Wichita State baseball sweeps Omaha, rides winning streak entering conference play
The Wichita State baseball team will start American Athletic Conference play this week on a four-game winning streak.
The Shockers finished off a series sweep of Omaha on Sunday with an 11-1 win at Eck Stadium, outscoring the Mavericks 34-6 in the three games. It was the first time Omaha (8-12) has been swept this season, as WSU finished its nonconference schedule with a 12-8 record and a No. 80 RPI ranking.
Starting Thursday, the next two months will be devoted to four-game, weekend series against conference opponents. The Shockers will play in Houston (12-11) on Thursday night, a doubleheader on Friday and the finale on Saturday afternoon.
Pitching was a concern entering this past week after WSU had allowed 9.4 runs per game in a seven-game stretch where it went 2-5. Freshman Jace Kaminska’s gem in Tuesday’s 5-1 win over Kansas State seemed to set the tone for the week.
Junior ace Liam Eddy (2-3) picked up the series-opening win against Omaha in WSU’s 14-5 victory, allowing four earned runs with five strikeouts in seven innings. Senior Preston Snavely (2-1) followed on Saturday with 7 1/3 scoreless innings and struck out five in a 9-0 win, then junior transfer Spencer Hynes (2-1) struck out seven and allowed one earned run in five innings in Sunday’s 11-1 win.
WSU’s bullpen combined to allow just one earned run in seven innings in the series, which included appearances from Creighton Hansen, Cameron Bye, L.J. McDonough, Ryan Stuempfig, Foster Gifford and Aaron Haase. Hynes combined with Stuempfig, Gifford and Haase on Sunday to throw a two-hitter.
Pitching wasn’t the only highlight of the week, as WSU’s bats finally came alive as well. The Shockers finished with five home runs in the 14-5 season-opening win, the most in a game since 2018. Paxton Wallace hit two of those round-trippers, while Jack Sigrist, Hunter Gibson and Garrett Kocis all homered once.
Wallace had multi-hit games in all three games, as he finished 7-for-15 at the plate with six runs scored and eight runs batted in. Sigrist also had a standout series, finishing 5-for-12 at the plate with five runs scored.
For the first time in two years, the Shockers will now prepare for conference competition. WSU, picked fifth by coaches in the preseason poll, will take on Houston, picked fourth, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Friday and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.
WSU softball off to best start in program history
The WSU softball team made a strong push to begin AAC play this past weekend, as the Shockers took three of four games against East Carolina at Wilkins Stadium.
The 20-5 start is the best record through 25 games in program history. The Shockers clinched the record-setting start with a 10-2 run-rule victory over ECU on Sunday, as Bailey Lange (10-2) picked up the win and freshman Addison Barnard registered her second multi-home run game of the season.
WSU will play a four-game series at Memphis starting on Thursday with a doubleheader on Friday and the series finale on Saturday.
Men’s tennis team picks up second ranked win
The WSU men’s tennis team has won five of its last six matches, including its second ranked win of the season with a 5-2 victory over No. 45 Denver at the Coleman Tennis Complex on Saturday.
The 34th-ranked Shockers revenged a loss to Denver earlier this season to continue their hot streak at the end of the season. WSU won the doubles point this time around, as the duo of Marius Frosa and Murkel Dellien won the No. 1 doubles match and Stefan Latinovic and Nicolas Acevedo finished off the doubles point win for WSU.
Dellien and Frosa both won their matches as No. 1 and No. 2 singles players, respectively, then Acevedo and Orel Ovil also won their singles matches to secure the match victory for the Shockers.
WSU improved to 11-5 this season and will host Texas Arlington at noon Monday as a tune-up for a conference showdown against No. 44 SMU at 1 p.m. Friday at the Coleman Tennis Complex.
Volleyball wraps up season with win over conference leader
It wasn’t the ending that the WSU volleyball team hoped for, but the Shockers were able to end on a high note by knocking off conference-leading Houston to split the series at Koch Arena this past weekend.
WSU won the first match in four sets, 25-21, 20-25, 25-20, 25-20, to hand Houston its first loss in AAC play. It also snapped a seven-match losing streak for the Shockers, which began the season a perfect 8-0.
After losing to Houston in three sets on Saturday, WSU completed 9-8 spring season and honored its three seniors — setter McKayla Wuensch, middle Emma Wright and middle Brooke Smith.
WSU used a career-high 17 kills from freshman Natalie Foster to take down the first-place Cougars last Friday. Foster hit .556 and also added six block assists, while Wright added 10 kills and eight blocks. Lily Liekweg chipped in with a team-high 23 digs, while Wuensch finished with a double-double of 25 assists and 15 digs.
This story was originally published March 29, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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