Shocker bullpen struggles again in 13-8 loss

Wichita State baseball’s bullpen struggles continued Sunday afternoon, as Sam Houston State scored 12 runs in the final four innings and beat WSU 13-8.

Sam Houston State outscored Wichita State 26-10 from the sixth inning on in the three-game series, winning two of three. The loss dropped WSU to 4-7.

Shocker starting pitcher Zach Lewis went four solid innings on the mound, allowing one run on four hits. He was making his second start after beginning the season with three relief appearances, and WSU coach Todd Butler didn’t want to work his pitch count up too high.

With WSU trailing 1-0, Tyler Jones worked around two singles in a scoreless fifth inning, but allowed a single, double and triple to start the top of the sixth inning, which ended with the Shockers trailing 7-0.

“We go to Jones right there, we give up a big six-run inning there in the sixth and it just turned into a repeat of Friday,” Butler said.

The Bearkats would add three more runs in the eighth inning to take a 10-0 lead on the Shockers before Wichita State’s bats awakened – a single and two walks with two outs loaded the bases for Ryan Tinkham, who blasted a first-pitch fastball over the left-field wall for a grand slam.

Sam Houston State added three runs in the ninth inning off of reliever Chase Williams.

Wichita State got a three-run triple from Jordan Boyer in the ninth. Luke Ritter followed with an RBI single to score Boyer and make it 1308 with one out, but Sam Houston State pitcher Jordan Cannon retired the next two hitters.

“As a young and inexperienced ball team, it’s big to take two of three from these guys,” Sam Houston State coach Matt Deggs said. “It’s big for our confidence moving forward, we can play, but having that confidence just makes it that much easier moving forward.”

Wichita State struggled offensively at key moments, leaving the bases loaded three times and stranding 14 runners on base for the game.

“We’ve got to get better at having all three parts of the game working for us,” Butler said. “Once we get our hitting, pitching and fielding in sync then we’ll be a good team; as you saw in this series, we’ve got work to do.”

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This story was originally published March 6, 2016 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Shocker bullpen struggles again in 13-8 loss."