Wichita State (21-17, 7-5 American) vs. #9 East Carolina (28-8, 8-4 American)

Friday, April 19 | 5:00 pm CT | Greenville, North Carolina (Clark-LeClair Stadium)
TV: ESPN+ | Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM
LHP Caden Favors (5-3, 3.50) vs. RHP Trey Yesavage (7-1, 1.66)

Saturday, April 20 | 3:00 pm CT | Greenville, North Carolina (Clark-LeClair Stadium)
TV: ESPN+ | Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM
TBA vs. LHP Zach Root (5-0, 2.41)

Sunday, April 21 | 12:00 pm CT | Greenville, North Carolina (Clark-LeClair Stadium)
TV: ESPN+ | Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM
RHP Tommy LaPour (3-1, 3.82) vs. TBA

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SCENE SETTER: Wichita State returns to American Athletic Conference play with a three-game series at conference favorites East Carolina. The Pirates enter the series ranked #9 in the D1Baseball Top 25, the fourth ranked team WSU has played in 2024 (5-4 loss to #14 Virginia, 12-6 win vs. #18 Iowa, 9-5 loss to #21 Oklahoma State). The Shockers last win against a top-10 team came last season against East Carolina, when WSU swept the #7-ranked Pirates in a three-game series in Wichita. Wichita State dropped their final home midweek game of the season on Wednesday, falling to Oral Roberts by the score of 8-3. The Shockers are coming off a 30-25 season in 2023 that included a 13-10 mark in American Athletic Conference play, good for third place in the final conference standings. Wichita State is hunting their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since the 2013 season, a regional bid that was later vacated by the NCAA.

SHOCKER BASEBALL ON THE RADIO AND ESPN PLUS: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM will once again serve as the radio home for Wichita State baseball broadcasts in 2024. "The Voice of the Shockers" and Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Famer Mike Kennedy will have the call of the series against the Pirates, with Denning Gerig joining the broadcast as color commentator. The games will also be streamed live on ESPN+. Live audio, in addition to live statistics, will be available at GoShockers.com/listen and ShockerStats.com. 

SERIES HISTORY: The Shockers and Pirates have met 19 times in the all-time series, with Wichita State leading 11-8. WSU swept a three-game series against the Pirates last season in Wichita, outscoring #7 East Carolina by the combined total of 23-3. Payton Tolle and Grant Adler each tossed a complete game shutout to bookend the series. In 2019, the Shockers knocked the top-seeded Pirates out of the American Athletic Conference tournament, defeating them twice in the span of three days in Clearwater. The only matchup prior to 2018 came in the 1991 Midwest Regional in Wichita, when the Shockers opened the regional with a 10-5 victory over the Pirates.

SCOUTING EAST CAROLINA: The Pirates enter the series with an overall record of 28-8, including an 8-4 record in AAC play. ECU is coming off a wild 14-13 win over William & Mary on Tuesday, a game that went 13 innings and lasted five hours and 30 minutes. The Pirates have been nearly unbeatable at Clark-LeClair Stadium this season, owning a 17-2 home record. Friday night starter Trey Yesavage (7-1, 1.66) is a candidate for the top pitching accolades in college baseball and reliever Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman (3-1, 0.86) leads all qualified pitchers nationally in ERA. As a staff, the Pirates rank 4th in the country in WHIP (1.19) and 6th in ERA (3.55), notching a pair of combined no-hitters this past week against Elon and Charlotte. Carter Cunningham spearheads the offensive attack with a .408 average and a team-high nine home runs. Head coach Cliff Godwin (379-178-1) is now in his 10th season at the helm of the Pirates, returning to his alma mater after a stellar playing career as a catcher at ECU.

PROVIDING RELIEF: When WSU starter Caleb Anderson was knocked from Wednesday's game after recording just four outs, the Wichita State bullpen responded with a strong performance the rest of the way. Led by a season-high three scoreless innings from freshman lefty Drew Iverson, the combination of five WSU relievers held ORU to two runs over the final 7.2 innings.

TWO-OUT RESURRECTION: After Wichita State produced just four two-out RBI over the course of their six-game losing streak, the Shockers returned to form with a pair of huge two-out showings over the final two games of the Florida Atlantic series. WSU knocked in four on Saturday and seven more on Sunday, highlighted by a two-out grand slam from Derek Williams.

MUNZ EMERGENCE: For much of the season, Wichita State's primary bullpen options have been Hunter Holmes (22 appearances, 3rd nationally), Caleb Anderson (21 appearances, 6th nationally) and Nate Adler (five saves). The mid-season emergence of right-hander Mason Munz has added a valuable arm to the mix; the Cloud County CC transfer made a pair of scoreless appearances against FAU over the weekend and added another shutout inning on Wednesday against Oral Roberts. Over 9.0 total frames for the season, Munz has allowed just three hits.

INNINGS EATER: Friday starter Caden Favors entered the 2024 season with a single-game career high of 5.0 innings, coming in a 2023 midweek start against Oklahoma. As the front man in the Wichita State weekend rotation this season, Favors has evolved into a durable starter, logging at least 5.2 innings in each of his nine starts and 7.0 innings or more in four of them. The southpaw has walked just two batters combined over his last three starts.

RBI MACHINE: Senior outfielder Seth Stroh continues to put together a unique season at the plate, leading the Shockers with 32 RBI despite having only 89 at-bats. On Sunday against Florida Atlantic, he finished 3-for-4 with a single, a two-run double and a solo home run, giving him six for the season to match a career high. Of Stroh's 21 hits for the season, only seven of them have not driven in a run.

BECAUSE HE GETS ON BASE: Another odd offensive season belongs to sophomore catcher Alex Birge, who is hitting just .163 (7-for-43) but ranks among the team leaders with a .379 on-base percentage thanks to 10 walks and five hit by pitches. Birge put together perhaps the best offensive game of his career on Saturday against Florida Atlantic, reaching base five times on two singles, two walks and a hit by pitch.

POWER OF THE PLUNK: Wichita State tied a program record for hit by pitches twice in the Rice series, earning six HBPs on both Thursday and Saturday. The Shockers lead the conference and rank seventh nationally with 85 hit by pitches; Jordan Rogers (17), Mauricio Millan (14) and Derek Williams (13) rank 1-2-3 on the conference leaderboard. Rogers is eighth in the nation individually and has moved into fourth in program history with 30 career HBP.

TOMMY GUN: Few pitchers in the country have put together a better stretch of starts than freshman right-hander Tommy LaPour, who has shaken off two rough starts to become one of the Shockers most consistent arms. Over his last seven starts totaling 36.1 innings, LaPour has allowed just six earned runs for a 1.47 ERA. The righty has struck out 46 and walked 15 over that time frame and has allowed more than five hits in just one start.

WALK IT OFF: Mauricio Millan's two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth against Kansas delivered the first walk-off win of the season for Wichita State. The Shockers did not have a true walk-off win (not counting run-rule victories) in the entirety of the 2023 season, and their last such victory also came against Kansas when Garrett Kocis blasted a walk-off, two-run homer on March 23, 2022.

PINCH-HIT POP: Coming into the 2024 season, WSU had not had a pinch-hit home run since Mason O'Brien came off the bench and homered against South Florida on May 11, 2018. Junior Josh Livingston accomplished the feat twice in the first 11 games of 2024, cranking a three-run shot against Iowa on February 25 and replicating the achievement with a solo blast against Oklahoma on March 5.

GREENER PASTURES: Brian Green was named the fifth head coach in the modern era of Wichita State baseball on June 5, 2023, replacing interim head coach Loren Hibbs. Green comes to Wichita State after four seasons at the helm of Washington State, where he guided the Cougars to four straight seasons above .500, the first such stretch of success for the Cougars since 2006-10. Green went 91-79 overall in Pullman, including a 29-win season in 2023 that matched the most wins for Washington State since 2010. Prior to his tenure with Wazzu, Green revitalized the program at his alma mater New Mexico State, taking the Aggies from 11 wins in 2015 to 40 in 2018. In 10 total seasons as a head coach, Green owns a career record of 270-218-1, good for a .553 winning percentage.

TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE: With a program record of 2,331 wins, 1,264 losses and nine ties, Wichita State ranks in the top ten of all college baseball programs with a .648 winning percentage. The Shockers have won 20 regular season conference championships and 18 conference tournament championships, earning a trip to Omaha for the College World Series on seven different occasions. WSU claimed the 1989 national championship and finished as national runner-up in 1982, 1991 and 1993.