Shocker softball racks up consecutive wins against regional foes

Wichita State’s softball team picked up a second consecutive big non-conference win, beating Tulsa 11-3 on Wednesday night at Wilkins Stadium.

The win over Tulsa (23-7), a team that was just outside the top 25 in the most recent USA Softball rankings, came a night after the Shockers beat Kansas 6-1 in eight innings.

“I think the big thing for us is to create momentum,” Wichita State coach Kristi Bredbenner said. “We’ve got a big weekend this weekend with Illinois State, anytime you can get two wins off a team receiving votes and a Big 12 team, it’s always going to be a good week for you.”

The Shockers (18-12, 4-2 MVC) play their next nine games on the road, beginning with three games at Illinois State (9-14, 1-4 MVC) this Saturday and Sunday. Wichita State will then travel to No. 14 Oklahoma next Wednesday followed by three games at Evansville and a two-game series at No. 15 Missouri.

“The big difference, bottom line, is we pitched great today, we pitched great yesterday,” Bredbenner said. “We played great defense and if we can do those type of things, our hitting can make up the difference.”

Wichita State hit a school-record five home runs in the win over Tulsa, including two each from junior Macklin Hitz and sophomore Paige Luellen. The Shockers roughed up a Tulsa pitching staff that had a team ERA of 1.82.

“It felt really good to do what we did today,” Luellen said. “I didn’t have a very good game last night and to come back and get some hits today is all I can really ask for. I’m hard on myself, but it felt good to get back at it today.”

Hitz is on a six-game hitting streak and brought her season average up to .392.

“I go up to the plate with the same mentality everyday and it feels good for our team to play this well right now,” Hitz said.

Wichita State has hit 11 home runs during its five-game winning streak.

“I always feel like we can get better offensively,” Bredbenner said. “If we keep playing solid defense behind our pitching then we’ll continue to transfer that over to our approaches at the plate and we’ll continue to do what we did tonight.”

Wichita State’s defense has committed just three errors in the current streak while WSU outscored its opponents 37-6.

“As long as we can stay healthy and continue to come to work day in and day out then we’ll be successful,” Bredbenner said.

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Shocker softball racks up consecutive wins against regional foes."