TAMPA, Fla. -- Wichita State was held to just two hits by the combination of three South Florida pitchers as the Bulls pulled out a 4-1 win on Thursday evening at USF Baseball Stadium.
The game did not have any hits through the first four innings, but the Shockers (27-26, 11-14) squandered several excellent scoring opportunities thanks to wildness from USF starter Kaden Smith. In the second inning, he walked two batters and balked them to second and third with two outs but struck out
Ethan Gonzalez to end the inning. In the third, he walked
Alex Ulloa and moved him to third on a ground out and another balk but got
Jayson Jones to strike out and
Owen Washburn to foul out for another scoreless frame. Then in the fourth, Smith issued another walk, hit two more batters with a third balk mixed in, but stranded the bases loaded by striking out
Alex Ulloa.
The Shockers finished the game 0-for-10 with runners on base and 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Jones managed to break the deadlock in the fifth, slicing an opposite field solo home run down the line in right for a 1-0 lead. After cruising through four innings, however, WSU starter
Matthew Cuccias (4-3) ran into trouble by allowing one run in the fifth, two in the sixth and one more in the seventh. The big blow was a two-run homer from South Florida's Nathan Early in the sixth that put the Bulls (31-20, 10-15) ahead to stay.
Cuccias ended up on the hook for the loss, allowing the four runs on six hits over 6.2 innings with five strikeouts.
Wichita State got a leadoff single from
Jacob Gutierrez in the top of the ninth, but USF reliever Edwin Alicea struck out pinch-hitter
Josh Wulfert and induced a line drive double play from pinch-hitter
Jack Quick to end the game and record his first save.
Dominic Pontbriant (4-0) earned the win for South Florida, allowing just the Jones home run over three innings out of the Bulls bullpen.
The Shockers and Bulls continue the series on Friday evening. First pitch is scheduled for 5:30 pm CT.
