What to know about Shocker baseball team’s season-opening road trip to Louisiana Tech
Entering the second full season of coach Eric Wedge in command, the Wichita State baseball team is in search of a return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013.
The Shockers will have an immediate chance to boost their profile with a season-opening, three-game series at Louisiana Tech, beginning with Friday’s game scheduled for a 6 p.m. first pitch. WSU plays again at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday against a Bulldogs team projected as No. 2 regional seed that returns several key players from a 42-win squad last year.
After earning five different Freshman All-American honors last season, 6-foot-2 right-hander Jace Kaminska will earn the Opening Day start for the Shockers. He will be matched up against Louisiana Tech’s preseason All-American, Jonathan Fincher, who finished with an 8-3 record and 3.05 earned run average last season.
While the games this weekend will not be televised, all WSU baseball games can be listened to on the radio at KFH 97.5 FM or streamed on GoShockers.com.
After leaning on a mostly veteran starting rotation last season, a youth movement is under way in Wichita. Kaminska, a sophomore from Caney, is expected to be the team’s ace, while true freshman Payton Tolle, a left-hander from Yukon, Okla. who can also bat and play the field, is slated to start Saturday and Will Stevens, a sophomore junior-college transfer from Kansas City, will start on Sunday with both making their Shocker debuts.
WSU swept Louisiana Tech in a three-game series at Eck Stadium in Wedge’s first year in Wichita in 2020, but the Bulldogs are much improved since then. Louisiana Tech posted a program-record 22-8 record in Conference USA to win the West Division last season and finish with a No. 27 ranking in the final RPI. The team returns key pieces in shortstop Taylor Young, the reigning conference Defensive Player of the Year who also hit .331, outfielder Cole McConnell, who batted .347 last season, and outfielder Philip Matulia, who hit .311 with eight home runs.
The Shockers return plenty of their own firepower, namely first baseman Garrett Kocis, second baseman Jack Sigrist and catcher Ross Cadena to go along with returning outfielders Couper Cornblum, Chuck Ingram and Seth Stroh.
Wichita State plays its first 12 games of the 2022 season on the road before returning to Eck Stadium to play Oral Roberts at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 8. The Shockers then spend most of the month of March at home, hosting South Dakota State (March 11-13), New Mexico (March 18-20), Oklahoma (March 22), Kansas (March 23), Creighton (March 25-27) and Missouri State (March 29).
.jpg)