Shocks Host Omaha For 3

[1972Shocker]

Game 1

Shocks jumped out to a 5-0 lead after 3 innings with Liam Eddy on the mound. In 4 innings Liam has only allowed 5 hits and 1 walk. Unfortunately 4 of the hits and the walk came in the top of the 4th when Omaha scored 4 runs. But the Shocker offense responded with 1 run in the bottom of the 4th then exploded for 7 runs in the 5th and Liam got back on track. Shocks lead 13-4 after 7.

The Shocks have 4 home runs in this game which is a new season high. Paxton Wallace had a 2-run homer in the 1st, Jack Sigrist a solo shot in the 2nd, Hunter Gibson with a 2-run homer in the 3rd and Garrett Kocis with a 2-run blast to close out the 7 run rally in the 5th. Wallace preceded Kocis' homer with a 2-run double and has 4 RBI so far.

Creighton Hansen comes in to pitch in the 8th with Eddy's pitch count at 92 after 7 innings. Hansen's 2nd pitch of the 8th leaves the park but that was it in the 8th for Omaha.

Paxton Wallace answered with a lead off home run down the line in left for his 2nd homer of the game and his 5th RBI of the game. Would be great to have Paxton get on heater.

Cameron Bye comes on to pitch the 9th for the Shocks. A lead off single is erased with a 4-6-3 double play and a combacker to Bye finishes off Omaha.

Final Score: Shocks 14 - Omaha 5

Good start to the weekend.

[1972Shocker]

Game 2 of 3

The Shocks got on the board in the 2nd with a 1 out walk followed by back-to-back singles to load the bases with a fiielder's choice bringing in a run. In the Shocker 3rd a single, error and wild pitch put runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out and Garrett Kocis delivered them with a double to right center.

Preston Snavely has given up 4 hits in 4 innings but has not walked anyone and not allowed any runs. Shocks lead 3-0 after 4 innings in the books.

Preston still dealing the shutout through 5 innings and has retired 8 in a row. IN the bottom of the 5th singles by Jack Sigrist and Paxton Wallace and an error by Omaha's 3B gave the Shocks runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Omaha took the bat of of Garrett's hands with an intentional walk to load the basis. Corrigan Barllett did what your supposed to do in that situation and cleared the bases with a double to left with Corrgian taking third on another error by the Omaha 3rd baseman. David VanVooren delivered Corrigan to the plate with a sac fly. Shocks lead 7-0 after 5.

Snavely sets Omaha down in order in the 6th on 8 pitches and now has retired 11 in a row. Preston has only thrown 67 pitches through 6 innings.

In the Shocker sixth a double, walk and sac bunt put runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. After a Cornblum strikeout Paxton delivered a 2-out, 2-run single to right and the Shocks have extended their lead to 9-0.

Preston gave up a 2 out single in the 7th to end his consecutive batters retired string at 13 om a row. In the 8th Preston gave up back-to-back singles with 1 out to put runners at the corners and Preston's day was done as he was at 101 pitches. LJ McDonough came in, jumped ahead in the count at 0-2, then induced a ground ball for a 4-6-3 inning ending double play.

McDonough puts up a McDonut in the 9th with 2 strike outs and grounder to 2nd as the Shocks make it 2 in row over Omaha with a nice workman like shut out.

Omaha so far has only scored in 1 out of 18 innings against the Shocks. They scored all 4 runs in yesterdays game in the 4th inning when Liam Eddy had his one hiccup. Shocks getting could pitching and good, timely hitting through the first 2 innings of this series. The Shocks also have not committed an error in the 2 games against Omaha. In the Shocks last 27 innings their opponents have only score in 2 of those innings.

Final Line Score:
Omaha 0 - 7-3-6
Shocks 9-10-0-6

[WuDrWu]

Also WSU pitching has only walked 1 all weekend. That player scored. Don’t issue walks = winning plays.

[WuDrWu]

Shox are 80ish in both RPI and WN ELO. They also got 2 votes in one of the polls this week.

What were early encouraging signs for both us and the American have dwindled.

East Carolina continues their bell cow status as the only ranked AAC team and an ELO of 17. After that, there isn't much, and with non-con games all but done, one can't expect a lot of movement with either RPI or ELO for the conference.

ELO Rankings

17 East Carolina
66 UCF
75 Wichita State
79 Tulane
99 Houston
108 Cincinnati
119 Memphis
120 USF


Going to have to win a lot of games.

[1972Shocker]

Game 3 of 3

Spencer Hynes on the mound for the Shocks.

In the Shocker 3rd the Shocks play small ball for a run with a Ross Cadena infield single,a Seth Stroh single to right and a Jack Sigrist sac fly put the Shocks on the board first.

A walk and a double down the line by Omaha tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the 5th.

The Shocks responded in the bottom of the 5th with more small ball, although this time a lot of it. Sandwiched in between a Hunter Gibson stirkeout to start the inning and a Hutner Gibson ground out to end the inning the Shocks had Cadena single to left, a Stroh single to right, a Clemons single to right, a Sigrist double to left, a VanVooren single to left, a VanVooren stolen base, a Wallace infield single, a Kocis ground out to 2nd moving Wallace to 2nd, and a Barlett single to right. All that resulted in 6 Shocker runs and a 7-1 lead after 5.

Hynes pitched 5 innings allowing only the 1 run on 1 hit and 4 walks with 7 stirkeouts. Ryan Stuempfig pitched a 1-2-3 sixth.

The Shocks added an unearned run when Cadena reached safely on throwing error by the Omaha 3rd baseman and then scored on a single to left by Stroh and an error on the Omaha leftfielder.

Another 1-2-3 inning by Stuempfig in the 7th. A Wallace single to right and a Kocis double right center gave the Shocks 2 RISP with no outs. Corrigan Bartlett delivered Wallas home with a single to left with Kocis taking 3rd. Hunter Gibson fell behind in the count at 0-2 before delivering a line drive double to left center scoring both Kocis and Barlett as the Shocks take an 11-1 lead. Omaha may have hit the wall woith their pitching.

Foster Gifford works a 1-2-3 8th with a couple of nice defensive plays by Wallace at 3rd backing him up.

Aaron Haase comes on to work the 9th. Wasn't real sharp with his command but got three cans of corn around a 4-pitch walk to close it out.

Hynes, Stuempfig, Gifford and Haase combine on a 2-hitter. Shocks finish of the sweep without making an error. Omaha scored on only 2 if their 27 at bats. Add in the K-State game and Shocker pitching has put up zeroes in 33 of the last 36 innings.

The Shocks really bunched their hits today.

Omaha 1-2-2-5
Shocks 11-14-0-4

Not sure exactly what to take from the last 4 games but it does seem like the Shocks are playing their best baseball of the season so far heading into the 8 game stretch against Houston (4 in Houston) starting next Thursday) and 4 in Wichita starting the following Friday.

The series in Houston starts on Thursday due to the Easter Sunday this weekend. When the come to Wichita they play the DH on Friday. I guess because the Saturday game is the game at Riverside Stadium. Yes, technically it's listed as Riverfront Stadium but I don't want anyone to head to Cincinnati for that one.

[ShockerExpress]

Thank you 72, great job with updates.

Not 100% sold at all on them yet, but great to win 4 in a row. As the Dr. mentioned, going to need to go on a pretty good run to have a special season.

[Kung Wu]

Those were some serious blowout wins. Omaha is super bad?

[NCAABound]

I've got a question and I have no idea if it has any merit or is stupid....

So back when I played baseball in the early 90s the youth baseball in Wichita was top notch. WSU got tons of players from the Wichita area.

Is that still the case? Or has the talent pool dried up or going elsewhere? Or do we not target them anymore?

I just miss the days of Carl Hall, Richie Taylor, Darren Paxton, Dreiforts, Drumright, and so on.

[Shockm]

Thank you 72, great job with updates.

Not 100% sold at all on them yet, but great to win 4 in a row. As the Dr. mentioned, going to need to go on a pretty good run to have a special season.

Eddy and Snavely pitched pretty good. Walks have often been a problem this year but not in Games 1 and 2. However, while Omaha only scored one run on Hynes, he allowed 4 walks in 4 innings with the lead off walk in the 5fh resulting a run. Shane Dennis referred to Spencer Hynes as being effectively wild. That’s a positive spin, on it, and I was just waiting on the cataclysmic event to happen. It was our good fortune that it didn’t happen. My biggest problem with a Hynes is that he’s been hanging on (allowing walks), each of his games thus far. But during his game at Arizona, they made Hynes pay.

[1972Shocker]

Those were some serious blowout wins. Omaha is super bad?

I don't think you can classify Omaha as super bad. Coming into the Shocker series they were 8-9. They split a pair of games with OU winning 6-3 and losing 5-8. They split a 4 game series with Missouri winning 17-11 and 9-3 and losing 10-12 and 1-10. They lost 2 of 3 to Creighton and 3 of 4 to Kansas. They won 3
of 4 against South Dakota State. So I would say they have been kind of mixed bag. But so far no one has beaten then up as bad as the Shocks did this weekend.

Not sure I would have predicted a sweep coming in to the series but not totally surprised by that but I am a bit surprised at the manner in which the sweep was executed. Whether or not it has any predictive or carryover value is hard to say. In baseball your momentum is generally only as good as how your next starting pitcher performs.