Illinois State completes sweep of Shockers

The threshold for a relief pitcher lies between being allowed to work for as long as he remains effective and being taken out just before he expires his usefulness.

Many coaches walk that line delicately, and Wichita State coach Todd Butler wishes he could be one of them.

Butler asked a lot of relievers Sam Hilliard and Chase Williams Sunday after starter Tyler Jones didn’t make it out of the second inning.

Hilliard and Williams mostly answered the challenge of extended duty, but runs against them late in their outings constituted the difference in Illinois State’s 7-4 win at Eck Stadium.

The Shockers (13-22, 5-4) were swept at home in a Missouri Valley Conference Series for the first time.

Injuries to starting pitchers Sam Tewes and Willie Schwanke have forced WSU’s healthy pitchers into larger roles and caused Butler to ask more of his relievers. Hilliard was ready to pitch early Sunday but probably didn’t expect to throw 79 pitches, and Butler likely didn’t want to use Williams for 55.

“You can kind of see their fatigue and we’re trying to get them out of the game,” Butler said.

Hilliard relieved Jones with two outs in the second and retired Mason Snyder with runners at second and third. He allowed his second single of the third inning with two outs, then retired seven straight.

If Hilliard’s outing had ended after the fifth, when he struck out the side in order with pinpoint control that led to a pair of called strikeouts, he may have established a sturdier foundation for future games.

But with Hilliard at 66 pitches after the fifth inning, WSU needed him to continue. He allowed a single, then a home run to start the sixth, and was removed after a one-out single with ISU leading 6-3.

“I feel like I pitched well,” Hilliard said. “I’ve kind of been struggling on the mound lately, and it felt good to get out there and kind of build my confidence up. I’m going to hang my hat on that, that I did well today, and I’m going to try and not really think about the home run and the runs they put up on me.”

Relieving Hilliard in the sixth, Williams recovered from an error to start his outing and recorded the final two outs with runners at second and third. He pitched around a one-out double in the seventh then retired five in a row.

Williams stayed in for his third outing of longer than two innings since March 22, and it caught up with him. The run scored against him, which put ISU ahead 7-4, was unearned after an error. But he allowed a single and two walks before coming out after throwing ball one to Joe Kelch.

“It was just a matter of having good at-bats and trying to get to their bullpen guys,” said ISU catcher Jean Ramirez, who homered against Hilliard. “The big difference was just staying patient and confident.”

The Redbirds were afforded a more traditional use of the bullpen after starter Jack Landwehr, who entered with a 6.21 ERA, allowed two earned runs and struck out five in five innings.

Three ISU pitchers covered the rest of the game, allowing one run on Hilliard’s seventh-inning RBI single but most often working out of trouble. The Shockers didn’t have many offensive highlights beyond Ryan Tinkham extending his hitting streak to 14 games and Hilliard taking his to 11.

Chase Rader’s second-inning home run gave WSU five straight games with a homer. Hitting benchmarks were wiped out, though, by three errors.

“You have to make plays behind the pitcher and give him that confidence,” Butler said. “Offensively, I thought we were going to score more runs today. They threw the ball away and off the plate, and they were strikes. We had nine hits, but once again we’re just not putting enough together.”

This story was originally published April 12, 2015 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Illinois State completes sweep of Shockers."