Wichita State baseball drops 6-4 decision to Nebraska-Omaha

Todd Butler is ready to write the conclusion while his unproven Wichita State baseball players are stuck in the data collection phase.

Butler may have been led closer to answers on Tuesday about how the Shockers will perform later in the season, when its bevy of junior-college transfers and freshmen gain more experience, but Butler is all about immediate results.

Tuesday’s wasn’t favorable, as WSU was shut out over the final seven innings in Nebraska-Omaha’s 6-4 win at Eck Stadium. The Shockers tagged Omaha starter Corey Binger for four runs in two innings but couldn’t help out their own stingy bullpen before Omaha scored two runs in the ninth.

WSU begins a three-game series at Long Beach State on Friday.

“We didn’t win,” Butler said. “It comes down to winning ballgames, and we’re 3-4. We have a lot of work, and the schedule keeps getting tougher.”

The Shockers’ lack of track record prevents definitive answers on how their new Nos. 3-6 hitters will fare in their attempts to turn around an offense that set a program-low in runs last season.

But on Tuesday, Sam Hilliard, Ryan Tinkham, Jordan Farris and Zach Reding combined for eight hits, two runs and four RBIs. Farris displayed five-tool ability with impressive defense and slick fielding, while Hilliard broke out of his early slump with three hits that raised his batting average from .182 to .259.

Turns out Hilliard is a results guy, too.

“This loss hurts pretty bad,” Hilliard said. “Back-to-back losses (after Saturday’s defeat by Texas State), first time we’ve done it all year. I feel like we should have won this game, and it’s really a disappointing loss, so I don’t really care what I did.”

Willie Schwanke pitched well out of the bullpen for the second straight time, with five hitless innings in which he surrendered one walk and hit a batter. Schwanke entered in the third after freshmen Tyler Jones allowed four runs – two earned – in his WSU debut.

Schwanke was hit hard in his only start of the season, but his two data points as a reliever suggest his repertoire, endurance and makeup may play well in the rotation after all.

“We’d like for Willie to be a starter for us, because he’s very good,” Butler said. “If he doesn’t come in the game right there, we don’t hold the game close for that very inning. He comes in and he shuts it down and he’s a competitor.”

Other data suggests the Shockers might be further away from a breakthrough than they sometimes seem.

Butler didn’t want to use Schwanke on Tuesday but turned to him for five innings because WSU’s other relievers haven’t been as quick to earn that trust. Taylor Goshen, who appeared to rebound from a pair of rough early outings with a strong one on Saturday, walked two during Omaha’s two-run ninth.

That inning was ultimately decided by the Shockers on defense, another hit-and-miss area on Tuesday, when they surrendered four unearned runs. Shortstop Tanner Kirk may have had a chance to start an inning-ending double play that would have kept it tied 4-4, but Kirk opted to come to the plate for a potential forceout.

The throw, though, was wild, and a run scored before Omaha added insurance with a sacrifice fly.

“To me, it looked like a double-play ball that we could have turned, possibly, depending on how fast the runner was,” Butler said.

“Disappointing. You credit them. They outlasted us, they have five hits and six runs. We score the first two innings and we don’t do anything else. We’ve given up a lot of runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning, and you can’t give up runs late in the game.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2015 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Wichita State baseball drops 6-4 decision to Nebraska-Omaha."