Wichita State’s pitching falters in 10-8 loss to Illinois State

The Brent Kemnitz Show follows Wichita State’s Saturday baseball games and, since 1993, served mostly as an hour of rollicking radio to celebrate one of the nation’s best pitching staffs. Kemnitz and host Mike Kennedy talk about current stars, reminisce about greats from the past and dispense pitching tips.

When things go bad, Kemnitz refers to the show as therapy and Kennedy can often soothe him with the right question.

Kemnitz needs a lot of therapy these days and the past two Saturdays the show took on a somber atmosphere in the Eck Stadium pressbox. The days of talking about a dominant outing by Jordan Cooper or another save by Noah Booth seemed far away. A week ago, WSU’s bullpen gave up eight runs in the ninth inning to blow a lead against Indiana State. On Saturday, the bullpen again blew up in a 10-8 loss to Illinois State.

“It’s painful for me and I know it’s painful for our fans,” Kemnitz said. “I’ve been here 37 years and never had a team ERA over 5.00. It is off-the-chart, excruciating painful for me.”

WSU (13-21, 5-3 Missouri Valley Conference) fell out of first place in the MVC with its second straight loss. Illinois State (16-15, 3-5) won a series at WSU for the first time in 16 trips, one to Lawrence-Dumont Stadium and 15 to Eck Stadium. The Redbirds won a series against WSU for the first time since 2006, a 2-1 win in Normal. They can sweep the Shockers for the first time, something no MVC school has done at Eck Stadium.

Freshman designated hitter Gunnar Troutwine homered twice for WSU, both to left field. His solo shot, a line drive on the first pitch from Jacob Hendren in the second inning gave WSU a 1-0 lead. In the fourth, he hammered a 1-1 pitch from Hendren over the fence in left and onto 21st St.

“I was just sitting fastball the entire time and my hands were feeling really good today,” Troutwine said.

He completed his 4-for-5 day with an RBI single in the ninth, his fifth RBI of the game.

WSU coach Todd Butler started four freshmen after Friday’s loss and said that trend will continue. He wants to get Troutwine more at-bats. Third baseman Keenan Eaton went 2 for 4 with a double. Taylor Sanagorski pinch-hit and walked in the ninth and Butler wants to find more chances for him, as well.

“When you’re 13-21, you kind of want to start getting those younger guys experience so we can start building some experience in this program,” Butler said. “Gunnar’s going to be a good player. He has a very good swing and he hits with two strikes. He’s doing what was anticipated of him when we recruited him.”

The fall from first won’t stop until the Shockers find some relievers who can throw strikes, a situation exacerbated by injuries that force pitchers into bigger roles than expected. After years of watching the Shockers roll out enviable pitching staffs, nobody in the MVC is feeling sorry for them.

On Saturday, starter Isaac Anderson gave the Shockers five solid innings, throwing 98 pitches, before the pitch count ended his day. WSU trailed 4-3 when it went to its bullpen in the sixth and the game unraveled quickly. Sophomore Reagan Biechler walked the first two hitters and gave up a single. Freshman Taylor Goshen walked two and gave up two hits in an inning. Illinois State scored three runs in the sixth inning and three more in the seventh to build a 10-4 lead.

“Isaac had zero walks and we’re in the ball game,” Butler said. “From there, we gave up runs. Walks hurt any team, but walks really hurt us.”

Anderson, who missed two weeks with a sore elbow, is working his way back to full strength and Saturday served as a good step. He struck out eight and cruised through three innings. He gave up four runs on five hits, one a bloop double, and pronounced himself ready for bigger things next weekend.

“I’m back to full strength and ready to start next Friday, next Saturday, whenever they need me,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I had my best stuff today. But I was getting ahead early and I had hitters guessing.”

The Shockers handled second baseman Paul DeJong, who went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts after he went 0 for 1 with four walks on Friday. He entered the series hitting .417 and tied for the nation’s lead with 11 home runs. The Shockers pitched him carefully on Friday to limit his influence. On Saturday, they came at him and did the same.

The rest of the Redbirds, however, did plenty of damage. Mason Snyder, Joe Kelch and No. 9 hitter Dennis Colon homered. Kelch drove in three runs. Snyder scored three and drove in two.

Hendren kept the rest of the Shockers off balance and off base by moving his fastball around in the strike zone. He struck out seven, walked one, and produced a series of harmless fly balls from the Shockers. WSU got into the Redbirds bullpen too late and scored a run in the eighth and three in the ninth. Pinch-hitter Zach Reding grounded out to the end the game with Troutwine on second base.

The Redbirds scored three runs in the fourth inning. Jared Hendren started the rally with a bloop double to right. Anderson hit Snyder in the back. Ryan Koziol’s ground-rule double scored Hendren to tie the game 1-all. With two outs, Kelch singled in two runs to grab a 3-1 lead.

After Troutwine’s second home run tied it 3-all, Colon led off the fifth with a home run to left field.

In the sixth, WSU’s fragile bullpen again fell apart. Biechler walked the first two batters. Sean Beesley, after bunting foul twice, singled up the middle on a 3-2 pitch to drive in Snyder for a 5-3 lead.Goshen, after getting one out on a line drive, walked Jean Ramirez and gave up an RBI single to Colon. He struck out the next two batters, but not before balking in a run to hand the Redbirds a 7-3 lead.

WSU cut the lead to 7-4 on Mikel Mucha’s sacrifice fly in the sixth.

If that modest rally generated any hope for the Shockers, it ended quickly. In the seventh, Goshen walked Hendren and gave up a two-run homer to Snyder. Chandler Sanburn got two outs before giving up a home run to Kelch for a 10-4 lead.

This story was originally published April 11, 2015 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Wichita State’s pitching falters in 10-8 loss to Illinois State."