Oklahoma State strikes early, beats Wichita State 6-3

For every answer Wichita State seems to receive about its pitching staff, many more questions arise regarding the long-term capability of the offense.

Reliever Robby Evans led a satisfying night for the Shockers’ bullpen, but by the time he appeared the game was essentially out of reach. Oklahoma State scored five runs in the second inning and beat WSU 6-3 on Wednesday night at Eck Stadium.

Evans rescued starter Keylan Kilgore, who lasted 1 2/3 innings, and WSU’s bullpen combined for 11 strikeouts, but Shockers hitters were mostly listless before scoring two runs in the ninth inning.

WSU (14-14) didn’t have an extra base hit but its team batting average went up to .239. Willie Schwanke, once a two-way player, was in the lineup and batted for the first time since 2015.

“The guys that came in after (Kilgore) pitched well,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “I thought Robby Evans was really good in the third, fourth and fifth innings.… They had some hits in that one inning and took advantage of those opportunities, and we didn’t recover.”

Kilgore struck out the first batter but never capitalized on the momentum. The rest of his outing was spent, often to no avail, attempting to turn one successful pitch into another. He got five outs and threw 59 pitches, though a second-inning error by Jordan Boyer was partly to blame.

In that second inning, OSU had three hits but scored runs on a bases-loaded walk, a squeeze bunt and a fielder’s choice. Evans wasn’t immediately successful in relief of Kilgore, as he issued the run-scoring walk and allowed a two-run single.

“Keylan struggled,” Butler said. “He didn’t really throw two strikes in a row, he was like a strike then a ball. He kind of ran into some trouble there.”

Evans allowed one hit during the rest of his outing, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced. Between the second and ninth inning, when OSU capped the night with Cameron Dobbs’ first career home run, the Cowboys had one hit.

Reagan Biechler struck out the side in the eighth, like Evans did in the third inning, and WSU’s relievers had a strikeout in each of their seven innings. Evans is becoming a trusted member of the relief corps with a 1.23 ERA over 14 2/3 innings.

Their efforts went for naught because of WSU’s hitting struggles. The sixth inning, when WSU scored its first run, was its first with more than one hit. But it followed that up with three straight strikeouts in the seventh and never threatened OSU’s big early lead.

One bright spot was Schwanke, exclusively a pitcher the last two seasons. He singled and lined out a week after he resumed batting practice.

“We have enough arms for midweek starts,” Butler said. “The thing is getting more than three runs. They scored five in the second inning and we get three for the game. The offense needs to wake up. Southern Illinois comes in this week, they’re 3-0 in (the Missouri Valley) conference. We need to be ready for conference play.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 10:55 PM with the headline "Oklahoma State strikes early, beats Wichita State 6-3."