultimately sealed WSU’s seed in the AAC Championship.
Memphis had nine batters reach base in the game, eight of whom came in the fourth and fifth innings.
Wichita State scored all three of its runs in the fourth inning. Junior Jodie Epperson hit a two-run homer, and later on, a bunt by junior Sami Hood scored freshman Brookelyn Livanec from second base when the Memphis pitcher committed a throwing error.
Memphis pushed across a run in the bottom of the inning and then rallied for three more in the fifth to take the lead. The Tigers earned three walks off Nihart to load the bases, then had two straight singles up the middle to drive the runners all home.
Sliger relieved Nihart to throw 1 ⅓ innings of no-hit ball, but it wasn’t enough as WSU couldn’t put any more runners on base.
Saturday
Sliger finished game one in the circle, then started and finished game two. She threw her second complete game of the season and gave up just two runs as WSU won, 5-2.
It was not a dominant performance from Sliger, who allowed seven hits and struck out just three Memphis batters. However, she also gave up no walks and spaced out the Memphis runners to avoid scoring damage.
Wichita State had 11 hits in the game, nine of which were singles. Eight of the nine players in the Shocker lineup had a hit.
The Shockers scored all their runs in the first four innings, then fell silent down the stretch.
The Tigers looked like they were going to cut into the WSU lead in the sixth by putting two runners on base and hitting a single. However, graduate student left-fielder Ellee Eck threw out a runner attempting to advance to home, preventing a run from scoring.
Sunday
It was Nihart’s turn to throw a two-run complete game as the Shockers defeated Memphis in the series’ rubber match, 4-2.
Nihart followed a similar formula to Sliger the previous day, striking out four Tigers, allowing three hits and walking just one batter.
Eck went 3-4 at the plate with two RBI. She narrowly missed a home run in the sixth as a fly ball bounced off the top of the wall and stayed in for an RBI double.
The game was scoreless until the fifth inning, when the Shockers scored three runs on four singles, a walk and an RBI groundout. WSU had two batters reach base on bunts in the inning.
Nihart hadn’t given up a hit until the bottom of the fifth inning, but she allowed two runs in that frame as Memphis pulled back the WSU lead to one run. Eck’s double off the wall in the sixth gave the Shockers more wiggle room.
Next up
The AAC Championship tournament will begin on Wednesday, May 7. At 4 p.m., the Shockers will take on the winner of a game between Tulsa and UTSA earlier in the day.
