Deep WSU pitching staff shuts out Omaha
Wichita State baseball coach Todd Butler suspected he had a talented pitching staff coming into the season, and he was able to observe multiple arms in the Shockers’ 8-0 shutout win over Omaha on Wednesday afternoon at Eck Stadium.
Wichita State used 10 pitchers and compiled 12 strikeouts while allowing just three hits. Codi Heuer, the starter, went two innings and struck out four Mavericks at WSU improved to 7-0.
“It’s extremely nice to have so many guys out there,” Butler said. “It’s more depth than I’ve seen in quite some time. The one thing with this team is the more we get guys in competition settings, the better we’re going to become.”
Butler mixed up the lineup prior to the game with the Mavericks, allowing younger faces to fill some of the key roles.
Dayton Dugas singled in the bottom of the first, followed by a walk to Greyson Jenista. The two both scored, as Dugas advanced to third on a passed ball and then scored on a throwing error from the Maverick catcher. Trey Vickers followed that with a single through the right side to score Jenista and put the Shockers up 2-0.
Heuer allowed a leadoff double in the second inning and the runner advanced to third on a wild pitch, but Heuer got out of the jam with two strikeouts and a ground out.
“I wanted to keep the ball down and play to the defense,” Heuer said. “I wanted to get ground balls and get outs. We’re kind of at a standard with our pitching staff. I know that my bullpen has my back when I come out.”
The Shockers scored three in the third inning on an RBI single to right from Sam Goodwin, followed by a two-run double to right center from Jordan Boyer. Goodwin was making his first start for the Shockers. WSU added two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth.
“I was happy with our defense and pitching staff once again,” Butler said. “I’m kind of waiting on the bats to unleash a little bit, but hopefully it’ll happen here on the road as we have this tough road stretch coming up.”
The Shockers’ next seven games are on the road, beginning with a weekend series at Louisiana Tech.
Omaha | Wichita State | ||||||||
ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
Carniglia cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Young lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Palnsky 3b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Katzfey lf | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Smejkal 3b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Dugas rf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Supochk 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | DeBacker rf | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Cate dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Jenista 1b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Wittren ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Klusener 3b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Herold 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Bhm 3b-1b | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Hall cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Vickers ss | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Pattrsn lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Jackson cf | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Mallott c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Goodwin dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Ehrsmn rf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Croft c | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Boyer 2b | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||||
Ritter 2b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
Totals | 29 | 0 | 3 | 0 | Totals | 33 | 8 | 11 | 7 |
Omaha | 000 | 000 | 000 | — | 0 3 2 |
Wichita St. | 203 | 000 | 21x | — | 8 11 0 |
E: Mallott, Hall. DP: WSU. LOB: Omaha 6, WSU 8. 2B: Suponchick, Boyer. 3B: Vickers. SB: Dugas, Croft, Katzley.
Omaha | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Flattery L, 0-2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
Kinney | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
Meltz | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Lawson | 2/3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Drahozal | 2/3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Groth | 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
WSU | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Heuer W,1-0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Whalen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Lungwitz | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Kilgore | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Sanburn | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Barnhouse | 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Snavely | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Evans | 2/3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Jones | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Keller | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
WP: Heuer, Kilgore. PB: Mallott. HBP: Caniglia (by Whalen), Ehresman (by Kilgore). T: 2:58. A: 1984.
This story was originally published March 1, 2017 at 7:11 PM with the headline "Deep WSU pitching staff shuts out Omaha."