No. 3 Texas Tech beats WSU 10-5 in baseball series opener
Wichita State baseball’s 10-5 loss to Texas Tech on Friday night may have been important for the Shockers’ larger interests.
WSU scored the final five runs and can hope for the emergence of two mainstays from season-long slumps.
While No. 3 Texas Tech overmatched WSU in taking a 10-0 lead against a makeshift pitching staff, WSU coach Todd Butler came away with some positive feelings.
“At least we competed for nine innings,” Butler said.
Trey Vickers had a pair of hits for WSU, raising his average to .235. Gunnar Troutwine, who entered with a .170 average, had an eighth-inning single. Troutwine has three hits in his last 11 at-bats after going 1 for his previous 19.
Troutwine and Vickers are two of three WSU players, including Alec Bohm, who have started every game. A tick up in production could quickly change the fortunes of the Shockers (11-11), who have lost four straight games.
“We’d like more from them offensively,” Butler said after Wednesday’s loss to Sacramento State. “Those guys haven’t clicked on all cylinders, all three of them at the same time in one game or a weekend.”
Texas Tech scored three runs in Friday’s first inning against Chandler Sanburn, making his second start among eight total appearances. The Red Raiders (20-4) had three singles and a walk within their first five batters.
Texas Tech had a baserunner in each of the first seven innings, but in all but one WSU limited the damage. The Shockers executed two double plays in the first three innings, holding Texas Tech to a 4-0 advantage.
The breakthrough happened in the fifth as Texas Tech scored six runs on four hits. The inning was aided by an error, a wild pitch, a missed tag at home and a misplay in right field on a ball that bounced around in the corner.
Reliever Willie Schwanke was tagged with five earned runs.
“They got some hits and we made some careless mistakes,” Butler said. “But they didn’t make some plays for him, and I was a little disappointed they didn’t pick him up defensively. Willie’s going to give his all, and we didn’t do a good job cutting a ball off in right field and some other situations.”
Texas Tech didn’t score again while WSU built rallies to score at least five runs for the first time in six games. Before scoring four in the eighth, WSU ended the seventh inning by grounding into a double play with the bases loaded.
“We kept trying to get back into the ballgame,” Butler said. “But the deficit put us too far behind.”
Texas Tech | Wichita St. | ||||||||
ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
Long rf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Jackson cf | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Lyons rf | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Ritter 2b | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Jung 3b | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Jenista rf | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Gardner cf | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Bohm 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Farhat cf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | DeBckr 1b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Hargrove 1b | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | Troutwine c | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Berglund c | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | Young lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Sanchez c | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Katzfey lf | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Garcia ss | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Vickers ss | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Davis 2b | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Dugas dh | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Little lf | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | Boyer 3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
McMlln dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Klusner 3b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Rheams ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
Totals | 39 | 10 | 14 | 8 | Totals | 33 | 5 | 7 | 5 |
Texas Tech | 301 | 060 | 000 | — | 10 14 1 |
Wichita St. | 000 | 010 | 040 | — | 5 7 1 |
E: Hargrove, Ritter. DP: TT, WSU 3. LOB: TT 6, WSU 6. 2B: Little, Ritter. 3B: Little, Katzfey. SF: Berglund. SB: Hargrove, Davis, Jackson. CS: Berglund.
Texas Tech | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Martin W,4-1 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
Harpenau | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
Lanning | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Wichita State | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Sanburn L,2-2 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
Keller | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Schwanke | 1 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
Lungwitz | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Snavely | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Whalen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
WP: Martin, Sanburn, Keller, Schwanke, Lungwitz, Snavely. T: 3:04. A: 1,869.
This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 11:42 PM with the headline "No. 3 Texas Tech beats WSU 10-5 in baseball series opener."