Defense, pitching help Shockers beat Valparaiso again

Ten groundballs to the left side of Wichita State’s infield on Saturday afternoon never met the law of diminishing returns.

Each of seven assists by shortstop Trey Vickers seemed more athletic and crowd-pleasing than the one before and offered the next-best thing to prolific offense – run prevention.

Vickers helped the Shockers avoid a late-inning letdown and provided backup to WSU’s solid pitching in a 3-2 win over Valparaiso at Eck Stadium. Vickers had assists on six of WSU’s final 18 outs, and third baseman Alec Bohm had three assists.

“The offense hasn’t been doing what we need to do, so we’ve been playing close games,” Vickers said. “If the offense isn’t doing what we need to do, then defense is going to be really important. All of us are out there just trying to make plays for the pitcher and keep us in the game.

“Everybody in the dugout was getting excited, and that was good that we could get some energy off of that.”

Vickers was seemingly involved in every important WSU defensive play. He and second baseman Jordan Boyer helped freshman starting pitcher Tommy Barnhouse escape trouble with a nifty double play in which Boyer slid to his right and flipped the ball to Vickers with his glove.

In later innings, Vickers displayed his range in all directions, throwing on the run after fielding ground balls to his left, right and in front of him and earning increased response from the announced crowd of 2,558.

Vickers also had a hit and an RBI. He is one of three Shockers to start all 25 games because his defense and steadiness provide value beyond his .239 batting average.

“With Vickers, you know what you’re getting every day,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “He’s very consistent, he’s going to make the plays, he gives you good at-bats and he plays the game the right way every single day. He’s the one guy on our team that’s consistent and you know what you’re going to get from him.”

The defense carried the day for WSU (13-13) even though its one hiccup, a fifth-inning throwing error by Boyer, led to Valparaiso’s only two runs. Valparaiso stranded five runners from the first through third innings because of Barnhouse’s effectiveness and that of the players behind him.

In the first three innings, Barnhouse struck out three batters with at least one runner in scoring position. Some of the other outs came via a double play, fielding bunts and the quantity of infield defense that continued throughout the game.

Barnhouse escaped the third inning with no damage after Chad Jacob’s leadoff triple.

“It gives me confidence to get through the rest of the inning,” Barnhouse said. “It feels good to have my team behind my back. We just got out of (those situations) together. Getting in that situation kind of sucks at first, but getting out of it is huge for confidence, and it felt good.”

The Shockers had one RBI hit, a second-inning single by Travis Young, and scratched across runs on a double play and a fielder’s choice.

WSU didn’t have a hit for its final 16 batters of the game, but the early innings gave a glimpse of a small-ball approach with bunting and a hit-and-run play that contributed to scoring.

Leadoff hitter Jacob Katzfey had a double and two sacrifices, while fellow freshman Alex Jackson hit two singles and scored a run.

“You can see we’ve got a little more athleticism with Katzfey, Jackson, the freshmen,” Butler said. “They can do a lot of things, they can bunt and run. It kind of gives us a little bit of freedom to do some things offensively, and I think that’s what we’re going to have to do.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2017 at 5:21 PM with the headline "Defense, pitching help Shockers beat Valparaiso again."