Wichita State softball surges to first place behind Ausha Moore’s record day
For the first month of the softball season, Wichita State looked like a team still trying to figure itself out.
Now the Shockers look like a team nobody in the American Conference wants to face.
Behind a monster weekend from sophomore slugger Ausha Moore and an offense that buried Charlotte before the 49ers could ever settle in, Wichita State rolled to a three-game road sweep that helped bring the Shockers level in the conference title race. WSU won 10-3 on Friday, 9-3 on Saturday and 14-4 in a run-rule victory on Sunday, stretching its winning streak to eight games.
Moore was the loudest force in the middle of it all with five home runs, 13 RBIs, seven runs scored and five walks, reaching base in 10 of her 13 plate appearances. She saved her best for last on Sunday, as she tied the school record with three home runs in a game and broke it with nine RBIs.
“We’re playing good softball at the right time,” Wichita State coach Kristi Bredbenner said. “You’re really a lot of really good things from a lot of our young kids that didn’t have a ton of experience at the start of the year. Right now we’re just worried about getting better every single day and continuing to learn from our experiences and keep moving forward.”
WSU opened the season 11-10 while trying to incorporate 14 newcomers on the roster and there were stretches early when the Shockers looked exactly like a team still learning who it was. But over the past five weeks, that uncertainty has given way to momentum, as WSU has surged into a share of first place in the American at 15-6.
The weekend turned out about as favorably as it possibly could for the Shockers, as they kept their streak rolling with a road sweep at Charlote and the two other top contenders both stumbled. South Florida, which entered the weekend alone in first place, lost two of three at East Carolina, while North Texas lost its road series to last-place Memphis.
That left the Shockers tied with South Florida for first place and one game ahead of North Texas with two weekends left in the regular season.
“This is what we play for,” Bredbenner said. “You want to see your team peaking at the right time of the season. I feel like this team is doing a lot of really good things right now, so you just hope we can keep it going. Our thing is we just have to focus on what’s in front of us, day by day vs. the big picture. Once we do that, we’re going to have a high level of success.”
Moore has become one of the biggest reasons to believe that surge is real.
As a true freshman at North Texas last season, Moore hit five home runs in 138 at-bats. In her first season at WSU, she has turned into one of the most dangerous hitters in the country. Through 42 games, Moore is batting .384 with 39 runs scored, 18 home runs, 47 RBIs, 36 walks and a .568 on-base percentage in 112 at-bats. She leads the team in almost every hitting category.
The historical context is starting to pile up, too. Moore is only the third player in program history to hit at least 18 home runs in a season, joining Addison Barnard and Madison Perrigan. Her .920 slugging percentage currently ranks third-best in school history behind only Barnard, while her .568 on-base percentage ranks second-best all-time behind only C.C. Wong and ahead of another program legend in Sydney McKinney.
“That’s pretty tremendous company,” Moore said. “I still have a long ways to go before I can be considered as good as they were. But for right now, I’m going to take that as a tremendous compliment.”
What makes Moore’s season so impressive is that she’s not just a home-run hitter. She is an on-base machine, as she leads the team with 36 walks and 13 hit by pitches.
Opposing pitchers do not have to give up a hit for Moore to beat them. If they nibble, she will take her base. If they miss in, she is just as happy to wear one. If they make a mistake over the plate, she has enough power now to punish it to any part of the park.
Sunday offered the perfect snapshot of that danger.
Moore started off with a two-run homer came on a pitch low in the zone that she lined over the wall in dead center. Later in the same inning, after WSU batted around, she came up with the bases loaded and turned on an inside pitch for a grand slam over the fence in left. Then in the third inning, she took an outside pitch and drove it out to right. Three swings, three home runs, to all three sectors of the outfield. By then Charlotte had seen enough. Moore walked in each of her next two plate appearances, including a four-pitch bases-loaded walk in the sixth when the 49ers chose to concede a run rather than let her swing the bat again.
“It almost didn’t feel real,” Moore said. “I was seeing the ball really big and I could tell they were trying to figure out where to pitch me. I was just trying to stay within myself and go where the ball was. I’m just glad I was able to come through for my team.”
Bredbenner said what stands out most is not just the production, but the process behind it.
Moore worked in the offseason to add strength and more power to her swing, and she has continued to put in daily work in the cages throughout the season. Bredbenner said that commitment has reminded her of the great hitters Wichita State has had in the past, particularly in the way they immersed themselves in the daily work with hitting coach Elizabeth Economon.
“Ausha was just a beast all weekend,” Bredbenner said. “The correlation between Ausha and (those program greats) is that they all put in the time and the work with coach E. She is learning what it takes to be an elite hitter and it’s pretty awesome to see her have a high level of success right now.”
Another reason Moore has become even more dangerous is what has started happening around her in the lineup.
Bredbenner has moved Moore around among the top three spots in the batting order, but she seems to have found a comfortable fit in the No. 2 hole behind Trinity Allen and in front of freshman Kinzey Woody, whose emergence during conference play has changed the feel of the lineup. Woody is hitting .470 with 10 home runs, 27 RBIs and a 1.015 slugging percentage in 21 conference games, while fellow freshman Kammie Smith is batting .394 in league play. That breakout from the freshman duo has made life more complicated for pitchers trying to navigate WSU’s order.
“When you have great hitters around you, you maybe start getting some pitches you can swing at,” Bredbenner said. “I think that all of our kids feel like they’re surrounding each other with good at bats and good sticks. That helps when you feel like you’re passing the bat to another great hitter.”
Moore sees the same thing from inside the lineup.
“We’re playing with so much confidence right now,” Moore said. “I think everybody has found their place and the vibes are great. Right now with our lineup, you have to pick your poison and that’s a really hard decision to make. We just have a mindset of we’re going to get it done every time we’re up there.”
That confidence has shown up in a striking way lately: WSU is jumping on teams before they can breathe. The Shockers scored a combined 19 runs in the first inning across the three games at Charlotte, essentially winning the series before the 49ers could settle into it. It was a display of aggressive, relentless offense from a team that suddenly looks sure of exactly what it wants to be.
And while the bats have stolen the spotlight, WSU has also received steady work from sophomore Ryley Nihart, who has lived up to her billing as the staff ace with a 9-4 record in conference play with a 2.49 ERA.
Now the challenge is obvious.
Wichita State heads to North Texas this coming weekend for a pivotal conference series against the team sitting one game behind the Shockers in the standings. If WSU can win that series, it would put itself in commanding position to lock up a top-two seed entering the conference tournament, especially with last-place Memphis coming to Wichita for the final regular-season series. That top-two finish would matter immensely because the American’s single-elimination tournament format gives the top two seeds an automatic bye into the Friday semifinals. With the conference tournament champion earning the automatic NCAA Tournament berth, that shortcut could prove enormous.
Wichita State’s RPI sits at No. 56, which points to another strong season but likely puts the Shockers on the wrong side of the at-large bubble. That means the clearest path back to an NCAA regional for the first time since 2023 is to win the American’s automatic berth.
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