Shockers can’t complete season-opening sweep

Wichita State’s hope of a season-opening, three-game sweep of Northern Colorado came up just short on Sunday afternoon at Eck Stadium. The Shockers gave up two runs in the top of the ninth inning in a 4-3 loss.

“You know, I give a lot of credit to Northern Colorado,” Wichita State coach Todd Butler said. “They came out and were hungry for a Sunday victory, they didn’t want to get swept on the road.”

For the second day in a row, the Shockers allowed a Northern Colorado run in the the first. That would be their only score until the sixth as WSU starting pitcher Chase Williams settled down and seemed to have better control of his pitches.

“I thought Chase Williams pitched very well today,” Butler said. “He kind of struggled there in the first inning, but he bounced back from that and started to throw strikes and get their guys out, he had much better control after that inning.”

The Shockers got their bats going in the second as Gunnar Troutwine led off the with a double down the right field line, giving WSU its first momentum of the game. Just two batters later, Tanner Kirk would single up the middle, scoring Troutwine.

WSU would get its bats going again in the fourth when Ryan Tinkham led off with a single. Zach Reding belted a double down the right field line, advancing Tinkham to third. The Shockers took a 2-1 lead after Tinkham scored from third on a wild pitch.

Northern Colorado tied the game in sixth on a ball hit to Wichita State shortstop Tanner Kirk, who bobbled the ball on his way to what could have been an inning-ending double play.

“We had some issues with bobbling the ball in pregame,” Butler said. :I think it may just be an area of focus that we need to pay more attention to.”

Tyler Jones came on in relief of Williams in the sixth inning. Jones would strike out four Bears and not allow a hit through 2 2/3 innings.

Wichita State went up 3-2 in the eight when Kirk’s single scored pinch runner Bret Fehr from third.

John Hayes took over for Jones and retired his first two batters before things started to go downhill. After issuing a walk, Northern Colorado’s Tyler Yamaguchi tied the game 3-3 with an RBI single. After stealing second, Yamaguchi scored on a Cole Maltese single for a 4-3 lead.

WSU put two runners in scoring position, but struck out looking in its final two at-bats to end the game.

“I’m very proud of how my team played,” Northern Colorado coach Carl Iwasaki said. “Our guys didn’t want to get swept, they’ve been in this situation before. It was pretty neat to come here and beat the best team in the Valley once.”

WSU (2-1) returns to action Tuesday in Tulsa, taking on Oral Roberts.

E — Ek (1), Mulvaney (1), Vickers (1). DP — WSU 2. LOB — NC 9, WSU 12. 2B — Reding (3), Troutwine (2). S — Maltese, Eaton. SB — Cashel (1), Lawson (1), Yamaguchi (1), Maltese (1), Mucha 2 (3). CS — Minnick (1).

x

This story was originally published February 21, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Shockers can’t complete season-opening sweep."