Northern Colorado (0-0, 0-0 Summit) at Wichita State (0-0, 0-0 American)
Friday, February 13 | 3:05 pm CT | Wichita, Kansas (Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field at Gene Stephenson Park)
TV: ESPN+ | Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM
RHP Trevor Landen (0-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Brady Hamilton (0-0, 0.00)
Saturday, February 14 | 12:05 pm CT | Wichita, Kansas (Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field at Gene Stephenson Park)
TV: ESPN+ | Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM
RHP Reece Wagner (0-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Johnny Nuanez (0-0, 0.00)
Saturday, February 14 | TBA | Wichita, Kansas (Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field at Gene Stephenson Park)
TV: ESPN+ | Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM
RHP Jake Storey (0-0, 0.00) vs. TBA
Sunday, February 15 | 12:05 pm CT | Wichita, Kansas (Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field at Gene Stephenson Park)
TV: ESPN+ | Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM
TBA vs. RHP Brok Eddy (0-0, 0.00)
SCENE SETTER: Wichita State opens the 2026 season and the 92nd season of Shocker baseball with a four-game home series against Northern Colorado at Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field at Gene Stephenson Park. The series begins on Friday afternoon at 3:05 pm, followed by a Saturday doubleheader at 12:05 pm and a Sunday series finale at 12:05 pm. This is the first season-opening home series for Wichita State since 2021, when WSU hosted Oklahoma State. The Shockers are looking to bounce back from a 20-36 record in 2025, the fewest wins in the modern era of the WSU program (1978-present). 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 2026. Denning Gerig will have the play-by-play call for all four games of the Northern Colorado series. All games of the series will be streamed on ESPN+ ($), with Shocker Hall of Famer Shane Dennis on play-by-play and former Shocker outfielder Corrigan Bartlett providing color commentary. Live audio, in addition to live statistics, is available at GoShockers.com/listen and ShockerStats.com.
SERIES HISTORY: The Shockers and Bears have 11 previous meetings, most recently in the 2017 season when the Shockers swept a two-game midweek series in Wichita by scores of 11-5 and 10-4. This is the second instance in recent history that the two teams are meeting to open the season; in 2016, Wichita State rolled to 11-0 and 17-2 wins before Northern Colorado used a ninth inning rally to steal a 4-3 win in the series finale. The Bears other victory in the series came in 2005, when they claimed the first-ever meeting between the two schools, 8-5.
SCOUTING NORTHERN COLORADO: The Bears are coming off an 18-33 season in 2025, including a 9-21 mark in Summit League play that relegated UNC to the bottom of the six-team conference. Northern Colorado is tasked with replacing much of their production from 2025, including four All-Summit League performers who departed either via graduation or the transfer portal. The Bears are embarking on a 19-game road trip to open the 2026 campaign, with road series at New Mexico, Utah Tech, UNLV, and Utah Valley following the trip to Wichita. UNC is scheduled to play just one non-conference home game and 16 home games in total at Jackson Field in Greeley. Head coach and UNC alum Mike Anderson enters his fourth season at the helm of Northern Colorado after nine previous seasons as head coach at Nebraska (2003-11). Anderson owns a career record of 382-301 in 12 total seasons.
2025 RECAP: Wichita State labored through a challenging 2025 season, finishing 20-36 for the fewest wins in the modern era of Shocker Baseball. The 36 losses were one shy of the program record, set in 2016. The Shockers suffered a nine-game losing streak from April 11-25, tied for the second longest in the modern era. Wichita State unquestionably played their best baseball as the calendar flipped to May; WSU ended the month of April with a 13-30 record but went 7-4 to close the regular season, including a series win over conference champion East Carolina and a series sweep of Memphis to secure a spot in the conference tournament. The Shockers finished 0-2 at the American Championship in Clearwater, falling to Charlotte and South Florida.
NEW LOOK: With just seven returners from last season's roster (five position players, two pitchers) Wichita State is looking at a near-complete overhaul from the team that stepped on the field in 2025. The pitching staff in particular returns just Brady Hamilton (2-7, 5.38 ERA in 78.2 innings) and Karsen Richard (0-1, 9.00 ERA in 16.0 innings); the 19 other Shockers who threw a pitch in 2025 have graduated, transferred, or been drafted (RHP Nick Potter, 5th Round, Houston Astros).
AGE BEFORE BEAUTY: Head coach Brian Green made a point to add experience in the transfer portal over the offseason, a mission that resulted in the addition of four grad transfers, eight seniors and three redshirt juniors. All told, the Shockers added 77 seasons of previous college baseball experience to the roster among their 31 newcomers.
LOCAL BOYS: Wichita State's new-look roster includes a healthy dose of newcomers with local ties. Right-handed pitcher Brady Pacha (Bishop Carroll High School), utilityman Drew Bugner (Andale High School), infielder Owen Rush (Goddard Eisenhower High School), and left-handed pitcher Mitchell Johnson (Derby High School) all hail from the greater Wichita area, in addition to returning outfielder Jaden Gustafson from Maize High School.
HIGHLY TOUTED: A trio of Shocker transfers playing their final season of college baseball in 2026 bring noteworthy pedigrees to Wichita. Jayson Jones (Oklahoma State transfer), Max Kaufer (South Carolina), and Alex Ulloa (Florida International) were all ranked in the top 300 nationally of their respective recruiting classes coming out of high school. Jones leads the way as the #5 player in the 2022 class according to Perfect Game, while Ulloa ranked #65 in 2021 and Kaufer checked in at #257 in 2023.
MR. 300: Wichita State head coach Brian Green earned his 300th career win in the final regular season series of 2025 against Memphis, part of a three-game sweep that secured a spot in the American Conference tournament for Wichita State. The third-year Shocker skipper picked up 158 of those wins over five seasons at New Mexico State, followed by 91 victories in four seasons at Washington State. He owns a 52-65 mark with the Shockers and a 301-266-1 mark overall (.566).
STAFF CHANGES: Green revamped his coaching staff ahead of the 2026 season, adding three new assistant coaches. Marty Lees was the first addition as recruiting coordinator, bringing experience from previous stops at Oklahoma State, Washington State and Oregon State. Collin Wilber joined the staff as catching coach following stints with Sonoma State and the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, and Jason Foster rounds out the new hires as Pitching Strategist and Director of Analytics. Additionally, Faith Weekley was promoted from Administrative Assistant to Director of Operations.
HOME SWEET HOME: Wichita State will get very familiar with the friendly confines of Eck Stadium in the opening months of the 2026 season. The Shockers play 21 of their first 26 games at home, departing only for a four-game series at Hawaii on February 19-22 and a midweek game at Kansas State on March 10. Wichita State is scheduled to play 33 home games in total, the most since the 2016 Shockers played 34 home contests.
LET'S PLAY TWO: Wichita State has three scheduled doubleheaders on the 2026 docket (2/14 vs. Northern Colorado, 3/7 vs. West Georgia, 3/14 vs. Butler). The Shockers most recently played three doubleheaders in the 2024 season, but none of the trio were originally scheduled. WSU did not have any doubleheaders in 2025. The single-season record remains safely out of reach; the 1979 Shockers played a staggering 29 doubleheaders in the regular season.
OFFENSIVE OUTPUT: If the Shockers are to improve upon their 20-win output from 2025, perhaps the biggest factor will be the lineup's production. Wichita State struggled to generate runs a year ago, ranking 251st nationally in scoring at 5.7 runs per contest. The Shockers team batting average (.261, 252nd nationally), home runs per game (0.64, 261st) and stolen bases per game (0.50, 289th) all landed near the bottom of the national leaderboard. WSU was one of the best teams in the country at taking hit by pitches, earning 105 HBPs to rank 34th nationally.
BIG LEAGUE PEDIGREE: The 2026 roster includes several Shockers with impressive baseball bloodlines. The list is headlined by MJ Sweeney and Owen Washburn, whose fathers both compiled lengthy Major League careers. Mike Sweeney played 16 seasons for four franchises, earning five All-Star nods. He is a member of the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame and ended his career with 215 home runs. Jarrod Washburn spent 12 seasons at the game's highest level, winning 107 career games for three teams. He finished fourth in the Cy Young voting while with the Anaheim Angels in 2004. In addition to Sweeney and Washburn, three other Shockers have fathers with professional baseball experience: Matthew Cuccias (Jonathan Cuccias, Western League, 2001), Jayson Jones (Tim Jones, Detroit MiLB, 1992), and Anthony Cepeda (Jose Cepeda, Kansas City/Atlanta MiLB, 1995-2000).
TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE: With a program record of 2,362 wins, 1,313 losses and nine ties, Wichita State ranks in the top ten of all college baseball programs with a .641 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.
