Jordan Boyer’s grand slam sparks Shockers’ 10-4 win

Wichita State’s Jordan Boyer enjoyed a productive two days at the plate against Northern Colorado, which culminuated with WSU’s 10-4 win Wednesday at Eck Stadium.

Boyer’s biggest hit came with two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth inning, when he crushed a grand slam down the left-field line to put WSU ahead 9-4. He finished the series 5 for 7 with six RBIs.

“I was just looking for a pitch over the middle of the plate to hammer,” Boyer said. “I was just looking for anything to put in the gap and I saw a slider out front and was able to get the head to it and luckily was able to hit one out of the yard.”

The Shockers pounded 13 hits and had five players with multi-hit games, led by Boyer’s three hits. Greyson Jenista had two run-scoring doubles.

“We work hard,” Boyer said. “We work hard and are in here every day before games and working extra after when we don’t have to be here and we’re just sticking to our approach and it’s starting to pay off for us.”

Sam Goodwin led off the second inning with a double to deep left, followed by a single from Dayton Dugas through the right side to score Goodwin and put the Shockers on the board. Trey Vickers followed Dugas with a hit-and-run single to right-center to move Dugas over to third. Gunnar Troutwine then hit a sacrifice fly to center that brought home Dugas.

Adam Keller got credited with the win for the Shockers in relief of Tommy Barnhouse. Keller went 1 1/3 innings, giving up a run and striking out three. Barnhouse struck out a career-high four Bears, while giving up just one hit and no walks in three scoreless innings.

“Tommy Barnhouse did a very good job,” Shocker coach Todd Butler said. “He had total command and threw the ball extremely well for a freshman. I thought he did really good.”

Northern Colorado scored three in the fourth and another in the fifth to take a 4-3 lead. The Shockers had an answer in the bottom half of the fifth inning as Luke Ritter led off with a single, followed by an RBI double from Jenista. Trey Vickers delivered with a two-out RBI single up the middle to put Wichita State back in front 5-4, followed by the grand slam from Boyer. Wichita State added onto their lead with a double from Jenista to score Luke Ritter from first in the bottom of the sixth.

“Boyer had the big hit with the grand slam,” Butler said. “He’s continued to drive in runs and we had the big inning right there to take the lead.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Jordan Boyer’s grand slam sparks Shockers’ 10-4 win."