Wichita State baseball loses 12-1

Wichita State scored 10 runs on Sunday, and if recent history is any indication, the Shockers may have to wait a while before anything like that happens again.

WSU’s pattern of regression began again on Tuesday, when Central Arkansas claimed a 12-1 win at Eck Stadium. Sunday’s win snapped a seven-game losing streak, but in the other most recent seven games, the Shockers have scored 11 runs combined.

The losing streak happened after WSU scored 20 total runs in a pair of wins against Texas State. The Shockers have barely beaten that mark in the nine games since.

“This is what we do,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “We kind of give offense one day out of four games, one game out of maybe three. We were pretty offensive that first weekend, and since then it’s like one game out of three we’ll be offensive.

“Hopefully it changes. I don’t know when it’s going to change – we have another game (Wednesday). I was excited to play today, but they took us to the woodshed, to be honest.”

The Shockers’ fate was sealed early when, as in many of their losses, they allowed mistakes to magnify. Central Arkansas scored four runs in the second inning with the help of a two-out throwing error, a passed ball, a wild pitch and enough timely hitting to keep WSU on the hook.

Following Chase Rader’s error, which kept Central Arkansas’ inning alive after the Bears had already scored two runs, leadoff hitter Braxton Phillips drove in two more with a triple.

WSU repeated history in the sixth. Center fielder Daniel Kihle took a poor route toward a well-hit ball to his right and allowed the ball to sail over him for an RBI double.

If Kihle had caught the ball, reliever Jon Ferrendelli may have stayed in the game. Instead, Chandler Sandburn entered and on his first pitch allowed a long three-run home run to No. 9 hitter Tyler Langley, making it 9-0.

WSU has allowed homers to No. 9 hitters in consecutive games, a glaring statistic for a team that hasn’t homered since the season-opening series.

Sandburn unraveled after the home run, hitting the following batter on his next pitch, then issuing a four-pitch walk before Butler removed him.

“It was a breaking ball, a slider, and when (Langley) hit it I said, ‘Well, that’s a home run,’” Butler said. (Sanburn) didn’t do very well today. We’re going to have to pitch him – he’s a freshman, middle-relief guy – and he’s going to have to come in and be able to do something.”

Central Arkansas’ Nos. 6-through-9 batters combined for nine hits, nine runs and seven RBIs. The Shockers got leadoff batters on base in the fourth and fifth innings but couldn’t advance them past second base.

“Throughout these games, we’ll get a walk or a base hit and we’ll (strike out, strike out),” Butler said. “You have to keep the inning going and put at-bats together back-to-back-to-back and we don’t do that, for now. Central Arkansas swung the bat, they were very aggressive, and they took it to us today.”

It didn’t get prettier after the outcome was all but decided. WSU freshman left-hander Brandon Kinsey didn’t make it out of the ninth inning before walking four batters and hitting one to allow Central Arkansas’ final run.

This story was originally published March 10, 2015 at 7:08 PM with the headline "Wichita State baseball loses 12-1."