The RoundHouse | 3/13/2023 7:09:00 PM
By Paul Suellentrop
Wichita State right fielder
Taylor Sedlacek's phone filled with messages on Friday evening. Friends checked in with an "I see you" after her memorable game, even if they felt conflicted because of their relationship with her and their loyalty to Big Red.
"It was a big thing," she said. "A lot of my friends go to Nebraska. They texted me, because they were watching the game, and they were like 'You really had to pound it on your home state?'"
Sedlacek, a freshman from Bennington, Neb., pounded the softball all weekend for the 23rd-ranked Shockers (19-5). She hit a grand slam Friday in a 10-8 win over Nebraska. She homered in Saturday's 10-1 run-rule win over the Huskers and in Sunday's 13-2 win over Missouri State, all at Wilkins Stadium in the Shocker Classic.
Throw in a 1-for-3 performance in Thursday's 11-0 loss to No. 12 Stanford and Sedlacek went 5 for 13 in those five games to raise her average to .320. She has hits in nine of her past 10 games.
The Shockers play No. 6 Arkansas on Tuesday at Wilkins Stadium (6 p.m. ESPN+) to continue a continue a 15-game homestand that is rolling along at 7-2.
Wichita State helped its NCAA resume with the wins over Nebraska and learned about competing against the top of the nation. A 2-1 loss to Missouri State, a 2022 NCAA regional team, provided a lesson about making adjustments at the plate to the weather and pitching.
"Sometimes, you have to be humbled," third baseman
Krystin Nelson said. "We know how to come back from that. It prepares us for (conference) games like USF and UCF and facing the really top-notch pitching."
Perhaps most important, the Shocker lineup looks deeper than it did two weeks ago, when seven Shockers with four or more starts hit below .230 and combined for four home runs.
In addition to Sedlacek, Nelson ended the weekend with five hits in five at-bats and catcher
Lainee Brown raised her average from .222 to .274 over the past nine games. Second baseman
Sami Hood went 5 for 16 over the past five games, including two of the team's eight hits against Stanford.
"It was good to see the bottom half of our lineup continue to start stepping it up," coach
Kristi Bredbenner said. "Any time they start getting hits here and there, that confidence starts building."
Sedlacek is building confidence in the best possible way – watching the ball go over the fence and managing the strike zone.
In her first 13 games – 29 at-bats – Sedlacek hit .208 with eight strikeouts and two walks. In the past nine games, she is 10 for 21 with three home runs, five walks and five strikeouts.
"My timing was really off," she said. "I was swinging at the right pitches, but I was way out front each time. We added a leg kick. That helped a lot with timing, because it allowed me to stay on my backside for longer, which then allowed me to let the ball get deeper."
While several Shockers worked on batting adjustments last week, Nelson worked on her frame of mind. She entered Saturday's game against Missouri State on a 0-for-19 stretch. She singled twice in the loss to Missouri State. On Sunday, she went 3 for 3, scored twice and drove in a run.
"I had to get out of my head," she said. "Just really staying relaxed, taking deep breaths and focusing on the pitch coming at me."
When Bredbenner reflects on the five games, she liked innings two through six against Stanford, in which pitcher
Lauren Howell scattered four hits and held the Cardinal to one run.
She loved the 10-1 win over Nebraska, highlighted by Howell's five innings. The Shocker rapped out 10 hits and five walks against pitcher Courtney Wallace, a fifth-year senior who held No. 16 Arizona to six hits in a 10-3 win in early March.
Addison Barnard – also a Nebraskan and Sedlacek homered, and
Lauren Mills doubled to drive in three runs.
"We pitched well, and we played great defense," Bredbenner said. "That team has the potential of having success in the American (Athletic) Conference. It's just a matter of trying to get that team to show up all the time."
Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
