Box Score

WICHITA, Kan.- No. 7 Wichita State (36-12, 15-3) defeated Evasville (29-17, 10-8), 7-1 Sunday afternoon, taking the series 2-1 over the Aces.

Anthony Capra improved to 4-0 on the season, throwing five scoreless innings, scattering three hits and three walks with two strikeouts. Kyle Touchatt struck out four and gave up two hits and two walk in 2.1 innings of relief.

Mark Murray retired the first two WSU hitters, but the Shockers then roughed up the UE starter for two earned runs on two outs in the first. Three consecutive singles followed by back-to-back walks gave Wichita State the 2-0 lead. Matt Brown and Conor Gillaspie had hits in opposite directions, first to shallow right field, then down the left field line. A solid line drive dropped into left field for Danny Jackson, bringing home Brown. Walks to Tyler Hill and Josh Workman loaded the bases and forced the second run home. Tyler Weber hit a hard shot towards third base, but Ryan Barrett managed to spear it for the third out.

WSU added one in the bottom of the second, scoring Andy Dirks with a ground ball from Brown. Robbie Minor was able to knock down a ball from Dirks at short stop, but the senior right fielder legged it out to first for an infield single. Damon Sublett got his first hit of the series, a single through the right side, to push Dirks to third.

Evansville gave up its first homerun in 1,077 plate appearances and only its fourth of the year to Dirks, leading off the bottom of the fourth. Dirks made it 4-0 with his second homer of the year, a shot over the right field fence.

With two outs in the sixth, Dirks again managed an infield single and cruised home on Sublett's stand-up triple in the deep right-center field gap.

Weber now leads the team in homeruns with eight. The junior catcher hit a two-run homer to left-center field in the eighth inning, bringing around with him pinch runner Ryan Jones. Jones was running for Derek Schermerhorn who singled up the middle in a pinch-hit appearance, his first since injuring his ankle on April 11.

Evansville managed to squeeze across a run in the top of the ninth before closer Noah Krol struck out the last batter to end the game. Andy Smith drew a one-out walk and came was driven in on singles by Barrett and Jim Viscomi.

Murray suffered the loss for Evansville, falling to 3-3, allowing four earned runs on eight hits and two walks over three innings.

Dirks led the offense for Wichita, going 3-for-5 with three runs and one RBI with a homerun. Sublett ended at 2-for-5 with an RBI.

Kirk Bacsu went 2-for-4 for the Aces and Viscomi had the sole RBI on a single.

Wichita State continues its homestand tomorrow night at 7 p.m. versus Bethany.

-Wichita State-