WSU softball blanks No. 25 Tulsa for series-opening win behind Erin McDonald shutout

Behind a one-hit, shutout performance in the circle from Erin McDonald, the Wichita State softball team registered its first top-25 win of the season on Friday with a series-opening 4-0 victory on the road over No. 25 Tulsa.

The Shockers also held a lead in the second game on Saturday, but ultimately dropped a 4-3 game to even the series. WSU (29-21, 10-7 American Athletic Conference) is one win away from a sixth straight 30-win season under coach Kristi Bredbenner with a chance to hit that milestone in the series finale noon Sunday against Tulsa (32-16, 13-4 AAC).

“Anytime you can come down to Tulsa, a team we respect and think is very good, and pick up a no-doubt type of win is a great way to start the weekend,” Bredbenner said. “We hit well, we pitched well and we defended well.”

Sophomore Neleigh Herring smashed her fifth home run of the season on Friday, a two-run shot in the fifth inning to break the scoreless tie and the Shockers added two more insurance runs the next inning. On Saturday, senior Laurie Derrico hit her seventh homer of the season and the 39th of her career to tie the WSU program record.

But in the victory on Friday, it was headlined by a brilliant outing by McDonald, the sophomore transfer from Louisiana Tech.

She didn’t allow a base runner past first base until the fifth inning, where she had to escape her only jam of the game. Right after Herring had given WSU a 2-0 lead, Tulsa had loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning after McDonald hit a batter and walked one.

In a pressure-packed situation with two outs, the bases loaded and a full count, McDonald baited Tulsa’s Tori Stafford into a pop-up to end the inning.

“I feel like the difference for me was I was able to throw my change-up and keep it low,” McDonald said. “That allowed me to go with my rise or fastball. When I’m able to locate that change-up, then it just sets them up for those other pitches.”

McDonald allowed just one hit against 27 batters faced in seven innings, while also striking out five to improve her season record to 12-10 and lower her earned-run average to 3.07 with her second complete-game shutout of the season.

“She pitched great and I thought she did a great job of minimizing the pitches she threw,” Bredbenner said. “I thought she hit her spots well and she really threw well this game. Definitely one of her best games as a Shocker.”

The first offensive threat of Friday’s game occurred when Bailee Nickerson led off the top of the fifth inning with a double to the gap in right field. A sacrifice bunt from Adeline Reese moved the runner to third, but WSU failed to bring the runner home on its next at-bat with an infield ground-ball out.

Herring made that a distant memory, driving the first pitch she saw for an opposite-field home run to left field for a 2-0 lead.

“Neleigh is a silent killer,” Bredbenner said. “She gets in there and takes some good hacks. She’s strong and powerful. In batting practice, I watch her get in there and hit bomb after bomb after bomb. That hit definitely shifted the momentum and gave us energy.”

WSU doubled its lead in the sixth inning, sparked by a lead-off walk by Ryleigh Buck. A well-placed bunt down the third-base line by Madison Perrigan led to a throwing error by Tulsa, which moved Buck to third and allowed Derrico to bring her home on a sacrifice fly. Reese capped off the scoring with a RBI double down the right-field line to score Perrigan.

WSU briefly led on Saturday when Derrico’s two-run shot gave the Shockers a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning, but Tulsa answered back with a two-run home run of its own in the bottom-half of the inning and also tacked on the game-winning run on a RBI single.

Herring led the final inning off with a walk, but the Shockers couldn’t advance a runner past first base in the inning. Caitlin Bingham, who walked six and allowed five hits and four earned runs, took the loss in the circle for WSU.

Wichita State 4, Tulsa 0

WP: McDonald (12-10). LP: Scott (8-5). E: WSU, Buck; TU, Perry. LOB: WSU 4, TU 6. 2B: WSU, Nickerson, Reese. HR: WSU, Herring. SH: WSU, Reese. SB: None. CS: None. HBP: TU, Perry (by McDonald), Whitten (by McDonald). Umpires: Mindy Villa, home; Michael Parker, first; Brian Nava, third. T: 1:55. A: 287.

Tulsa 4, Wichita State 3

WP: Delce (13-5). LP: Bingham (13-9). E: TU, Delce. LOB: WSU 5, TU 7. 2B: TU, Meinen. HR: WSU, Derrico. SH: WSU, Reese; TU, Meinen, Perry. SB: WSU, McKinney, Eck; TU, Neal, Briers, Whitten. CS: None. HBP: WSU, Reese (by Delce). Umpires: Michael Parker, home; Brian Nava, first; Mindy Villa, third. T: 2:03. A: 329.

This story was originally published April 27, 2019 at 10:22 AM.