Shocker baseball hammers its way to first 4-0 start since 2018 with home sweep
The Wichita State baseball team is off to its first 4-0 start to a season since 2018.
After a disastrous 36-loss campaign last season, a new-look group provided new-look results with a clean, authoritative four-game sweep of Northern Colorado at Eck Stadium. WSU won 11-4 this past Friday, rolled to a 14-1 run-rule victory on Saturday, then closed the series with a Sunday doubleheader sweep, 11-0 and 7-3, both in seven innings.
A program with WSU’s expectations is supposed to handle a team that finished No. 269 in last season’s RPI. But after last year’s stumble, taking care of business — and doing it with polish — mattered.
The early returns, which included 15 different hitters receiving a plate appearance and 13 different pitchers seeing time on the mound, checked every box third-year head coach Brian Green wanted to see.
“We always want to do our best job on opening weekend to see as many guys as we can,” Green said. “You want to see which guys really turn it up when the lights come on and find out the guys who maybe aren’t like what we saw in the scrimmages a couple of weeks ago. For us to get almost everybody in and come away with four wins and do the things that we said we were going to do, that’s a really positive start for us.”
Before the season, Green promised WSU’s offense would be enhanced with more power and more speed. The Shockers delivered in their debut, as the team hit .355, finished with more walks (26) than strikeouts (25), launched eight home runs and converted on all seven attempted stolen bases.
No bat was louder than Oklahoma State transfer Jayson Jones. He delivered one of the most dominant opening weekends by a Shocker hitter in recent memory, going 7-for-15 with four home runs, 12 RBIs and nine runs scored. He homered in every game and consistently changed innings with one swing.
“If the wind wasn’t blowing in, he might have had seven or eight home runs this weekend,” Green said. “He was unbelievable. Even his outs were loud.”
South Carolina transfer catcher Max Kaufer also made an immediate impact, including a two-homer performance in his WSU debut. He finished 4-for-8 for the weekend and provided thump behind the plate.
But the most meaningful development may have come from a pitching staff that had nowhere to go but up after last year’s mess. Through 30 innings, WSU pitchers combined for a 1.80 earned run average with 41 strikeouts and only 13 walks — a dramatic shift in control.
“Last year there’s no way we do what we did this weekend,” Green said. “If you look at our strikeout-to-walk ratios, we were getting after guys. We don’t have dominant stuff, so we’re going to have to mix and locate. Last year we had a lot of two-pitch guys, so we were at the mercy of the matchup. Now you’re seeing more three-pitch guys and seeing the way it’s supposed to look like. That was definitely a step in the right direction.”
No. 2 starter Johnny Nuanez delivered the sharpest outing of the weekend in Saturday’s 14-1 win, allowing just two hits and one walk across five innings with five strikeouts and no earned runs. Reese Kortum, a 6-foot-5 lefty from Fort Scott Community College, impressed as the surprise third starter by spinning four scoreless innings with five strikeouts in the 11-0 victory.
Out of the bullpen, junior-college All-American Matthew Cuccias was electric, striking out four across three perfect innings without allowing a baserunner. Freshman Ethan Rogers, one of the staff’s most anticipated newcomers, struck out the first two hitters he faced in his Division I debut. Though his outing was brief, it made an impression on Green.
Ryan Morrison, a 6-foot-7 graduate transfer from Australia, also showed signs he could become a key bullpen piece as the season unfolds.
The head coach texted Rogers afterward: “Welcome to Shocker nation.” The freshman quickly responded: “I’m ready for more.”
The decision to open this season at home instead of on the road was intentional. After a flat opening series at McNeese State last year set a shaky tone, Green adjusted the schedule to give his team a better runway.
The result was momentum and belief.
“Every day we walk up to the mound or get in the box, Gene (Stephenson, former coach) is looking down on us and there’s some pressure with that,” Green said. “We have to make sure our guys are locked in on the process and are respecting the game, regardless of who we’re playing. To go 4-0, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, that’s hard to do. So this was a huge confidence boost for our guys.”
The next test will be nothing like the first. Wichita State travels this week for a four-game series at Hawai’i, one of the sport’s toughest road environments, annually ranking among the national leaders in attendance and home wins. The trip brings long travel, quick turnarounds and tighter margins.
Opening weekend was a success, but Green knows his team has a long way to go before righting the ship. The results in Hawai’i will reveal much more about where this team is at early in the season.
“Every pitch is life or death in Hawai’i and we’re going to need to show we can win games like that,” Green said. “With the wind blowing out at Eck, yeah, we’re going to be pretty good. We’re big and strong and can hit for power. But if we’re going to really turn this thing around, we’ve got to learn how to win those 3-2 games where you have to manufacture a run on the road. We can’t just be a one-dimensional team.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2026 at 5:57 AM.
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