Shockers make rare trip to Texas
For the last 30-plus years, a Texas-Wichita State baseball game had to be scheduled by somebody else.
The teams have met twice in the College World Series in that time — in 1989, when WSU beat Texas to claim the national championship and in 1993, when WSU defeated the Longhorns in the second round of the CWS.
The Shockers have never hosted Texas and haven’t played in Austin since 1982, when they were swept in a three-game series.
WSU (13-18) returns to Austin for a game Tuesday night against the struggling Longhorns (17-15), who have lost seven in a row.
“It’s exciting to me as a coach,” said WSU coach Todd Butler, who experienced games against Texas while playing at Oklahoma. “It’s exciting for our players — it might be more exciting to me. I get to go down and see (Texas coach) Augie (Garrido). He’s been the leader of college baseball for many, many decades.”
Garido is the Division I wins leader. Texas rarely travels for non-conference games so a game against the Shockers was probably only possible in Austin. Butler declined to discuss the specifics of getting the Longhorns on the schedule but indicated that it was more complicated than finding other games.
WSU has loaded its non-conference schedule in Butler’s second season with big-name opponents such as nationally-ranked foes UC Santa Barbara, Texas Christian and Oklahoma State, along with Long Beach State and New Mexico.
Butler said the trip to Texas was important for WSU to begin to establish a recruiting foothold. The Shockers have four Texans on their roster — Ray Ashford, Zach Reding, Willie Schwanke and Cody Tyler.
“We’re playing TCU and Oklahoma State and Texas,” Butler said. “We’re playing all these great programs and programs that have been to (the CWS) – and Texas went last year. It gives our players the eye to see what it really takes to get back to that level that Wichita State, so many years ago, was accustomed to.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2015 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Shockers make rare trip to Texas."