Omaha Tuesday - Kansas State Wednesday

[1972Shocker]

Omaha, K-State On Deck for Wichita State Baseball

Wichita State (11-12, 2-1 American) vs. Omaha (14-5-1, 5-0 Summit League)
Tuesday, March 26 | 6 p.m. | Wichita, Kan. (Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field)
TV: COX YurView Kansas HD 2022 (Steve Strain, pxp)
Radio: KNSS 98.7 FM/1330 AM (Shane Dennis, pxp)
Live Video | Live Audio | Live Stats

Wichita State vs. Kansas State (11-13, 0-3 Big 12)
Wednesday, March 27 | 6 p.m. | Wichita, Kan. (Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field)
TV: COX YurView Kansas HD 2022 (TBA, pxp)
Radio: KNSS 98.7 FM/1330 AM (TBA, pxp)
Live Video | Live Audio | Live Stats

Freshman right-hander Miller Pleimann is slated to make his first collegiate start Tuesday against Omaha, while redshirt freshman right-hander Ryan Stuempfig is scheduled to tow the rubber in his third-career start Wednesday vs. Kansas State.

The Mavericks are slated to start senior left-hander Andrew Brighton (6.23 ERA, 2-0, 1 SV, 13.0 IP, 14 H, 10 R, 9 ER, 5 BB, 6 SO) Tuesday against the Shockers.

Kansas State is scheduled to start junior right-hander Kasey Ford Wednesday (13.83 ERA, 0-0, 13.2 IP, 26 H, 21 R, 21 ER, 16 BB, 14 SO).

[1972Shocker]

I was more than a bit surprised when I saw the Shocks and Omaha had split the 14 games they have played dating back to 1951 including a 3-game sweep last year. I will venture a guess that quite of few of those games were pre-Gene Stephenson.

In any case, looks very good for the Shocks to take the series lead as they have jumped out to 6-0 lead in the 1st capped off with a 2-run homer to right by Garrett Kocis, his first as a Shocker. Omaha started a soft throwing (and I mean very soft throwing) lefty but his command wasn't very good and the Shocks had no difficulty hitting him hard. Also took advantage of a hit batter, an error and a wild pitch.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks cruise to a 12-2 win . Jordan Boyer and Luke Ritter add home runs to the cause.

Jordan has his BA up to .434 and Luke is at .396.

Another solid job from the pitching staff.

[WuDrWu]

Omaha came in here on a 10 game heater so there were reasons to be concerned, especially since the goal appeared to be to find another semi-reliable arm. That didn't really materialize. Pleimann had 1 good inning, grinded the 2nd then unraveled in the 3rd. Lindemann was serviceable for 1.1 then Haase was nails, but we already count on him. McCraw was eh and Cal Marley cleaned up the rest. Marley is getting healthy so we may see more opportunities for him this weekend.

Cadena continues his turnaround going 2-4 and he's over .300 for the first time this season. Boyer continues to hit the cover off the ball at .434 and Ritter is hovering just below .400

Kocis makes the most of his chance at 1st with a nearly flawless game in the field and 2-3 with a homer.

[NCAABound]

Who does the play-by-play on Yurview Cox22?

[1972Shocker]

Steve Strain. He does the women's basketball and softball games. I would think he'll switch back to softball when Mike Kennedy is done with men's basketball.

[NCAABound]

Thanks 72. So Mike will be doing TV...or Shane will do TV?

[WuDrWu]

Shocks win 8-5. Stumpy looks solid and gets the win. Alex struggled in the 8th but Walters continues to be sharp and closes the Cats 1-2-3 in the 9th.

Shocks hit for some power tonight. The wind may have helped.

The American went 5-1 tonight. South Florida continues to struggle inexplicably. No shame in losing on the road at Stetson but the Bulls are struggling to put it all together. They are better than their 12-11 record, however 6 of the 12 wins are against bad Dartmouth and awful Western Michigan plus 16 of 23 at home and only 3 (at UNC) outside of Florida.

5 American teams are top 100 and only Cincy (197) is worse than 136 and I have a feeling Cincy is going to climb the rest of the season.

[Power Outlet]

Nice win vs KSU. Now 2-0 vs the rest of the state.

[1972Shocker]

Luke Ritter rips a double to left to get the Shocks on the board early:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1111048562823983104

Garrett Kocis goes deep to right for the 2nd day in a row.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1111051578767609857

Good to see the Shocks continue to put runs on the board even in a game where Jordan Boyer and Luke Ritter only managed to go 1-8. Jordan's average dipped to 0.398 and Luke's to .390.

I have to admit that this team is hitting the ball and scoring at a much better rate than I was expecting. Does Sammy Esposito get some credit for that? Hopefully, it holds up over the back half of the season.

[WuDrWu]

Sammy is really good at what he does, but honestly, and I'll get crucified for this, it's also Todd recruiting and seeing the things that will translate to success. We have good young hitters and skill position players that he's recruited and developed and continues to …...and yes the kids get credit as well. Perhaps more so, you choose. But Todd gets some credit, imho, for seeing what people can develop into.

[1972Shocker]

The pitching seems to have perked up a bit lately. At lieast it has been more consistent. Perhaps something Mike id doing, perhaps the schedule, perhaps the weather, perhaps the young men. Perhaps a little of all these things.

[BAShocker]

DrWu, are you saying/thinking the (probable) new head coach would keep Butler around as an assistant for recruiting purposes ? (If the price was right?)

[WuDrWu]

I think Coach Butler is an excellent evaluator of talent and a far above average recruiter. If there is a coaching change, I'd personally set the probability at zero of a new head coach keeping him as an assistant for recruiting purposes, or any other purposes. I didn't mean to suggest that. And I don't think he would be interested in that at all, but that's an outsider's opinion, and one that I would attach to every outgoing coach at every school. I can't ever see that happening.

[ShockerFever]

If?

LMFAO

[BAShocker]

Gotcha. Thanks!