Wichita State (16-34, 8-16 American) vs. Oral Roberts (30-19, 17-9 Summit)

Tuesday, May 13 | 6:00 pm CT | Wichita, Kansas (Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field at Gene Stephenson Park)
TV: ESPN+ | Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM
RHP Caleb Anderson (0-2, 8.17) vs. RHP Jack Hill (3-0, 8.10)

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SCENE SETTER: Wichita State welcomes Oral Roberts to Eck Stadium on Tuesday night in the final midweek game of the regular season. WSU has just one midweek win in 10 tries this season, a run-rule victory over Newman on April 8. The Shockers dropped two of three games at Rice over the weekend, falling 4-3 in 13 innings and 9-3 on Saturday before a run-rule 18-7 win to conclude the series. Wichita State is coming off a 32-29 season in 2024 that included a 15-12 mark in American Athletic Conference play, tying for third in the final conference standings. WSU went on to reach the championship game of the AAC Tournament for the first time in program history, falling to Tulane, 11-10. 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 2025. "The Voice of the Shockers" Mike Kennedy will have the call of the game against Oral Roberts. The game will also be streamed on ESPN+ ($), with Shocker Sports Hall of Famer Shane Dennis on play-by-play and Denning Gerig joining the broadcast as color commentator. Live audio, in addition to live statistics, will be available at GoShockers.com/listen and ShockerStats.com. 

SERIES HISTORY: Tuesday is the 76th all-time meeting between the Shockers and Golden Eagles, with Wichita State holding a 40-35 lead in the series. This is just the second time in the last 10 seasons that the two programs are playing only once in a season (2021). 11 of the last 14 meetings have been decided by three runs or less. The two teams split a pair of games last season, as the Shockers hung on for a 3-1 win in Tulsa on February 28 before the Golden Eagles got their revenge on April 17 in Wichita with an 8-3 win. WSU and ORU have also met seven times in NCAA tournament play, with the Golden Eagles holding a 4-3 edge in postseason contests.

SCOUTING ORAL ROBERTS: The Golden Eagles bring a record of 30-19 into play on Tuesday, including a 17-9 mark in Summit League action after sweeping a weekend series against Northern Colorado. ORU has shaken off a slow start to go 15-7 over their last 22 games, highlighted by midweek wins at Oklahoma and Oklahoma State plus a series split against league leaders St. Thomas. A strike-throwing pitching staff leads the conference in walks per nine innings (3.55), strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.11:1) and WHIP  (1.48) spearheaded by starter Nathan Love (6-6, 3.53) and the relief tandem of Dalton Patten and Conner Floyd, who have combined for seven wins and 14 saves. Head coach Ryan Folmar was named NCBWA National Coach of the Year in 2023 and owns a career record of 428-275-1 (.609) in 13 seasons with the Golden Eagles.

SETTING THE SCENE: With just one conference weekend remaining in the regular season schedule, the American Athletic Conference race is nearly finalized. The top eight teams in the conference standings qualify for the AAC Championship in Clearwater, Florida; for Wichita State to clinch a spot, the Shockers need to win at least two games this weekend against Memphis plus one win from either Rice or Florida Atlantic. Even if WSU wins two of three, the Shockers would still be on the outside looking in if UTSA sweeps Rice and UAB sweeps Florida Atlantic, which would prompt a three-team tiebreaker between Wichita State, Rice and UAB. UTSA (20-4) has already clinched the league title outright and will be the #1 seed.

OFFENSIVE BREAKOUT: Wichita State hitters struggled mightily through the first two and a half games of the Rice series, mustering just six total runs on 12 hits through the first 25 innings against Owls pitching. That all changed starting in the fourth inning of Sunday's series finale, as the Shockers put up four runs in that frame and 14 more runs over the next four innings to produce a season-high 18 runs. Wichita State benefited from Rice free passes (nine walks, five hit by pitches) but also slugged a pair of home runs and got more hits with runners in scoring position (3) than they had in the first two games combined (2).

YOU'RE A WIZARD, POTTER: WSU closer Nick Potter has put together his best stretch of the season over the last two weeks, combining for 8.1 consecutive scoreless innings over his last four appearances. The best outing of the stretch came on Friday night at Rice, when Potter worked a season-high 4.0 shutout innings and struck out a season-high six batters, allowing just one baserunner on a walk.

WALK-OFF WINNERS: Jaden Gustafson delivered Wichita State's latest walk-off last Sunday against East Carolina, punching an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to cap an 8-7 win. The Shockers have already logged four walk-off wins this season: Lane Haworth's two-run homer against Cal State Fullerton on February 28, Mauricio Millan's RBI single against Missouri State on March 9, and Kaleb Duncan's two-run homer vs. UAB on March 28 (run-rule). Wichita State had just one walk-off among their 19 home wins last season.

POWER OF THE PLUNK: Wichita State shattered the program record for hit by pitches in 2024, drawing 116 HBPs to best the previous mark (84 in 2019) by 32. The Shockers have already been hit 98 times this season, including a program-record eight on April 15 at Kansas. WSU finished 16th nationally in team HBPs last season, led by Mauricio Millan's new program and conference record 24. Jordan Rogers set the program's career HBP record over the weekend against Rice, wearing three baseballs to give him 53 hit by pitches for his career.

BULLPEN STRUGGLES: Wichita State relievers have combined for a 7.01 ERA this season in 223.1 innings, a figure that is exacerbated by an inability to limit extra-base hits. The bullpen has allowed 35 home runs and 53 doubles, nearly twice as many (13 and 33, respectively) as opponents in the same amount of innings.

NO RUNNING: Wichita State has managed just one stolen base in their last 14 games (Jordan Rogers vs. South Florida, 4/26) and have attempted only one steal in the last eight contests. The Shockers are just 21-for-28 in stolen base attempts this season, ranking 292nd out of 299 teams nationally in stolen bases per game (0.42).

BASES LOADED BLUES: This season with the bases loaded Wichita State has recorded just 15 hits (four for extra bases) in 67 at-bats, good for a .224 average. WSU did record two bases-loaded singles in Sunday's win over Rice, just the second time this season they have multiple bases-loaded hits in the same game (5/2 vs. East Carolina). The Shockers have grounded into or lined into 12 double plays with the bases loaded.

TRIPLE THREAT: The Shockers have hit 14 triples this season, ranking 47th nationally and tops in the American Athletic Conference. The pace has slowed, however, as Wichita State has just one three-bagger in their last 10 games (Jaden Gustafson - Friday at Rice).

SMALL BALL: With just 30 home runs through the first 50 games of the season, the Shockers are on pace for their fewest homers in a season since the BBCOR era (24 homers in 2013). Of the 30 home runs, 25 of them have been either solo or two-run homers. Wichita State has hit 50 or more long balls in each of the last four seasons, including 74 last year.

REVERSE SPLITS: Sophomore infielder Camden Johnson has defied all the conventional wisdom of left-on-left matchups so far this season. When facing same-side pitching, Johnson has 30 hits in 69 at-bats for a staggering .435 average, while hitting a more modest .271 against righties. 

GETTING THE GANG BACK TOGETHER: Wichita State returned just 11 total players to their 2024 roster following the coaching change that brought Brian Green to Wichita, but this season the Shockers enter the year with significantly more experience. On the position player front, WSU returns nine players who started 10 or more games, while the pitching staff features nine hurlers who appeared in eight or more contests.

PORTAL POWER: Wichita State turned to the portal for seven D1 transfers: Grant Adler (Kansas), Cole Dillon (Arizona), Jace Miner (Oklahoma), Arnad Mulamekic (Siena), Owen Reynolds (Oral Roberts), MJ Seo (LSU) and Owen Washburn (Texas Tech). Adler and Miner both began their D1 careers at Wichita State before transferring during the coaching change, with Adler named the AAC Newcomer Pitcher of the Year in 2023 and Miner earning Second Team All-Conference honors as a reliever.

TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE: With a program record of 2,358 wins, 1,310 losses and nine ties, Wichita State ranks in the top ten of all college baseball programs with a .642 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.