WICHITA, Kan. - Wichita State will make its second trip in as many weekends to Louisiana when the Shockers visit Baton Rouge to face the sixth-ranked and perennial power LSU Tigers at Alex Box Stadium.
Quick Hits
• All three games this weekend will be broadcast on KNSS 1330 AM and on goshockers.com with Shane Dennis calling the action. The games will also be televised on SEC Network+/ESPN3.
• LSU leads the overall series with Wichita State, 6-4, including a 3-0 mark in Baton Rouge.
• It will be the first meeting between the two teams since 1996 at the College World Series.
• Shocker head coach Todd Butler and sophomore outfielder Dayton Dugas are both Louisiana natives. Butler is from Sulphur, while Dugas is from Lake Charles.
• Senior pitcher Willie Schwanke's dad Jim was an assistant coach for LSU from 1995-2000 and was a part of two national championships with
the Tigers in 1996 and 1997.
• Willie Schwanke is the only current Shocker who has played against LSU. He went 1-for-3 as the DH on April 13, 2013 when he played for Arkansas.
• WSU is 21st in the March 8 NCAA RPI, while LSU is 13th. The Shockers are 1-3 against the top-50 and 4-3 against the top-100.
• The Shockers have won eight in a row at home, the eighth longest streak in the nation.
• Alec Bohm is currently on a seven-game hitting streak.
• Jordan Boyer leads the Shockers with nine two-out RBI and is hitting .462 with two outs.
• On Tuesday night, the Shockers earned a win in Norman, Okla., for just the third time in school history. The other two wins were in 1992 and 2006.
• In the NCAA stats, WSU is 70th in double plays turned per game, 75th in ERA, 40th in hits allowed per nine innings, 77th in fielding percentage, and sixth in shutouts. Individually, Ben Hecht is 20th in saves, Reagan Biechler is 52nd in saves, Willie Schwanke and Cody Tyler
are 14th in games started and 58th in wins and Jordan Boyer is 98th in RBI per game.
• 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 62 at bats.
• Two Shockers have double-digit errorless streaks including Travis Young at 46 and Gunnar Troutwine at 14.
• 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 576-226-2 all-time overall in the month of March.
• Since 1978, the Shockers are 18-6 on March 10, 15-8 on March 11 and 17-10-1 on March 12.
• 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 LSU
The Tigers are 9-4 overall after losing to McNeese State on Wednesday. Wins this season have come against Army twice, Air Force, Hofstra,
Maryland three times, Nicholls, and Baylor. Losses have come against New Orleans, No. 1 TCU, No. 21 Texas Tech and McNeese State. As a team, LSU is hitting .329 with a 3.17 ERA and a .983 fielding percentage. The Tigers are led offensively by Cole Freeman who is hitting .467 with three doubles, seven RBI and five stolen bases.The Tigers are led by head coach Paul Mainieri.
Series History vs. the Tigers
LSU leads the overall series with Wichita State 6-4. The Tigers also lead the series in Baton Rouge, 3-0. LSU took the three games in Baton
Rouge in 1987, the Shockers won all three in Wichita in 1988 and one in Baseball City, Fla., in 1990. LSU has won the last three meetings, all in Omaha, in 1991, 1993 and 1996.
Last Meeting vs. LSU
The last meeting between the two teams was June 1, 1996, in Omaha, Neb. at the College World Series. LSU won the game 9-8. Casey Blake led the Shockers going 4-for-5 with four RBI and a home run, while Zach Sorensen went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a home run. Starter Brandon Baird took the loss as he gave up two earned runs in 2.2 innings.
Combined Shutout
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.
