Wichita State baseball concludes disappointing season with early AAC tournament exit
The Wichita State baseball team concluded a rather forgettable season on Wednesday night in a 12-4 loss to UCF in the consolation bracket of the American Athletic Conference tournament in Clearwater, Florida.
The Shockers finished 21-36, tied for the fewest wins in a season since the program was revived by Gene Stephenson in 1978, excluding those cut short by the coronavirus pandemic or vacated because of NCAA violations.
The two-and-done performance in Clearwater was also the first time WSU has failed to win at least one game in the AAC tournament since joining the conference in 2018. The Shockers finished tied for sixth place in the eight-team conference at 9-15 and had the second-worst team batting average and earned-run average in the conference.
While it was a step back in win-loss record from last season’s 31-23 mark, WSU manager Eric Wedge pointed out the Shockers played the 27th-toughest nonconference strength of schedule this season.
Despite the final record, the Shockers showed early promise when they dug out of a 2-7 start to the season to win five in a row, including three straight over power-conference opponents to claim the Frisco College Baseball Classic championship in early March.
But WSU failed to build on the momentum, losing 16 of 17 games at one point in April. The Shockers showed some resilience late in the season in a three-game sweep of Tulane at Eck Stadium followed by an 18-0 pounding of Oklahoma in the regular-season finale at home.
The hot streak did not follow WSU down to Florida, as it lost two of three to last-place South Florida in the final AAC series of the regular season before falling two straight times in the conference tournament against the No. 2 and No. 3 seed.
In a 10-7 loss to Houston on Tuesday, WSU rallied for a 3-1 lead early on back-to-back home runs from Brock Rodden and Sawyre Thornhill. After falling behind 7-3, WSU rallied for four straight runs to tie the game headed for the bottom of the seventh inning, but Houston blasted a go-ahead, two-run home run to take the lead for good.
Outside of an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a RBI single by Jordan Rogers, WSU never really threatened in the loss to UCF after the Knights plated five runs in the second inning. A bases-loaded walk by Garrett Kocis followed by a wild pitch brought the Shockers to within 6-3, but that was as close as they would come in the eight-run loss.
Sophomore pitcher Cameron Bye, Rodden, a sophomore second baseman and sophomore outfielder Chuck Ingram earned first team all-conference honors, while Rodden was named the Newcomer Position Player of the Year.
Bye transitioned from a reliever to one of the AAC’s top starters, finishing with a 5-1 record and 3.03 ERA over 65-plus innings. He opened the season without allowing an earned run in 24-plus innings.
Rodden led the team in batting average (.335), on-base percentage (.434) and slugging percentage (.641) in his first season at WSU. The switch-hitter led the conference in total bases (134) and also ranked top-five in hits, runs and home runs.
Ingram, the team’s starting center fielder, finished with a .309 batting average and was second in the conference in total bases (130), third in RBI (51) and third in home runs (16).
This story was originally published May 26, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
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