Ryan Tinkham’s April power surge leads Wichita State baseball to another win

Here’s one arbitrary end point that doesn’t immediately highlight Ryan Tinkham’s month of terror over opposing pitchers – the Wichita State junior hasn’t hit a double in 22 days.

That statistic eventually works to showcase Tinkham’s prowess, though. The hits that landed in the outfield gaps are now landing in the outfield seats or in the street or being impeded from their destination by the scoreboard or other inanimate objects beyond the fence.

Tinkham has muscled up in April, hitting all eight of his home runs, including a solo homer on Saturday that broke a seventh-inning tie and led to WSU’s 8-6 win over New Mexico at Eck Stadium.

Tinkham went 2 for 5 on Saturday, extending his hitting streak to 21 games.

“He doesn’t pull off the baseball,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “For college hitters, that’s really the big thing. He stays on the ball. Most of his home runs are to the center part of the field – he went dead center today – and he’s a tough out.”

An impressive statistic can be found from Tinkham going back to nearly any date this season, but a few stand out.

During his hitting streak, which began on March 21 with two hits against Southern Illinois, the 6-foot-5, 205-pound Tinkham has 11 multi-hit games. He is batting .422 during his streak with 15 RBIs.

Since April 1, when he went 4 for 6 against Kansas with his first home run, Tinkham has maintained his power without sacrificing any batting average – he’s improved his average substantially, actually.

On March 31, Tinkham was batting .323 with 13 doubles but no home runs. He homered the next day and hasn’t gone more than three games without a homer since, three times hitting one on consecutive days. His average has climbed 45 points to a team-best .358.

“I think maybe I just needed to get the monkey off my back with my first (home run) and the rest came kind of rolling after that,” Tinkham said. “I’m just trying to be productive at the plate, whether that’s hitting singles, doubles, triples, whatever. I’m just trying to be a tough out and be a spark plug for the offense.”

Tinkham began the season as WSU’s catcher and was slow to build momentum at the plate. He concerned himself mostly with the performance and demeanor of WSU’s pitchers, a mostly young staff he was partly responsible for molding.

An offseason arm injury hampered Tinkham behind the plate, and he moved to first base and designated hitter after 14 games. Since March 11, the day after his last game at catcher, Tinkham is batting .369.

“I think that helps a little bit,” Tinkham said about moving from catcher. “It helps you be more vocal at first base, in the sense that I’m more supporting every pitch and getting behind the pitchers and setting up the defense a little better. It’s harder being behind the plate. I think it helped the offense and made me a little more fresh at the plate.”

The Shockers followed Tinkham’s lead on Saturday, as every starter had at least one of WSU’s 16 hits. Tinkham’s home run put WSU ahead 5-4 in the seventh, and Bob Arens snapped a 1 for 19 skid with a two-run single five batters later.

WSU had three two-strike hits in the first inning and three two-out hits in the second, as consecutive singles by Trey Vickers, Mikel Mucha and Daniel Kihle put the Shockers ahead 3-1. In the third, Tanner Kirk’s two-out RBI double made it 4-2.

“Two-out hits and two-strike hits are important for us, to grind out at-bats with two strikes and with two outs and just keep the innings going,” Tinkham said.

WSU starter Chase Williams lasted six innings, his longest of three starts since moving to the rotation two weeks ago. Two runs allowed in the fifth prevented him from earning the win, but he build confidence through recovery.

Williams allowed a leadoff walk in the first and home runs to start the second and third innings, but retired the next three batters in each instance. After his tough fifth, he retired the side in order in the sixth with two of his career-high nine strikeouts.

“You’re a reliever coming in in the eighth and you’re up by one and you give up two bombs, you’re out of the game,” Williams said. “As a starter, you can kind of get away with that. I gave up a bomb, it’s 3-2 and we still had the lead, so it’s a lot more comforting as a starter.”

This story was originally published April 25, 2015 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Ryan Tinkham’s April power surge leads Wichita State baseball to another win."