TAMPA, Fla. – Wichita State split a doubleheader with South Florida to finish the regular season, taking game one 11-7 in seven innings before dropping game two 5-4 in ten innings. The Shockers will enter the American Athletic Conference tournament as the number six seed.

GAME ONE

Wichita State sprinted out a 5-0 lead in the first two innings, using a combination of power and small ball. The scoring started just two hitters into the game when Brock Rodden lined a double to center, scoring Chuck Ingram from first for a 1-0 lead. A pair of bunts added to the lead in the third, as Ross Cadena's sacrifice was thrown away by pitcher Tanner Mink (1-1) and Andrew Stewart laid down a successful squeeze bunt to make it 3-0. On the next pitch, Chuck Ingram slammed a two-run homer that ballooned the lead to 5-0.

Starter Caden Favors (2-1) blanked the Bulls over the first two innings to earn the win in a predetermined split, but South Florida got on the board in the bottom of the third with a two-run double off the bat of Daniel Cantu that sliced the lead to 5-2.

The Shockers blew the game open with a five-run third. Cadena slapped an RBI single, then Stewart laid down his second run-scoring squeeze bunt of the day to restore the five-run cushion at 7-2. Ingram hammered a two-run double to the gap in left-center, and Rodden scored him with a sacrifice fly for a 10-2 lead. 

The Bulls responded with three in the home half of the inning, but Stewart got one back immediately in the sixth with an RBI triple. Connor Holden recorded the final four outs, allowing a pair of inherited runs to score in the sixth before tossing scoreless seventh to secure the win.

GAME TWO

Rodden put the Shockers in front just three pitches into the game with a two-run homer to left, his 16th home run of the season. It was also the 65th long ball of the year for Wichita State as a team, their most in the BBCOR era and the most since the 2004 team hit 78.

The lead proved short lived, as Nick Gonzalez promptly evened the game at 2-2 with a two-run double off the top of the fence in left off Wichita State starter Jace Miner.

Wichita State got a pair of clutch two-out hits to move back in front. First, Sawyre Thornhill lined a fourth inning RBI double to center just past the reach of Austin Brutcher, scoring Stewart for a 3-2 edge. Jordan Rogers doubled the edge in the sixth with an infield single, bringing home Ingram to make the score 4-2.

Creighton Hansen and Payton Tolle pitched well in relief for the Shockers, holding the Bulls off the board until the eighth when Carmine Lane knotted the game at 4-4 with a game-tying, two-run home run.

Ryan Stuempfig (0-3) kept the game deadlocked with a 1-2-3 ninth, but Brutcher launched a walk-off solo homer in the bottom of the tenth to give South Florida the 5-4 win.

The Shockers finish the regular season with a 21-34 record. They open the American Athletic Conference tournament on Tuesday in the final game of the day against third-seeded Houston.