In a crucial weekend series to keep its postseason hopes alive, Wichita State baseball came up short against Rice, losing the series, 2-1.
The Shockers missed an opportunity to overtake the seventh-placed team in the American Athletic Conference.
The top eight teams in the conference qualify for the AAC Championship. WSU is now in a tie for eighth with Memphis at an 8-16 record, while Rice improved to 10-14, solidifying its place in the tournament.
The Tigers also lost two of three over the weekend while last-placed UAB lost its sixth-straight conference game.
Wichita State will play Memphis in another crucial series at home next weekend to determine which team’s season will continue.
Friday
Wichita State played its longest game of the season in an extra-inning thriller against the Owls. The Shockers came up just short in a heartbreaker and lost, 4-3.
Senior Grant Adler began the game on the mound for the Shockers. He pitched a solid game, allowing just three hits and two runs over seven innings, striking out five and walking three.
Junior Nick Potter relieved Adler and delivered his best outing of the season, with four hitless and scoreless innings and six strikeouts to get the game to a 12th inning. Before Friday’s game, Potter had not thrown more than 2 ⅓ innings in any appearance this year.
Offensively, the Shockers couldn’t manufacture runs. Wichita State scored its only two runs before the extra innings in the second. In the top of the 12th, senior Cole Dillon had a crucial two-out hit to give the Shockers the lead.
However, in the bottom of the inning, junior Aaron Arnold allowed a solo homer to extend the lead.
In the 13th, senior Jordan Rodgers and sophomore Kam Durnin were both walked; however, nothing came out of it as senior Mauricio Millan flew out.
In the bottom of the 13th, Rice’s leadoff batter hit a walkoff homer against sophomore Jeremiah Arnett.
Saturday
Coming off the long game the previous day, the Shockers looked flat on Saturday, allowing the Owls to get off to a hot start. Through four innings, the score was 6-0. Rice held on for the victory, 9-3.
Sophomore Brady Hamilton allowed the shaky start on the mound. He gave up one run in the second inning, two in the third and three in the fourth before getting pulled in the fifth.
Junior Caleb Anderson came in for an inning and a half and allowed two more runs.
The Shocker offense couldn’t get anything going until the sixth inning with a sacrifice fly from senior Josh Livingston. In the seventh, an RBI groundout from Kaleb Duncan and an Owl throwing error pulled the Shockers back within 6-3.
The Owls quickly pulled three runs back in the bottom of the seventh inning.
No more runs crossed the plate after the seventh inning, and the Shockers fell on the road. The WSU offense was pretty quiet with only three hits in the game.
Sunday
In a series where the offense had been questionable all weekend, Wichita State came out swinging in the final game. WSU avoided the sweep, 18-7, in a rule-rule victory. It was WSU’s third run-rule win of the year and highest run total of the year.
The Shocker offense scored just six runs in the previous two games, and then blasted 13 runs within seven innings on Sunday.
Rice had a 2-0 lead until the fourth and fifth innings, when the Shockers scored 11 runs combined.
Livingston started Wichita State’s scoring in the fourth with a two-run bomb to tie the game. Millan singled in two more later in the inning.
In the fifth, the Shockers loaded the bases with no outs and scored a run on a walk. Livingston hit a single to bring in another run for the Shockers before three consecutive walks and a passed ball extended the WSU lead to 10-2.
All in all, WSU scored seven runs in the fifth inning with just two hits.
Senior Jace Miner’s stuff wasn’t working out to begin the game on the mound. He allowed two runs in 2 ⅔ innings before getting relieved.
Junior Colton Vercoe came in for Miner and let up five runs in 3 ⅓ innings, having two strikeouts and six hits before getting pulled out for Arnett.
The Shockers got two more runs in the sixth and seventh before having another offensive breakout in the eighth inning, scoring five more runs and achieving a run-rule win.
Eight WSU batters had hits in the win, and Millan led the team in RBI with five.
Next up, Wichita State will host Oral Roberts in a midweek game. The first pitch will be on Tuesday, May 13, at 6 p.m.
