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Wichita State begins its longest baseball road trip of the season Friday night at Long Beach State, taking on a team that has lost six straight games.
Arizona State shut out Long Beach 4-0 and 6-0 in a doubleheader last Saturday, then beat the Dirtbags again 11-2 on Sunday. Long Beach closed the road trip with a 4-1 loss at Loyola Marymount 4-1..
Long Beach’s struggles aren’t recent. It was 5-12 at this point last season and finished 28-27.
Long Beach State hasn’t been to the College World Series since 1998, and its seven-year run of top-two finishes in the Big West Conference ended in 2009, and its third-place finish last year was its best in four seasons. Long Beach State is 111-126 since 2009 and hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2008.
Wichita State right-hander Cale Elam (1-1, 3.26 ERA) is scheduled to start Friday, followed by left-hander Kris Gardner (1-1, 4.91) on Saturday and right-hander A.J. Ladwig (2-1, 3.86) on Sunday.
From Long Beach, WSU travels to Hawaii to meet the Rainbow Warriors in a five-game series beginning Wednesday. Hawaii (2-15) will have seven days off before meeting the Shockers.
