Wichita State rallies to defeat Oklahoma 9-8

Sam Hilliard watched his fourth hit of the game land in center field and figured Wichita State had more work to do in the eighth inning. Then the baseball took a friendly bounce and rolled to the wall at Eck Stadium.

After a season full of frustrating losses, the other teams are the ones making mistakes and giving the Shockers a little help. Two runs scored on that single by Hilliard and subsequent error to give WSU the tying and go-ahead runs in a 9-8 win over Oklahoma on Tuesday.

“Maybe we’re turning into a team at the right time,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “Maybe that’s the mojo we need where everybody in the dugout is starting to think that positive thought. We went through so much early in the season, maybe there were some negative thoughts. Maybe we’re past that.”

The Shockers (18-26) won their fourth straight game and won a mid-week game for the first time since March 17. Oklahoma (29-19) lost its third straight game.

Hilliard, a junior right fielder, provided reason after reason for positive thoughts. He went 4 for 5 with two doubles and a triple to drive in two runs and score two.

“Sam Hilliard really put us on his back,” Butler said.

Hilliard faced OU closer Jacob Evans, a lefty with six saves and 42 strikeouts in 30 2 /3 innings, with two on and two out in the eighth. The Sooners, up 8-7, liked the left-on-left matchup. Hilliard smacked a fastball to left-center and center fielder Craig Aikin misplayed it, watching it bounce off the artificial turf over his hand and roll as the crowd roared and Mikel Mucha and Daniel Kihle scored.

“I struck it well, but I didn’t think for once it was going to get by him,” Hilliard said. “I think he was trying to come up and get a good angle and get a good throw off. If you’re used to grass, it can get on you pretty fast with the hops and bounce over your head if you’re not careful.”

WSU closer John Hayes worked around a one-out hit in the ninth by striking out the final two Sooners. That capped a solid night for a frazzled bullpen. Ray Ashford kept WSU close for 3 1/3 innings. Lefty Reagan Biechler gave up one run on two hits over three innings and retired eight in a row to get the ball to Hayes.

Biechler struck out four and gave OU’s lefty-heavy lineup fits with his slider.

“Sliders in the dirt, that’s my go-to pitch,” he said. “If I can get them to bite on that first slider, I can usually get to them to bite on a couple more.”

The Shockers, thin on pitching, looked destined for another rough night against a Big 12 team early. The Sooners roughed up starter Tyler Jones and built a 6-0 lead in the third inning.

WSU scored four runs in the third. Taylor Sanagorski’s two-run home run to right cut OU’s lead to 6-4. After the Sooners added a run, Gunnar Troutwine led off the fifth with a triple and scored on a balk to cut the lead to 7-5.

OU made it 8-5 and WSU responded again. Ryan Tinkham walked with two outs and Hilliard tripled off the wall in center. He slid in safely and the throw from shortstop Shelden Neuse got away from third baseman Tyler Coolbaugh and rolled unattended into foul territory. Hilliard alertly scored and cut OU’s lead to 8-7.

The Sooners battered Jones for four hits and four runs in 1 1/3. He left, after two mound visits by pitching coach Brent Kemnitz and one by Butler, after giving up four hits to five batters in the second.

OU added one run against Ashford to take a 5-0 lead, batting around in the second with seven hits. Hunter led off the third with a double and score on Evans’ double to go up 6-0.

OU stretched its lead to 7-4 on a Aikin’s single that drove in Kolbey Carpenter on a close play at the plate. Hilliard’s throw from right field arrived in time, forcing Carpenter to slide wide of the plate. Catcher Gunnar Troutwine swept the ball and tagged Carpenter in the helmet, but not before home-plate umpire Joe Brown ruled him safe.

Worth noting — Freshman pitcher Jeb Bargfeldt was scheduled to start before shoulder tightness intervened. Butler does not consider it a long-term setback … WSU snapped a seven-game losing streak to Oklahoma. The Shockers last defeated OU in 2006, although they had not played since 2009 … WSU’s four-game win streak is the season’s second-longest. The Shockers won five in a row in mid-March.

This story was originally published April 28, 2015 at 11:19 PM with the headline "Wichita State rallies to defeat Oklahoma 9-8."