After 0-6 start, Wichita State baseball bounces back with wins over Pepperdine, Iowa
The 0-6 start to the season marked the worst start for the Wichita State baseball team in the modern era of program history.
But the Shockers left a Texas tournament this past weekend with some momentum, claiming their first two wins of the season with a 5-2 victory over Pepperdine on Saturday and an 8-7 win over Iowa on Sunday.
WSU (2-6) will look to make it a winning streak on Tuesday with a 3 p.m. afternoon road game at Oral Roberts before heading back to Texas for the Frisco College Baseball Classic, where the Shockers will face Iowa on Friday, Washington State on Saturday and Texas A&M on Sunday.
The highlight of the early season has been the pitching of true freshman Payton Tolle, who tossed another gem against Pepperdine to earn his first career victory. Tolle allowed just one unearned runs while pitching into the seventh inning and adding seven strikeouts.
WSU finished with a season-high 10 hits in the game, as Garrett Kocis gave the Shockers an early lead with a two-run home run in the third inning. Sawyre Thornhill homered for the second straight day in the fifth for a 3-1 lead, but Pepperdine scored on a balk in the eighth inning to trim the Shocker lead to a single run.
Chuck Ingram gave WSU some breathing room in the top of the ninth inning when he delivered a two-out, two-RBI triple to center field, plating Jack Sigrist and Brock Rodden. Closer Connor Holden shut the door on the game, recording a five-out save.
The Shockers then collected a valuable win over Iowa, erasing an early 4-0 deficit with starter Will Stevens exiting the game without recording an out in the second inning.
WSU started to chip away when Couper Cornblum reached base on a walk, then Ingram powered an opposite-field shot for a two-run home run in the second inning. Rodden followed with a solo shot in the next inning and when Iowa extended its lead to 5-3, WSU responded with two runs on a hit-by-pitch and walk to tie the game.
Iowa briefly took the lead again at 6-5, but Ross Cadena tied the game for WSU with an infield single in the fifth. The Shockers would take the lead for good in the sixth when Thornhill led off with a single and scored, then Cadena delivered what became the game-winning RBI on a single to plate Xavier Casserilla, who finished the game 3-for-4 at the plate.
L.J. McDonough picked up the win in relief for WSU with his career-best performance, striking out eight hitters to record every one of his outs, while Holden notched his second straight save with a scoreless ninth inning.
Softball leaves Charlotte with two straight wins
After splitting games on the last four days of tournament play, the WSU softball team finally broke through with a 2-0 day last Saturday at the Niner Invitational in Charlotte.
The Shockers banged out 25 hits in two games to pick up a 4-0 win over Minnesota and a 10-2 win over Charlotte to improve to 9-4 early in the season.
In just her second career straight, freshman Alison Cooper tossed a complete-game shutout of a Big 10 team, allowing just four hits to Minnesota. Neleigh Herring snapped out of her slump with a 3-for-4 game at the plate and Addison Barnard added her seventh home run of the season to help provide the scoring.
After losing to Charlotte the day before, WSU exacted revenge with five players recording a multi-hit game. Sydney McKinney led the way with three hits and Lauren Mills drove in four runs with a home run and a single, while Barnard provided the highlight with her second grand slam of the weekend to blow the game open.
The team will have a week off before its next competition in Lincoln, Neb. where the Shockers will take on Nebraska and South Dakota State on March 4-6.
Women’s basketball drops third straight in season sweep to Tulsa
For the first time in the rivalry history, the Tulsa women’s basketball team swept the season series with Wichita State.
Tulsa finished off the sweep at home on Sunday with a 61-49 win over the Shockers, handing WSU its third straight loss to drop to 13-15 on the season and 4-11 in AAC play.
Trajata Colbert delivered her second double-double of the season with a season-high 19 points and 13 rebounds off the bench, but she was the lone player in double-digit scoring.
The Shockers dominated Tulsa on the glass, grabbing 16 more rebounds, but all of that good work was undone by the team’s 22 turnovers. That figure was made even worse by Tulsa’s superb ball handling, which only committed five turnovers, which allowed the Golden Hurricane to outscore the Shockers 22-7 in points off turnovers.
WSU briefly took the lead, 45-44, early in the fourth quarter, but Tulsa would be the one to come through with the game-winning rally, this one a 7-0 spurt that put Tulsa in front for good.
The Shockers will host Tulane in their regular-season finale on Wednesday with a 6 p.m. game at Koch Arena.
Men’s track and field team third at AAC indoor
The story of the weekend for the Wichita State track and field team at the AAC Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama was Michael Bryan, who won the conference title in the weight throw with a toss of 74 feet, 1 inch.
Bryan’s throw set a championship and school record, breaking the previous record by more than a meter. The throw also catapulted him up from No. 29 in the country to No. 6 in the nation in the event, which secured his place to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks.
Adria Navajon highlighted Saturday’s performance by winning the heptathlon with 5,616 points, recording personal-bests in five of the seven events and setting meet records in the heptathlon high jump and long jump. WSU actually went 1-2 in the event, as his teammate Tanner Brown finished runner-up with a score of 5,512 points, another personal-best score.
The Shockers finished with 115 team points to place third in the team race behind Houston (141.5) and Cincinnati (128).
Brady Palen and Davis Dubbert earned all-conference honors in the high jump, placing second and third respectively. Adam Moore earned his second medal of the weekend with a second-place finish in the mile, while WSU’s 1600-meter relay team of Joakim Genereux, J.D. Prinsloo, Brown and R.J. Hutchinson earned all-conference honors with a third-place finish.
Also earning all-conference honors were the men’s distance medley relay in Bryce Merriman, Prinsloo, Josh Cable and Adam Moore, who finished third with the fourth-best time in school history.
Yazmine Wright led the women’s team with a pair of runner-up finishes in the mile and 3,000 meters, while Amanda Kakoulias and Destiny Masters each finished fifth-place in their respective events of shot put and high jump.
Pair of top-15 finishes highlight WSU women’s golf
Mar Vidal and Louisa Brunt registered top-15 finishes to lead the Wichita State women’s golf team at the Rio Verde Invitational that wrapped up on Sunday.
Vidal delivered the low score for the team all three days and finished tied for 12th place with a 7-over score of 223. It marked the best finish of her career and first top-15 performance of the season, highlighted by a strong finish with a 1-over par 73 on the final day.
Brunt wasn’t far behind, tying for 15th place with a 9-over score of 225. Brunt and Vidal led the team with eight birdies over the three-round weekend.
WSU’s team finished tied for eighth with a 60-over par score of 924, which tied for a season-best finish for the team.
The Shockers will enjoy a lengthy break in action, not returning to competition until heading to Arizona for the Red Rocks Invitational on March 19-20.
WSU men’s tennis loses heartbreaker to Drake
The Shockers lost their second straight match that came down to the final point, this time dropping a 4-3 match at Drake on Sunday afternoon.
After losing the doubles point, WSU rallied with back-to-back wins on court three from Luka Mrsic and court two from Nicolas Acevedo to take a 2-1 lead. And Alex Richards’ win on court five tied the score at three, but Drake’s Markus Bolin sealed the match victory for the Bulldogs with a three-set win on court six.
Wichita State returns home on Thursday for a 1 p.m. match against Omaha at the Coleman Tennis Complex.
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 4:23 AM.
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