Wichita State baseball stays unbeaten with win over Grand Canyon

Senior Reagan Biechler has been placed in tough situations during his time pitching for Wichita State, and coming out of the bullpen Sunday was no different.

Biechler came into the game with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth inning and the Shockers holding onto a two-run lead. Biechler found his way out of the jam by getting back-to-back ground ball outs and helped the Shockers complete a three-game sweep of Grand Canyon with a 5-3 victory at Eck Stadium. The Shockers are 6-0.

“I’ve been put in that situation a couple times during my career,” Biechler said. “I just like the high-pressure situations and I try to go out and do my job and let the defense work.”

Biechler was one of six Shocker relievers after starter Zach Lewis went four innings. The tallied five strong innings of relief giving up just one run. Chandler Sanburn picked up the win for the Shockers after throwing one shutout inning.

“Zach had turf toe in November and his toe had been bothering him when he came back in January,” Shocker coach Todd Butler said. “He’s kind of on a pitch count right now, but our bullpen came in and they all threw well for us.”

The Shockers trailed 1-0 going into the bottom of the second inning. Wichita State answered as Trey Vickers led off the inning with a single, followed by a one-out double down the right-field line from Jordan Boyer. Josh DeBacker hit a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Vickers. Greyson Jenista followed with a single through the right side scoring Boyer and giving the Shockers a 2-1 lead.

Alec Bohm led off the third inning with a shot off of the light pole in left-center; he added a two-run home run in the fourth that scored Jenista.

Jenista had a big day offensively for the Shockers as well. Bohm and Jenista each went 3 for 4.

Ben Hecht pitched the ninth and struck out two of the three batters he faced for his second save of the year.

The Lopes’ run in the second inning was the first run scored on the Shockers in 24 innings after Wichita State had held Grand Canyon scoreless through the first two games of the series.

“The thing that stands out is our pitching has been really good,” Butler said. “Our bullpen has been outstanding and our defense has played well thus far as well.”

This story was originally published February 26, 2017 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Wichita State baseball stays unbeaten with win over Grand Canyon."