WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita State's magical run in the American Athletic Conference Championship had no plans of slowing down in Friday's semifinals, as the fourth-seeded Shockers run-ruled the top seed Florida Atlantic Owls in 5 innings, 12-2, at Wilkins Stadium.
Wichita State (28-21) will meet No. 2 Charlotte in Saturday's title game at 11 a.m. on ESPN2. The Shockers will be making their second appearance in the AAC Championship game, winning it in 2021.
The Shockers avenged an early season series loss to the Owls right here in Wichita. Florida Atlantic took 2-of-3 against the Shockers in early March.
Addison Barnard homered for the third straight day, upping her tournament total to six with 13 RBIs. She stands alone in fourth place on the NCAA all-time home run list with 93 homers. As a team, Wichita State hit three home runs on the day with
Bailey Urban and
Krystin Nelson each hitting a three-run homer.
Through three tournament games Wichita State has hit eight home runs and scored 10+ in every game.
Sami Hood continued her red-hot week at the plate with three more hits and multiple defensive web gems.
Jessica Garcia singled and had two sac flies, boosting the bottom part of the lineup.
Backed by early run support,
Chloe Barber (10-5) was able to settle in the circle nicely with the season on the line. She allowed two runs on three hits, three walks and two strikeouts.
Alison Cooper tossed the final 2.0 innings, allowing just two hits and two walks.
Barnard opened the third game of the tournament the same way she started the two prior, with a home run. Her otherworldly week gave the Shockers an early 2-0 lead after Wong drew a leadoff walk.
Wichita State's first two hitters in the top of the second reached on a hit by pitch and walk. After Nelson's sac bunt moved both runners up,
CC Wong hit a hard infield single up the middle to bring in the first run of the frame. A
Taylor Sedlacek sac fly made it 4-0.
Florida Atlantic threatened a big inning in the bottom of the second, but was only able to scratch out one run after the first three hitters all reached base. Both of Barber's strikeouts came in the second inning to help prevent a momentum changing inning.
The floodgates opened in the top of the third. Garcia started the scoring on the first of two sac flies. Then in the very next at bat, Nelson delivered a towering three-run home run to right, bouncing off the top of the wall and over. Walks from Wong and Barnard cleared the way for a first pitch, no-doubt Urban blast off the scoreboard in left-center. Wichita State's lead grew to 11-1.
The Owls cut it to 11-2 on an RBI double, but Wichita State immediately got that run back in the top of the fourth on Garcia's second sac fly of the game.
