Kansas edges Wichita State 13-12 in 11 innings

Perhaps the only good thing about owning a losing record is that every game could be a turning point.

Every inning, even. Or every pitch.

Wichita State’s baseball team experienced several of them on Wednesday night, trading big leads with Kansas before the Jayhawks executed the final turn in their 13-12, 11-inning win at Eck Stadium. The game lasted 3 hours, 59 minutes and WSU dropped to 11-17.

Dakota Smith executed a squeeze bunt in the top of the 11th to score Michael Tinsley, who started the inning with a double to the right-center field gap against Isaac Anderson, normally a WSU weekend starter.

In the bottom of the 11th, WSU’s Nos. 3-5 hitters – Daniel Kihle, Ryan Tinkham and Chase Rader – were retired in order.

“Leadoff walks in two of those (late) innings that I can remember,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “We swung the bats well, we played good defense, and they did a good job coming from behind.”

Each team led by five runs before the fifth inning began, and trusted Shockers relievers relinquished an 11-6 advantage during the middle and later innings.

The slugfest began early as WSU starting pitcher Sam Hilliard allowed five runs before he recorded three outs.

Hilliard came close to escaping the first with one run allowed, but following a strikeout of Blair Beck, Hilliard hit Colby Wright to load the bases. The next batter, Dakota Smith, improved his .164 batting average and his similarly paltry slugging percentage with a grand slam to center field.

Smith was one of several players to take advantage of a strong wind blowing out toward center field – Kansas hit three of the game’s four home runs.

WSU’s power, though, quickly shifted the game in the Shockers’ favor. Hilliard narrowly missed hitting a grand slam minutes after surrendering one, but he settled for a bases-clearing double in the first inning that cut KU’s lead to 5-4.

Tinkham highlighted WSU’s three-run second with his first career homer, another shot to center field. The Shockers tacked on four runs in the fourth, when KU’s wildness on the mound led to three wild pitches and a hit batter.

The Shockers battled wildness, too – the teams combined for nine wild pitches, seven hit batters and 11 walks.

Hilliard struck out the side in the second inning and worked out of trouble in the third, his last inning. KU chipped away at the Shockers’ lead against WSU’s most heavily used relievers, starting with Ray Ashford.

Ashford allowed a solo homer in the fourth but didn’t run into more difficulty until the sixth, when No. 9 hitter Tommy Mirabelli struck him for a two-run homer that made it 11-8.

WSU added what seemed to be an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, but that run proved only useful for extending the game. KU scored one in the seventh and tied it with three in the eighth inning – Matt McLaughlin’s one-out single brought in a pair of runs to tie it 12-12.

The Shockers missed opportunities to extend the lead or to end it in their final at-bat. They left the bases loaded in the seventh when Hilliard flied out to left and couldn’t score after a walk and a hit batter in the eighth.

In the ninth, WSU started with consecutive singles. Rader’s sacrifice bunt attempt turned into a pop-out to first, Hilliard struck out and Jordan Farris was retired. An inning later, a Bob Arens baserunning mistake at second base took another scoring chance from WSU.

The Shockers host Indiana State in a Missouri Valley Conference series this weekend.

“We played errorless defense tonight,” Butler said. “Seventeen hits, scored 12 runs. We need to carry it into the weekend.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 11:14 PM with the headline "Kansas edges Wichita State 13-12 in 11 innings."