News

Jun 25, 2023

Baseball Preview: AAC Championship

5/22/2023 11:06:00 PM #6 Memphis (28-26, 10-14) vs. #3 Wichita State (30-23,

5/22/2023 11:06:00 PM

#6 Memphis (28-26, 10-14) vs. #3 Wichita State (30-23, 13-10 American)Tuesday, May 23 | 47 minutes after the conclusion of 3:00 pm CT game | Clearwater, Florida (BayCare Ballpark)TV: ESPN+ | Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AMLHP Luke Ellis (3-3, 4.42) vs. RHP Grant Adler (5-3, 2.41)

SCENE SETTER: Wichita State opens the American Athletic Conference Championship on Tuesday night against Memphis at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Florida. The Shockers are the number three seed in the bracket, matched with the sixth-seeded Tigers in the opening round. WSU plays the final game of the day on Tuesday, with a first pitch time scheduled for 47 minutes after the conclusion of game three, which starts at 3:00 pm CT. Wichita State is on the same side of the bracket as #2 Houston and #7 Tulane; with a win the Shockers will play one of those two teams on Thursday. The Shockers matched their best finish since joining The American in 2018, earning third place by virtue of a comeback win at UCF on Friday. The Knights won the other two games in the series by a single run, including a walk-off 16-15 victory in the series opener that resumed Friday after just six pitches on Thursday. Wichita State is hunting their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since the 2013 season, a regional bid that was later vacated by the NCAA.

SHOCKER BASEBALL ON THE RADIO AND ESPN PLUS: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM will once again serve as the radio home for Wichita State baseball broadcasts in 2023. "The Voice of the Shockers" and Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Famer Mike Kennedy will have the call in Clearwater, with Denning Gerig joining the broadcast as color commentator. All games of the tournament will also be streamed live on ESPN+ ($). The championship game will air live on ESPN News. Live audio, in addition to live statistics, will be available for all games at GoShockers.com/listen and ShockerStats.com.

SERIES HISTORY: The Shockers and Tigers have met just 16 times in the all-time series history, with every game taking place after Wichita State joined the American Athletic Conference in 2018. The Shockers hold an 11-5 lead in the series, winning two of three games in Wichita earlier this season. Wichita State rolled to comfortable wins in the first two games by nine and seven runs, respectively, but Memphis bounced back to take the Sunday series finale, 6-3. Projected Tigers starter Luke Ellis went 3.1 innings and allowed two runs in the victory. WSU has won all five series against the Tigers, including a four-game set in Wichita in 2021.

SCOUTING MEMPHIS: The Tigers ended the regular season with a 28-26 overall record, including 10-14 in American Athletic Conference play. Memphis heads to Clearwater on the heels of a series win at Tulane, sandwiching a pair of run-rule wins around a Friday defeat. Even with the outburst against the Green Wave, Memphis still ranks at the bottom of the conference with just 5.4 runs per game largely due to a lack of extra-base power. The Tigers are slugging .420 as a team with just 55 home runs. Third baseman Logan Kohler is the most dangerous name in the lineup, hitting .328 with 12 doubles and 10 home runs. The pitching staff ranks third in the conference with a 5.30 ERA led by a pair of talented lefties; senior starter Dalton Fowler was named the conference's Pitcher of the Year on Monday after leading the league with 104 strikeouts. Junior closer Dalton Kendrick has racked up 12 saves, fifth-most in the country. Memphis is led by first-year head coach Kerrick Jackson, who returned to the collegiate ranks after a stint as president of the MLB Draft League. Jackson was previously the head coach at Southern for three seasons, and has also coached at Emporia State and Coffeyville Community College in Kansas.

BRINGING HOME THE HARDWARE: Wichita State was well-represented on Monday's all-conference honors, leading the league with five First Team selections among nine total honorees. Second baseman Brock Rodden highlighted the awards, recognized as the AAC's Player of the Year. Tuesday starter Grant Adler was named the conference's Newcomer Pitcher of the Year. That pair was joined on the First Team by outfielder Chuck Ingram, right-handed pitcher Clark Candiotti and two-way player Payton Tolle. Lefty reliever Jace Miner and outfielder Kyte McDonald earned spots on the Second Team, while reliever Nate Snead and third baseman Jack Little were voted All-Conference Freshmen. Interim head coach Loren Hibbs was named Coach of the Year, becoming the first Shocker head coach to win the award since Gene Stephenson in 1998.

NINTH INNING MAGIC: Wichita State put together two remarkable ninth inning rallies this past week in Orlando against UCF. In the completion of the suspended series opener, the Shockers entered the ninth trailing 15-8 but scored seven runs to tie the game, highlighted by a two-out grand slam from freshman Jack Little. UCF went on to win the game 16-15, but the Shockers got revenge with another ninth inning rally later that day. Trailing 7-6 with just three outs left to play with, WSU scored six runs en route to a 12-7 victory. A bases-loaded walk to Seth Stroh put the Shockers in front, then Little and Chuck Ingram knocked in two runs apiece to complete the rally.

TOURNEY TRENDS: Over the course of four seasons in the American Athletic Conference, Wichita State has not faired well at the conference tournament. The Shockers best showing came in 2019, when they bested top-seeded East Carolina twice but also lost twice to UConn to finish 2-2. WSU won one game in 2018 and 2021, and lost to Houston and UCF as part of an 0-2 showing last season.

TWO-WAY TALENT: Last week, sophomore Payton Tolle was named one of 12 semifinalists for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award. The award is named for the former Washington State University standout who achieved success both as a first baseman and left-handed pitcher during the late 1980s and was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. As Wichita State's Saturday starter, Tolle has gone 9-2 with a 4.57 ERA in 82.2 innings; offensively, he is hitting .319 with 13 home runs and 48 RBI. Tolle is the lone representative on the list from the American Athletic Conference.ONE-MAN WRECKING CREW: Junior outfielder Chuck Ingram has piled up 14 multi-hit games in the last 21 contests, raising his batting average to .366 to finish the regular season with the conference's best average. Ingram's BABIP (batting average on balls in play) is an incredible .517 (78-for-151), including a league-best 19 doubles. The right-handed hitter has almost tripled his walk rate in his junior season to go along with a career-high 16 stolen bases.

RUNNING INTO PROBLEMS: The Shockers do not allow a significant number of stolen base attempts (71 in 53 games, an average of 1.3 per game) but have had difficulties throwing out those runners. WSU has cut down just 10 of 71 baserunners, a caught-stealing rate of 14.1%.

JACE THE ACE: Left-hander Jace Miner had his long scoreless inning streak snapped on Friday at UCF, allowing a run after working 20.2 shutout frames. Before giving up the run, Miner struck out a career-high seven batters over 4.0 innings of work, keying a WSU come-from-behind victory. For the season, Miner's ERA stands at 2.03, and the southpaw has held opposing batters to a .156 average (21 hits in 40.0 innings).

PITCHING TURNAROUND: Pitching coach Mike Pelfrey and interim head coach Loren Hibbs have completely revamped the Shocker arms in 2023, trimming nearly a run and a half off the Wichita State ERA as compared to a season ago (5.97 to 4.39). The Shockers enter play on Tuesday 26th in the country in ERA thanks to a pitching staff littered with strike-throwers; WSU ranks 13th nationally in walks per nine innings (3.31) and 9th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.90:1).

EVERYBODY RUNS: With 87 steals as a team, the Shockers are getting baserunning production from up and down the lineup. Kyte McDonald (20), Chuck Ingram (16), Brock Rodden (12), Garrett Pennington (11) and Jack Little (10) all have double-digit steals, the first time that five individual Shockers have recorded 10 or more steals in a season since 2008. McDonald became the first Shocker since Daniel Kihle in 2015 to steal 20 bases in a season.

DOUBLE UP: Head coach Loren Hibbs made no secret of his desire for the Shockers to hit more doubles in 2023, believing the stat represents a good offensive approach and aggressive baserunning. The Shockers have lived up to that expectation this season, leading the American Athletic Conference and ranking 34th nationally with 118 team two-baggers. WSU has ten players with six or more doubles.

06.05.23

06.01.23

05.31.23

05.25.23