The RoundHouse | 4/21/2022 6:44:00 AM
Erin McDonald is not sure why she is on such a roll in the Wilkins Stadium circle. With the bulk of Wichita State's season scheduled for that same turf over the next three weeks, she is happy with the trend.
"I hadn't noticed that until someone said it earlier," she said. "That's just the way it's been going. Hopefully, it means a good series this weekend."
Wichita State did everything it could to set itself up for a good weekend on Wednesday with McDonald's pitching leading the way. The Shockers (25-13) run-ruled Kansas 9-1 in five innings in front of a sold-out crowd of 762 fans at Wilkins Stadium.
Right fielder
Addison Barnard homered twice and drove in five runs. She regained her spot atop the nation's leaderboard with 22 homers and tied her Shocker season mark set last season.
Neleigh Herring and
Jessica Garcia also homered, and
Sydney McKinney went 2 for 2 and scored three runs.
Impressive, and not surprising for the Shockers. They handled the Jayhawks (14-26) 9-2 in March with Herring homering to lead a 15-hit attack.
The Shockers, in second place in the American Athletic Conference, play Memphis at home this weekend to start their stretch of nine games to finish the regular season. A few more performances like McDonald's in recent weeks could go a long way to helping the Shockers in the race for NCAA at-large credit and the conference title.
On Wednesday, she two-hit the Jayhawks, striking out seven and walking two. In her last three starts at Wilkins Stadium, she allowed four earned runs over 18 innings. The Jayhawks threatened in the second inning with a home run by Savanna DesRochers, followed by a double by Cheyenne Hornbuckle.
"Couple changeups, here and there, and that's what got hit hard," McDonald said. "I would say they were right down the middle."
That was it for the Jayhawks. McDonald continued to use her riseball, placed her fastball effectively and kept the changeups out of reach.
"Her riseball was working really well," catcher
Lainee Brown said. "Her changeup, she was kind of leaving it high, but then she started to get it down and adjusted really well."
Wichita State coach
Kristi Bredbenner liked how McDonald handled KU's top hitters. The Shockers expected Kansas to swing early in the counts and McDonald used that aggressiveness against the Jayhawks. Catcher Lyric Moore, hitting .394, went 0 for 2 with a strikeout. McDonald twice struck out shortstop Ashlyn Anderson, hitting. 328 with 10 home runs.
"She did a great job managing them," Bredbenner said. "She had some good stuff. Not the command we're continuing to work for, but she had good enough stuff to keep them off balance."
McDonald's previous two starts at Wilkins Stadium signaled good things. She held Tulsa without an earned run on six hits in a 13-4 win. In a 4-1 loss to No. 6 Oklahoma State, she gave up seven hits and three earned runs in a game the Shockers trailed 2-1 entering the sixth.
The Shockers won their fifth straight to match the season's longest streak. The staff's ERA is 2.81 in those five games after allowing 23 hits. Freshman
Alison Cooper earned complete-game wins over USF and Houston in that stretch and
Caitlin Bingham picked up two wins over Houston, one in relief.
"I think we're finally getting there," McDonald said. "(Cooper's) looked really good. Same with Caitlin. Caitin's looked so good the last couple weeks."
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
