Shox vs. Evansville

[WheatShock]

Now if we could just get the Royals bullpen to come in and give us a hand we'd be in great shape.

[1972Shocker]

I still think the Shocks have a long way to go to get to where we and they want to be but I am pleased that the team simply did not cash in their chips and throw in the towel down the stretch. They continued to battle for the most part and to work on improving. I realize that in today's world college athletics is all about winning but I think the effort we are seeing from these guys is worth something.

Clearly, our biggest problem at this point is the lack of quality depth in the pitching staff. No question the injuries to Sam and Willie exasperated that problem significantly. But even with those two guys it is an area that needs to be shored up.

[SB Shock]

Shockers going for the sweep, lead 3-0 in the 3-0 in the 6th.

[SB Shock]

Williams throws 7 shutout innings. Shockers threatening to give their bullpen some breathing room. Shockers lead 5-0, with bases loaded, no outs in the 7th.

[SB Shock]

Mucha walks, 6-0

[SB Shock]

Kirk sac fly 7-0, runners on 2nd and 3rd, 1 out. Shox just need a walk-off HR to give Williams a complete game shutout.

[SB Shock]

Shockers leading 8-0 on another sac fly.

[SB Shock]

Williams throws up another 0 in the 8th.

[SB Shock]

Shockers win in 8, 10-0

[Dupe]

WOW

[xazshox]

Sweep

1st time to sweep Evansville since 2004. And, Chase Williams finally shutdown Kaszmarki today.

[Cdizzle]

That happened. Interesting. 4 straight very solid starting pitching performances.

[ShockerFever]

Evansville has a Top 100 RPI but they didn't appear to be worth a damn. They walked a lot of batters and left a lot of runners on base.

By next weekend, this sweep will be long forgotten.

Still nice to win some games though. Looks like a we've guaranteed ourselves at least a 5th place finish and that looks like where we'll finish going into the Valley Tournament.

[1972Shocker]

Chase Williams was very good today. Not perfect by any means as he still has a lot of work to do with improving his command but he proved what kind of stuff he has when he can locate by shutting down Kaczmarski. The box score shows Kaczmarksi was 0-4 with 2 strikeouts but I thought Chase had him struck out on his last at bat in the 8th when the home plate umpired missed what should have been a called 3rd strike. Kaczmarksi then flew out deep to CF. Clearly though the best by far Chase has been this year.

The game started out like this was going to be real low-scoring pitchers duel. The 1st time through the lineup the Shocks looked pretty helpless. But then the Evansville pitchers seemed to catch what was ailing the Shocker pitchers most of the year and they started walking the world.

The bottom part of the order actually did some nice work again today.

In the fourth the Evansville starter threw only 1 strike in his 1st 13 pitches and that was on a ball low and outside that Gunnar Troutwine bunted at and missed. It looked like Evansville might escape though when Chase Rader grounded into 5-2-3 double play. However, Mickel Mucha beat out an infield hit that scored the Shocks 1st run and Bob Arens delivered a 2-out, 2-run single to put the Shocks up 3-0.

The Shocks tacked on 5 more in the 7th on only 1 hit. 4 walks and 2 hit batters aided the Shocker cause in the 7th but the Shockers deserve credit for putting the ball in play with runners on 3rd and less than 2 outs. Troutwine drove in the 1st run of the inning with a sharp line drive single to left after 2 walks and a hit batter had loaded the bases with no outs. Then Chase Rader was hit by a pitch and Mikel Mucha walked to force in two more runs. Tanner Kirk then drove in a run with a sac fly to LF with both Rader at 2B and Mucha at 1B tagging up and very alertly and aggressively advancing. After Bob Arens walked to-reload the bases Zach Redding, pinch hitting from Trey Vickers hit the hardest ball of the day but Kaczmarski in CF made an absolutely sensational catch in CF or the game would have been over then. As it was the Shocks did score the 5th run of the inning on the sac fly.

In the bottom of the 8th the Shocks loaded the bases again on a single to CF by Sam Hilliard that just about undressed the pitcher and two more walks. A single by Mikel Mucha to RF drove in the 9th run and a infielder grounder by Tanner Kirk plated the game ending 10th run.

Hopefully, the Shocks are finally understanding the concept of not giving away free bases. The Shocks can certainly live with 3 walks from Chase Williams in 8 innings and they also did not commit any errors today. The fielding has gotten much better along with the improved pitching.

Shocks now have won 8 of 11 and have an 8-game home winning streak going with their final regular season home game Tuesday against ORU.

[1972Shocker]

Odds and Ends:

The 6-7-8 and 9 hole hitters produced 8 of the Shockers 10 ribbies in this game.

Evansville's Kevin Kaczmarski received the biggest ovation of the game after his great catch in the bottom of the 7th.

Coming into today's game Kaczmarski had struck out 2 times in every 19 at bats. Chase Williams got him twice (really 3 times) in 4 at bats.