Shocker baseball can’t come up with timely hits, loses 7-5

Wichita State got 12 hits against Texas State on Saturday and needed 13. If the Shockers had gotten 13 hits, they probably would have needed 14.

WSU had scoring chances in nearly every inning and didn’t cash in enough of them, falling a hit short in multiple situations during Texas State’s 7-5 win at Eck Stadium. The Bobcats got the big hit, a three-run double by pinch-hitter Cody Targun in the top of the seventh off reliever Chase Williams.

The Shockers, despite consistent productive plate appearances that turned into several quality at-bats, stranded 12 baserunners – six in scoring position.

“It seems like this game was a game of inches today,” WSU shortstop Tanner Kirk said. “(Ryan Tinkham) hit a ball to center that should have been down, but the center fielder made a great catch. A lot of other at-bats, too; we worked the count to a full count a lot and weren’t able to produce.”

TSU won with the help of two three-run innings. WSU (3-3) answered the Bobcats’ three-run fourth by scoring three in the bottom of the inning to tie it 4-4. In the seventh, the game of inches worked against the Shockers as TSU loaded the bases with a soft single, a bunt hit and a walk by Williams to Ben McElroy.

After multiple hard-hit balls by the Shockers were kept from becoming hits by shallow-playing outfielders, WSU was burned by similar positioning, even though Mikel Mucha may not have been able to run down Targun’s double to the warning track.

Targun’s hit plated the first three runs surrendered by Williams, making his second appearance this season.

The bullpen hierarchy was in flux with a group of almost exclusively new relievers, and it appears even more fluid after Williams’ troubles Saturday and the success of freshmen Taylor Goshen and Chandler Sanburn.

Goshen and Sandburn had combined to give up seven runs – six by Goshen – in their early-season outings, but on Saturday they totaled 3 1/3 scoreless innings.

“Goshen was throwing 84-86 (mph) last weekend, it was surprising to us, and he’s 90-93 today,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “We need our guys to be consistent. Williams is a big arm with a good slider, and their guy did a good job of hitting his slider off the wall. We just need to figure out a way to get on a roll.”

WSU’s only extra-base hits were doubles by Tinkham and Kirk during the three-run fourth, and even those could have led to more as Sam Hilliard’s foul-out stranded Hilliard at second.

The Shockers left runners in scoring position in three of the first four innings until TSU found pitching stability from freshman left-hander Braden Pearson. After starter Scott Grist exited following four-plus innings in which he threw 99 pitches, Pearson escaped the fifth on a lineout before Kirk grounded into a double play.

Pearson retired the Shockers in order in the sixth – the only time that happened to WSU on Saturday – and the Bobcats carried that rare momentum from the mound to their seventh-inning at-bats.

WSU had seven baserunners over the final three innings but managed one run. With runners on first and third in the eighth, Tinkham lofted a shallow fly ball to center field, and Derek Scheible initially started back before recovering to make a running, lunging catch to save at least one run.

In the ninth, the Shockers got a pair of two-out runners before Michael Burns struck out swinging on the Bobcats’ 180th pitch.

“We competed at the plate,” Butler said. “We didn’t punch out much, we had good at-bats, we had their pitch counts up in the fourth inning at 90 pitches. We’re doing some good things, but it’s figuring out and finding a way to win the game and to put (high-quality) games back-to-back.”

This story was originally published February 21, 2015 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Shocker baseball can’t come up with timely hits, loses 7-5."