Wichita State baseball becoming reliable with the bats

Wichita State’s hitting breakthrough is more than a month old, but the Shockers’ emotional advancement is traced back only a week.

WSU won one of three games at Dallas Baptist but felt the shift in winning 8-6 last Friday. The Shockers nearly pulled off their fifth road victory two days later but fell 10-9 after pulling within one run on Alec Bohm’s home run to lead off the ninth inning.

WSU has sustained offensive improvement since Missouri Valley Conference play began in early April, including Wednesday’s 7-6, 11-inning win over Oral Roberts, but momentum hasn’t been as easy to achieve.

With seven regular-season games remaining, starting with this weekend’s MVC series against Evansville, the Shockers (23-25, 7-8) feel the good vibes can be permanent.

“We go back to that Friday night DBU game, that was huge for us,” WSU first baseman Greyson Jenista said. “We didn’t capitalize on the next two, but even that Sunday game was the same thing. It was back and forth and we kept throwing punches and so did they.”

The Shockers have been the best hitting team in the Valley by most measures. They top conference-only leaderboards in batting average, hits and strikeouts (fewest), and are tied with Missouri State in doubles with 33. Missouri State leads second-place WSU in runs 138-117 thanks to 30 more walks and 10 more home runs.

Many WSU players have reached new levels since April. Trey Vickers and Bohm are each batting better than .420 in conference play and Jenista is at .367; Bohm and Jenista have combined for nine home runs, 30 RBIs, 31 runs and 16 walks in 15 games.

In all games since April 7, including five out of conference, WSU has averaged better than seven runs. Bohm, Jenista and Vickers have all raised their averages over .300 after each had an inconsistent first month.

“It’s just our team mentality,” Jenista said. “(Hitting coach Brian Walker) does a great job of getting us ready every day and that shows. We’re going to two-strike adjust and we’re going to fight. We’ve had a couple good games here lately and we’re not going to give up.”

WSU is looking for similar sustained success from its pitching, which was a strength in pre-conference games. The Shockers have a 7.34 ERA in the Valley, which has prevented them from taking advantage of superior offense.

Cody Tyler, formerly WSU’s Saturday starter, will miss the rest of the season with a torn elbow ligament, and Keylan Kilgore will take his spot in the rotation with a to-be-announced starter on Sunday.

All WSU pitchers are trying to replicate the form of Friday starter Zach Lewis, who has a 2.70 ERA and has given up 10 earned runs in 51 1/3 innings dating to March 19. Lewis pitched seven scoreless innings on Friday at DBU.

“He’s a competitor and he has been since the day he stepped on campus,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “He walked off the mound after seven innings giving up two hits and no runs. He’s kind of the leader of the pitching staff and we could probably be more vocal with him, because he’s had success the most of the season. He gives us quality starts and guys need to watch how he pitches.”

This story was originally published May 11, 2017 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Wichita State baseball becoming reliable with the bats."