Willie Schwanke sharp for Shockers in season debut

There were nerves, sure, but Wichita State pitcher Willie Schwanke welcomed them.

To Schwanke, it just meant he was back where he belonged.

“Just a lot of nerves, but they were good nerves,” Schwanke said. “A lot of butterflies to get it going, especially because it was my first game back from an injury. Being back in this atmosphere was something I was definitely looking forward to.”

Schwanke showed why he’s such a valuable piece of the WSU rotation —and why he was so missed last season — by picking up the win in a 17-2 victory over Northern Colorado on Saturday afternoon at Eck Stadium.

Schwanke, a junior, pitched four innings while giving up two earned runs, seven hits, one walk and striking out five. It was his first start after missing almost all of last season after tearing his lat muscle on March 20 against Southern Illinois — a non-surgery injury that ended up with Schwanke being granted a medical redshirt.

The win improved WSU to 2-0. The Shockers can sweep the season-opening series with a win in Sunday’s finale.

“He’s still Willie, still keeps it loose when he comes to the ballpark and is still the same guy, whether things are going good or bad,” said WSU first baseman Ryan Tinkham, who was 2 for 3 with three RBIs. “It’s good we can come out behind him and know he’s a leader on the mound.”

Schwanke’s first inning was feast or famine – UNC went up 1-0 on an RBI double by Cole Maltese after Tyler Yamaguchi’s leadoff double, but Schwanke settled down and struck out two after the run.

“Credit to them, they were battling me the whole game,” Schwanke said. “Those first couple of hits, I made good pitches and that’s just what happens, that’s the game. I did the best I could and we came out on top.”

Schwanke let the Shockers’ bats – and UNC’s pitching and fielding mistakes – do the rest of the work.

The Shockers went up 3-1 in the second inning thanks to a fielder’s choice RBI by Mikel Mucha and a two-RBI single from Tinkham.

WSU scored nine runs in the third inning – eight of them coming with two outs. After Keenan Eaton scored on an RBI double by Tanner Kirk and a fielding error by Maltese, the left fielder, Kirk scored on a sacrifice fly by Travis Young.

WSU (2-0) then strung together four runs on four straight batters with two bases-loaded walks by starting pitcher Spencer Applebach, who was replaced by Ian Doughty after the second walk.

Doughty walked the first batter he faced with the bases loaded for another score, then threw a wild pitch against the next batter and Tinkham scored from third.

Schwanke put UNC down 1-2-3 in the second, had little trouble in the third other than giving up a double to Tyler Yamaguchi and struck out Jacob Ek and Payton Tapia to end the fourth.

He was pulled after giving up one two more doubles — and one more run — in the top of the fifth.

“I thought he pitched well, very good command against an aggressive-swinging team,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “I thought he pitched well for his first time out since March against another opponent. He only gave up a few hits in the zone he probably shouldn’t have, but I also probably shouldn’t have run him out for that last inning after he sat for so long. I should’ve gone with someone else and they popped him for a couple of doubles.”

WSU added two runs each in the fifth and sixth. Applebach was the losing pitcher for UNC (0-2), giving up nine earned runs on nine hits in 2 2/3 innings.

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Willie Schwanke sharp for Shockers in season debut."