Top 25 Wichita State softball team extends AAC lead with series win over ranked UCF
While the record-setting offense has garnered most of the headlines this season for the Wichita State softball team, it was the pitching that stole the show in a series victory over a ranked team on the road.
In the first American Athletic Conference series to feature two top-25 teams, the No. 25-ranked Shockers won three games against No. 23 Central Florida and had to settle for a scoreless tie when a 0-0 game was stopped in the bottom of the 11th inning on Sunday because WSU had to leave Orlando to catch its flight back home to Wichita.
It was the third straight series win for the Shockers (32-5-1, 14-1-1 AAC) to open up conference play, as they extended their lead in the conference standings to three games over South Florida (20-11, 9-2 AAC). WSU, which tied the longest winning streak in program history with 13 straight wins, hosts USF in a four-game series at Wilkins Stadium starting Friday.
WSU’s pair of starting pitchers, Bailey Lange and Caitlin Bingham, combined to hold UCF’s offense to two runs and 14 hits in 31 1/3 innings. The Shockers won Friday’s series opener, 7-0, then swept the Saturday doubleheader, 3-0 and 5-2, before play was halted at 2 p.m. Eastern time Sunday when UCF had a runner on third base in the bottom of the 11th inning.
On top of her usual stellar defense at second base, senior Kaylee Huecker started the scoring for WSU on Friday and Game 1 on Saturday. She delivered a 2-RBI double to get WSU on the board in a 7-0 win, then singled down the left-field line in Saturday’s first game to give WSU a 1-0 lead in an eventual 3-0 win.
Freshman star Addison Barnard added another home run to her single-season record season, a two-run shot in the first game on Saturday. She finished the series with four runs driven in.
But in a meeting between the two highest-powered offenses in the American, it was WSU’s pitching that proved to be the difference.
Lange and Bingham delivered complete game shutouts for back-to-back wins to start the series, then Lange picked up her second win to improve to 16-2 this season on Saturday. UCF was able to collect eight hits off Bingham in Sunday’s series finale, but Bingham was able to escape jams time and time again and had not allowed a run in 10 1/3 innings when the game was called.
It was just the second game to end in a tie in school history. The first was between WSU and KU in a 2-2 tie back on April 30, 1991. The Shockers play at Kansas next in a 5 p.m. Wednesday game.
Weather, injuries spoil baseball road trip
The hot streak of the WSU baseball team came to a screeching halt this weekend.
WSU entered having won seven games in a row and 11 of its last 12, but left New Orleans with three losses in a series sweep at the hands of Tulane. Tulane won the Friday doubleheader, 6-3 and 3-2, then held on for an 8-7 victory on Sunday with the fourth game being canceled because of weather.
In equally bad news, WSU discovered this week it will likely be without its best power hitter, Garrett Kocis, who leads the American in home runs (10) and RBIs (37), for the rest of the regular season after a wrist injury suffered last weekend. The Shockers were also without the full-time services of freshman outfielder Couper Cornblum against Tulane because of a shoulder injury, although he pinch hit in the third game.
It all added up to a frustrating performance from WSU’s lineup, as the Shockers combined to go 4-for-39 (.103 average) with runners in scoring position in three games against Tulane.
WSU led 3-1 after four innings in the first game, thanks to RBI hits from Corrigan Bartlett and Jack Sigrist, but Tulane got to starter Preston Snavely in the fifth and hung five runs in the inning. The Shockers stranded runners in the final four innings of the 6-3 loss.
A pair of errors allowed Tulane to take a 3-0 lead after two innings of Game 2, but Liam Eddy settled down on the mound to throw seven innings, allowing one earned run with seven strikeouts. WSU clawed back two runs on sacrifice flies, trimming the deficit to 3-2 after six innings, but once again stranded runners in the final three innings of the one-run loss.
WSU fell behind 5-2 in Sunday’s game, but Bartlett and Ross Cadena both pushed runs across to trim the deficit to 5-4. When Tulane extended its lead to 7-4, WSU rallied again to scored two more in the top of the sixth inning. Trailing 8-6 entering the top of the ninth inning, Paxton Wallace led off with a double followed by a Hunter Gibson single. While WSU was able to sacrifice Wallace in for the score, Cornblum grounded into the game-ending double play.
WSU (19-12, 7-4 AAC) fell behind Tulane (17-13, 6-1 AAC) in the conference standings for second place, while its RPI dropped to No. 49 before Sunday’s loss.
The Shockers will be back in action with a four-game series at Cincinnati (15-17, 4-7 AAC) starting with a Friday doubleheader.
This story was originally published April 18, 2021 at 3:11 PM.
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