Box Score

WICHITA -- Wichita State (20-19) didn't get any offense going against the Oklahoma State (26-15) pitching staff, suffering a 4-1 loss on Tuesday night at Eck Stadium.

Oklahoma State pieced together four runs and kept the Shocker bats quiet until the eighth. Wichita State pieced together three hits in the inning, but a double play kept just the single run on the scoreboard. Clint McKeever went 2-for-4 for WSU with a double and an RBI. Josh Rosecrans and Ryan Jones collected the other two hits for the Shockers on the day.

Mark Ginther led the OSU offense with two hits and two RBI in the game, while Kevin David also added two hits. OSU's pitching staff had four pitchers combine to hold WSU to just one earned on three hits, while walking three and striking out 13 Shockers.

Wichita State starter Brian Flynn came out firing in the first two innings against the Cowboys. Spotting his fastball with consistency, Flynn kept the OSU offense off track with two strikeouts in the second. Flynn's left-handed counterpart, Andrew Oliver gave up a leadoff walk to Will Baez in the first, but made quick work of the Shocker offense through the first two innings.

Flynn ran into a little trouble in the third after OSU's Doug Kroll reached on a Will Baez error. The next hitter, Tom Belza laid down a bunt that found its way between Flynn and first baseman Clint McKeever for a base hit. Kroll and Belza were sacrificed to second and third, with Kroll scoring a groundout to first by Michael Dabbs. Flynn got the next hitter looking for his third strikeout of the game to end the threat.

After OSU relief pitcher Thomas Keeling worked around his own fielding error in the Shocker half of the third, the Cowboy offense manufactured another run in the fourth for a 2-0 lead. Tyrone Hambly led off the inning with a single and moved around to third on a Flynn walk and a sacrifice before scoring on a balk.

The Shocker offense put their first batter of the inning on with a walk to Tyler Grimes, then Clint McKeever hit a laser into the right centerfield gap for a double to score the speedy Grimes from first. After McKeever's RBI-double, Josh Rosecrans each on an error to put runners on the corners with nobody out. OSU's Keeling was up to the task getting Mitch Caster to pop out, then striking out Chris O'Brien and Andrew Letourneau.

In the Oklahoma State fifth, Caster made the play of the game to save an extra base hit and end the inning. With one out, Dabbs hit a hard line drive to the wall but Caster ran it down and got the ball back in to Grimes, who doubled off Belza at first.

The Shockers took the momentum into the home half of the fifth, getting two on with out after Baez drew another walk and Jones was hit by Keeling's last pitch of the day. Reliever Jeff Breedlove entered for the Cowboys and got Grimes to pop up and McKeever to ground out to end the threat.

The Cowboy offense came alive in the sixth with a two-RBI triple from Mark Ginther with one out. Flynn's who's previous career-best outing was 5.2 innings, battled through the final two outs of the sixth and cruised through a 1-2-3 seventh to slow down the OSU momentum and end his day. Flynn gave up three earned on five hits, while walking three and striking out eight.

After Shocker reliever Remington Johnson retired OSU in the top of the eighth, the Shocker offense showed signs of life, but couldn't push across a run. WSU got three hits in the inning, but a line drive off the bat of Grimes was snared by OSU's third baseman resulted in the rally-killing double play.

In the top of the ninth, reliever Josh Smith settled in after a leadoff walk to strike out the side with a flurry of curveballs to OSU's left-handed hitters, but the Shockers couldn't get anything going in the bottom of the ninth.

Wichita State will be back in action tomorrow at No. 13 Oklahoma with the first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be aired on Kansas 22.

--Wichita State--