Wichita State opens the midweek with a road contest at Oral Roberts Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. CT before hosting Sacramento State Wednesday night at 6 p.m. in Eck Stadium.
• Both games this midweek will be broadcast on KNSS 1330 AM and on goshockers.com with
Shane Dennis calling the action. Both games will also be televised on ESPN3.
• Wichita State leads the overall series with Oral Roberts 33-28. WSU also leads the series in Tulsa 12-11.
• WSU is 109th in the March 20 NCAA RPI, while Oral Roberts is 78th. The Shockers are 1-6 against the top-50 and 1-6 against the top-100.
• The Shockers have won 10 in a row at home, the sixth longest streak in the nation.
• WSU is 2-8 this season on the road. • In those 10 road games, WSU is hitting .194 with a 6.23 ERA and .969 fielding percentage.
• On the road this season,
Luke Ritter is hitting .273,
Alec Bohm is hitting .263 and
Greyson Jenista is hitting .256.
• WSU is 4-6 in the last 10 games.
• In those 10 games, WSU is hitting .223 with a 5.48 ERA and .975 fielding percentage.
• In the last 10 games,
Luke Ritter is hitting .370,
Jordan Boyer is hitting .324 and
Greyson Jenista is hitting .316.
• In the NCAA stats, WSU is 62nd in double plays, 80th in triples, 59th in hits allowed per nine innings, 71st in fielding percentage and ninth in shutouts. Individually,
Trey Vickers is 48th in triples,
Ben Hecht is 32nd in saves and 72nd in appearanes,
Reagan Biechler is 72nd in appearances, and
Willie Schwanke and
Cody Tyler are 21st in games started.
• WSU collected back-to-back shutouts on Feb. 25 of Grand Canyon. The last time WSU had two-straight was in 2013.
• WSU had a scoreless innings streak of 24.1 from Feb. 19-26. The streak ranks as the eighth longest in WSU history.
• Senior pitcher
Reagan Biechler needs four more appearances to move into a tie for 24th in the Shocker record book for career appearances.
• All seven returning starters have homered in their last 62 at bats.
• WSU collected back-to-back shutouts on Feb. 25 of Grand Canyon. The last time WSU had two-straight was in 2013.
• WSU had a scoreless innings streak of 24.1 from Feb. 19-26. The streak ranks as the eighth longest in WSU history.
• Senior pitcher
Reagan Biechler needs four more appearances to move into a tie for 24th in the Shocker record book for career appearances.
• All seven returning starters have homered in their last 78 at bats.
• Four Shockers have double-digit errorless streaks including
Travis Young at 54,
Gunnar Troutwine at 19,
Jordan Boyer at 13 and
Luke Ritter at 10.
• WSU struck out seven-straight batters in the season opener against Utah Valley. It was the first time with six or more consecutive strikeouts since 2010.
• WSU plays 24 games in 2017 against teams that were in the top-100 in the RPI in 2016. Fifteen of those are games against teams in the top-50.
• The Shockers are now 85-7 all-time at home (Eck and Lawrence-Dumont) in the month of February.
• WSU is 579-231-2 all-time overall in the month of March.
• Since 1978, the Shockers are 22-5 on March 21.
• WSU is now 29-11 in season openers since 1978.
• WSU is now 37-3 in home openers since 1978.
• The Shocks were picked tied for fourth in the MVC Preseason Poll.
• Sophomore designated hitter
Alec Bohm and sophomore utility player
Luke Ritter were named to the preseason all-Valley team.
• In 2016,
Greyson Jenista was the first freshman to lead the Shockers in hitting since Pat Magness in 1997 and was just the fifth freshman overall.
• The Shockers welcome 13 newcomers in 2017.
• WSU returns seven starters and 15 letterwinners from the 2016 team.
• The Shocker pitching staff returns four starters including
Willie Schwanke,
Cody Tyler,
Zach Lewis and
Connor Lungwitz.
• Last season,
Travis Young tied the freshman record for sacrifice hits in a season with seven and it was also the 12th most in the single season record books.
• Last season,
Gunnar Troutwine had the fifth most assists by a catcher with 59.
• Head Coach
Todd Butler is in his fourth season as coach of the Shockers.
• Assistant Coach
Brian Walker is the third base coach and Volunteer Assistant Coach
Codey McElroy is the first base coach.
Scouting Oral Roberts
The Golden Eagles are 12-7 overall after sweeping North Dakota State over the weekend. Wins this season have come against Little Rock four times, Alabama three times, Kansas, Dallas Baptist and North Dakota State three times. Losses have come against Missouri State, Minnesota, Iowa, Hawaii, Dallas Baptist twice, and Kansas. As a team, the ORU is hitting .284 with a 3.96 ERA and a .976 fielding percentage. The Golden Eagles are led offensively by Noah Cummings who is hitting .347 with four doubles, five home runs and 21 RBI. ORU is led by head coach Ryan Folmar.
Series History vs. the Golden Eagles
Wichita State leads the overall series with Oral Roberts 33-28. The Shockers also lead the series in Tulsa, Okla., 12-11.
Last Meeting vs. ORU
The last meeting between the two teams was April 5, 2016, in Wichita. The Shockers won the game 15-8.
Chase Rader went 2-for-4 with four RBI, while
Ryan Tinkham went 1-for-3 with four RBI. Starter
Connor Lungwitz earned the win. Boyer's Grand Slam Sophomore infielder
Jordan Boyer hit his first career home run on Wednesday against Northern Colorado. The home run was a grand slam, which was the Shockers first of the season. Boyer now has 17 RBI, which leads the team.
Defense and Bullpen Step Up
The Shockers defense and bullpen were impressive in three games over the weekend at Cal Poly. The team did not commit an error in 115 total chances in three games. The bullpen pitched 14.1 innings in the three games and allowed just two runs on eight hits with one walk and 10 strikeouts.
Home Winning Streak
Wichita State has won 10-straight home games, dating back to last season. It is the longest home winning streak since 2015 when WSU won 10-straight from April 24-May 20. The Shockers current streak is tied for the sixthlongest in the nation.
Win in Norman
Wichita State collected a 4-2 win at No. 13 Oklahoma on March 7. It was the Shockers first win over a ranked team this season and snapped the Sooners nation-leading 12-game winning streak. It was just the third time in school history
that the Shockers defeated Oklahoma in Norman. The other two times were 1992 and 2006.
Four-Headed Monster
teams. They allowed just two singles and struck out 13 in those nine innings.
Freshman Firsts
Two Shocker freshmen earned firsts last week. Freshman pitcher
Tommy Barnhouse earned his first career win on March 7 at No. 13 Oklahoma. He pitched two innings in relief and allowed
one unearned run with three strikeouts. Freshman outfielder
Jacob Katzfey collected his first career-hit on March 11 at No. 6 LSU.
Wichita State collected its third shutout of the year on March 1 against Omaha. The Shockers used 10 pitchers to combine on the three-hit shutout. The 10 pitchers who combined on the shutout were juniors
Chandler Sanburn,
Tyler Jones and
Adam Keller, sophomores
Codi Heuer,
Matt Whalen,
Connor Lungwitz and
Robby Evans and freshmen
Keylan Killgore,
Tommy Barnhouse and
Preston Snavely.
Bohm on a Streak
Sophomore third baseman
Alec Bohm is currently on a season-best seven-game hitting streak. During the streak, he is 10-for-27 (.370) with seven runs, two doubles, two home runs, four RBI and four walks.
K's for Days
The Shockers pitching staff collected 15 strikeouts in the 4-0 win over Grand Canyon on Feb. 25. It was the first time the Shockers had 15 or more strikeouts in a game since March 12, 2013 against North Dakota.
Back-to-Back Shutouts
On Feb. 25, the Shockers had back-to-back shutouts of Grand Canyon by scores of 1-0 and 4-0. It was the first time the Shockers had back-to-back shutouts since 2013 when they beat Southern Illinois (15-0) and Indiana State (5-0) in the MVC Tournament. The 1-0 win in game one against GCU was the first 1-0 win for the Shockers since beating Bradley 1-0 in 10 innings on May 12, 2012.
Undefeated Start
Wichita State is off to a 7-0 start this season after three-game sweeps of Utah Valley and Grand Canyon and a win over Omaha. It is the best start by a Shocker team since 2011 when they also started 7-0.
Sweeps
The Shockers collected back-to-back three-game sweeps over Utah Valley and Grand Canyon. It is the first time the Shockers have done that since sweeping Niagara and North Dakota in February of 2011.
Bombs for Bohm
Sophomore third baseman
Alec Bohm collected his first multi-home run game of his career in the 5-3 win over Grand Canyon on Feb. 26. He went 3-for-4 with three RBI, two runs and two home runs. It is the first multi-home run game by a Shocker since
Ryan Tinkham hit two against Kansas State on April 14, 2015.
Seven-Straight K's
In the season opener against Utah Valley on Feb. 17, the Shocker bullpen struck out seven-straight batters.
Landon Holifield struck out the first three,
Ben Hecht struck out the next three and
Reagan Biechler struck out the seventh. It was the first time the Shocker pitching staff struck out six or more consecutive batters since May 14, 2010 when they struck out six-straight against Missouri State.
Newcomers Make Debut
Nine Shocker newcomers made their debut against Utah Valley. Position players
Noah Croft,
Sam Goodwin,
Jacob Katzfey and
Bryant Klusener along with pitchers
Adam Keller,
Landon Holifield,
Ben Hecht,
Tommy Barnhouse and
Preston Snavely all played for the Shockers in the season opening three-game sweep of Utah Valley. Freshman infielder
Alex Jackson made his debut the following weekend against Grand Canyon and redshirt sophomore pitcher
Matt Whalen and redshirt freshman pitcher
Keylan Killgore made their debut against Omaha.
