HONOLULU, Hawaii – Wichita State (8-2) swept a doubleheader at Hawaii by winning game two 5-4 to extend its winning streak to eight games.
Tyler Hill went 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Shockers, while Derek Schermerhorn went 2-for-4. Starter Travis Banwart earned the win going five innings and giving up one unearned run on seven hits while striking out four. Noah Krol picked up his third save pitching two innings and giving up one run on three hits.
The Shockers got on the board first with two runs in the second inning. With one out, Tyler Hill and Cody Lassley hit back-to-back singles and then each stole a base to put runners on second and third with one out. Ryan Jones collected his first career RBI with a sacrifice fly to center and then Dusty Coleman drove in his first career run with a single to left field to put the Shocks up 2-0.
UH got a run back in the second after Brandon Haislet led off the inning with a bunt single to third base. The next batter, Jon Hee, hit a ground ball to Travis Banwart who threw it away allowing Haislet to score from first. With Hee at second, Banwart pitched out of trouble by getting the next three batters out.
WSU responded with two more runs in the third. Derek Schermerhorn led off with a single through the right side before Damon Sublett drove him in with a double to right center field. Sublett advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Conor Gillaspie before a two-out single by Hill drove in Sublett to make the score 4-1.
UH starter Joshua Schneider settled down and mowed down 13-straight Shockers before Schermerhorn's leadoff double in the eighth, which ended Schneider's day. Sublett grounded out to short to advance Schermerhorn to third and he scored on a groundout by Gillaspie.
After five scoreless innings from the Shocker pitchers, UH was able to pull closer with two runs in the eighth. Kris Sanchez and Brandon Haislet hit back-to-back singles to leadoff the inning off of Noah Booth. Noah Krol came on to get the next two batters, but a two-out double by Evan Zimny cut the score to 5-3. Krol retired the next batter to get out of the inning.
The game got interesting in the ninth as Krol allowed a leadoff single. After striking out the next batter, Krol walked Justin Frash and gave up an RBI single to Kris Sanchez to make the score 5-4. He got Haislet to pop up and Macdonald to fly out to end the game.
Game One
Wichita State (7-2) won its seventh-straight game with a 10-4 victory in game one of a doubleheader at Hawaii (9-5).
Conor Gillaspie led the Shockers going 3-for-5 with four RBI and a home run, while Damon Sublett and Matt Brown added three hits each.
Starter Aaron Shafer (2-1) earned the win going 5.2 innings and giving up four runs on five hits, while striking out three. Anthony Capra earned his first save of the year finishing the game with 3.1 scoreless innings.
Hawaii struck first in the bottom of the first with a leadoff double up the middle by Derek DuPree. He came around to score after the next hitter Jon Hee hit an infield single to third and the throw from Aaron Shafer got away from first baseman Derek Schermerhorn to allow DuPree to score. Tyler Weber threw out Hee who was trying to steal second and Shafer sat down the next two Rainbow batters to end the inning.
The Shockers responded in the second with a leadoff double from designated hitter Danny Jackson. Matt Brown doubled down the left field line to score Jackson and then stole third with Blake Hurlbutt at the plate. WSU took a 2-1 lead with an RBI groundout from Hurlbutt.
WSU increased the lead to 5-1 after a three-run third inning. With one out, Schermerhorn singled up the middle and advanced to third on a single by Damon Sublett. Conor Gillaspie then drove one over the right field fence for his second home run of the season. The Shockers threatened to score more, but left the bases loaded.
Shafer gave up a home run to Justin Frash to lead off the fourth to make the score 5-2, but the Shocks poured it on in the fifth with three more runs to take an 8-2 lead. Gillaspie, Brown, Hurlbutt and Weber all singled in the inning to plate the three runs.
The Rainbows tacked on two more runs in the sixth with two singles and three walks to pull within 8-4, but the Shockers put together a two-out rally in the eighth. After Weber and Noah Krol struck out to start the inning, Tyler Hill drew a walk, Schermerhorn singled, Sublett singled and Gillaspie singled to score two more runs.
-Wichita State-
