#26 WSU vs. Furman, 3 Game Series

[Play Angry]

Shocks host the Furman Paladins (13-8, RPI 115) this weekend for a three game set. Furman hits for a better average than WSU (.290 vs. .269) with less power (16 HR vs. 21 HR) and less speed (9 SB vs. 19 SB). Big difference, however, is pitching - the Paladins sport a 5.69 ERA coming into this weekend vs. a 3.41 ERA for WSU. Projected starting pitchers are listed below

• Friday, 6 PM - Codi Heuer (RHP, 3-0, 3.54 ERA) vs. Grant Schuermann (LHP, 2-3, 4.22 ERA)
• Saturday, 2 PM - Liam Eddy (RHP, 4-0, 1.91 ERA) vs. Matt Lazzaro (LHP, 2-2, 5.28 ERA)
• Sunday, 11:30 AM - TBD vs. Nik Verbeke (RHP, 3-1, 5.16 ERA)

Will be interesting to see who we elect to start on Sunday with both Alex and Connor having seen action on Tuesday. One of those two, or perhaps Cody Tyler gets the nod for an abbreviated start after last being used on Sunday at Creighton?

Go Shocks!

[Cdizzle]

What's with the 11:30 Sunday start? I also see we have a couple 10:30 Sunday start times? I get not being d*cks on getaway day, but that's ridiculous.

[Play Angry]

Looks like other AAC teams have a couple similar Sunday start times (usually 11 AM and 10:30 CST) for a few of their league games. Weird.

[shocks02]

Are these teams flying? They may have to be out of Eck by mid-afternoon for a flight.

[1972Shocker]

I think I recall Mike Kennedy making a comment about this on this past Monday's Todd Butler radio show and that it did was, in fact, about travel issues and that we would see this more often in the AAC where teams fly more to and from games.

[Play Angry]

Series of note for our prior opponents this weekend:

• McNeese State (8-12, RPI 159) travels to Nicholls State for 3
• Omaha (7-12, RPI 201) hosts Oral Roberts for 3
• Nebraska (12-9, RPI 81) hosts Minnesota for 3
• SIU-E (5-13, RPI 118) travels to SEMO for 3
• Oral Roberts (12-7, RPI 200) travels to Omaha for 3
• UTA (10-9, RPI 77) travels to UALR for 3
• Missouri (17-5, RPI 21) hosts Mississippi State for 3
• Creighton (10-6, RPI 13) travels to Illinois State for 3
• Oklahoma (14-9, RPI 71) hosts West Virginia for 3

[1972Shocker]

We need Liam Eddy to bounce back from his poor 3rd inning against Creighton although the Shocks did recover to win that game. My sense is that he will do just that.

[1972Shocker]

There goes the no-hitter and the shut as a walk and a double with 1 out plates a run for Furman. Shocks lead 3-1. Codi gets the next to guys to finish the 6th with the lead and most likely will turn the game over to the bullpen.

A GunnarT solo home run in the bottom of the 6th counters the Furman score and the Shocks head to the 7th leading 4-1.

Clayton McGinness on the bump in the 7th for the Shockers. A lead-off walk followed by two hard hit outs to left and to center before McGinness ended the inning with a strike-out made that round a bit uncomfortable.

Jordan Boyer scraped the paint off the back of the fence in left for another Shocker solo homer to lead-off the Shocker 7th and push the Shocker lead to 5-1. That's followed by a couple of high choppers with one going for a double and one for an infield single plus a walk to Alec Bohm loads the bases. Mason O just missed another Shocker grand slam with a shot to deep right with all 3 runners moving up. Trey Vickers was then walked intentionally to re-load the bases and Garrett Kocis batting for Jacob Katzfey singled to right center to drive in his first 2 runs as a Shocker and move Trey to third and the Shockers have busted this one open as they lead 8-1. After a Troutwine strke-out Hutner Gibson delivered an RBI single to right moving Kocis to 2nd. Shocks lead 9-1 still batting with 2 outs in the 7th as Furman makes a pitching change. Jordan Boyer up with a chance for a 2 hit inning and he gets it with a 2-run double to make it 11-1. A fly to right finally ending the inning.

[Cdizzle]

Good to see the bats wake up a bit

Now 9-1, Furman pitching change

Boyer doubles in 2 more to finish the scoring in the 7th and pretty well polish this one off

[1972Shocker]

It will be interesting who the Shocks go with to finish up this game on the mound.

Keylan Killgore will start the 8th.

[1972Shocker]

forevershockerfan would want this game called after the 7th as the Shocks had 11 runs on 11 hits.

[Cdizzle]

In comes Barnhouse, for some reason. Possibly to make ShockerFever happy with the situation he enters.

He induces an inning-ending GDP

[1972Shocker]

For the most part big Alec has played very well defensively this year at 3B.

[Cdizzle]

I agree. That was a question mark for me this season. Same with Jenista. So far, they have answered that question well.

[1972Shocker]

In comes Barnhouse, for some reason. Possibly to make ShockerFever happy with the situation he enters.

He induces an inning-ending GDP

Perhaps they thought Tommy needed a confidence boost.

[Cdizzle]

He definitely does. Sometimes that can backfire in a low-leverage situation. Looks like it worked out this time

[Play Angry]

Good stuff tonight.

[1972Shocker]

Okay, Preston Minor sets up Adam Keller for a 1-pitch, double play outing to close out the game. Although I'm sure Furman will probably be taking a strike before swinging.

No he was swiinging. But missed.

Well Adam screwed that up with a 4-pitch strikeout followed by a 3-pitch strikeout to end the game.

[Cdizzle]

Not recording outs on strikeouts is really helping our K/rate

[1972Shocker]

Good pitching, good defense and good hitting tonight although we did have a couple of scoring opps in the middle innings we did not cash in.

Furman did have 4 starters benched for this game because they were late for the team bus (I assume the one that brought them to Eck from their hotel). Although I doubt that would have made enough of a difference to matter in this game.

I would be nice to have Codi throwing fewer pitchers but he may just be one of those guys who is effectively wild and also gets a lot of seings and misses.

Shocker team ERA drops to 3.28. Hopefully, that does not prove to be mostly attributable to the schedule we have played so far. We will find that out soon enough but this was absolutely what the Shocks needed this year to take a step forward.