Wichita State baseball takes down a ranked Iowa team in ‘regional-type’ tournament

The Jax College Baseball Classic boasts to be “the best outside of Omaha,” a marquee early-season tournament that provides teams a postseason feel to February games.

First-year Wichita State coach Brian Green has grand plans to end a decade-long drought of postseason play for the Shockers and experiences like the one this past weekend help the program take one step closer.

The decided underdog in the tournament, which included three power-conference programs, Wichita State flashed its potential in pushing No. 14 Virginia to extra innings and rallying from behind for a 12-6 win over No. 18 Iowa in Sunday’s finale in Jacksonville, Fla.

“We’re going to be such a better team moving forward from this experience, rather than playing a home series or a road series,” Green said. “The way this thing is set up to create a regional experience for everybody is invaluable.

“I can’t wait to get on the phone and ask, ‘When are we coming back?’”

WSU was on the verge of leaving Florida empty-handed on Sunday when Iowa built a 5-0 lead after five innings.

But the Shockers proved this weekend their lineup, which entered the season as a question mark with little experience, junior-college transfers and true freshmen, has some serious pop to it.

The comeback embarked in the sixth inning when Josh Livingston, a juco convert, smashed a two-out, three-run homer. The momentum swelled the following inning, as Derek Williams, another juco transfer, and Jaden Gustafson, a backup last year, delivered RBI hits and Seth Stroh followed with a towering, three-run home run for an 8-5 lead. WSU added another three-run home run, its third of the game, in the eighth inning when Jordan Rogers sent one over the right-field fence.

WSU’s offense finished the weekend with 24 runs scored, 33 hits and six home runs against regional-caliber competition each game.

“If you look at our body of work over the weekend, offensively we left here feeling really confident in our ability to compete and battle and put the ball in play and get on base,” Green said. “I’m really proud of our guys. We’re leaving here a better club.”

After starter Daniel Zang was chased from the game in the second inning, sophomore reliever Caleb Anderson settled the team down with 2⅔ strong innings in relief. The bullpen unit of Anderson, Tyler Dobbs, Jack Mount, Ryan Geraghty and Brady Hamilton combined to allow just two earned runs in the final 7⅓ innings.

WSU out-scored Iowa 12-1 in the final four innings to improve to 14-0 all-time in the series.

“Ryan Geraghty comes in and gets the first out and fist pumps like we just won a regional,” Green said while laughing. “Next thing you know he’s out of the game because he expended all of his energy on the lead-off hitter. Those are the things, the learning curve that we have with 35 new players. But this is a fun group to coach and they really, really care.”

WSU nearly notched two top-25 wins in the tournament, as the Shockers briefly took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 10th inning against Virginia when Williams blasted a solo shot over the left-field fence.

Reliever Hunter Holmes almost escaped the jam in the bottom-half of the inning, but hit a batter on a full-count pitch to load the bases with one out and then gave up a walk-off, 2-RBI double by Henry Ford.

“You can’t replicate a game like the one Friday night against Virginia,” Green said. “Big crowd against a great team. That feeling of us having a lead late and being sped up. That’s an invaluable experience for us to go, ‘OK, we’re going to need to slow down and breathe and learn from it.”

It spoiled a strong outing from WSU ace Caden Favors, who struck out seven and allowed one earned run in 6⅔ innings. Freshman shortstop Darnell Parker Jr. committed three errors, but also hit his first career home run in the game.

The Shockers were run-ruled 19-8 in seven innings by Auburn on Saturday.

WSU is back in action Wednesday on the road at Oral Roberts, then returns to Wichita for its home-opening series against Utah Tech at Eck Stadium with the 3-game series beginning at 3 p.m. Friday.

WSU track and field crowns indoor AAC champions

The WSU track and field team produced three champions at the AAC Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala. this past weekend. Both teams finished in fifth place in the team standings.

Destiny Masters, a junior from Leon, won the women’s high jump competition by clearing a personal-best 6 foot, 1.25 inches for the 11th-best mark in the country. Making the accomplishment even more impressive is that it came one day after her second-place finish in the pentathlon.

Tack on a seventh-place finish in the long jump and Masters was awarded the meet MVP. She is poised to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in both the pentathlon and high jump.

On the men’s side, Brady Palen, a junior from Beloit, became a first-time conference champion in the high jump with a season-best mark of 7-1.75, which is the 24th-best clearance in the country. It was WSU’s first indoor conference title in the event since 2013.

Meanwhile, Adria Navajon won his third straight heptathlon title with a season-best score of 5,568 points. He also took fifth in the open long jump and seventh in the 60-meter hurdles. WSU had three others join him on the podium in the heptathlon in junior Hudson Bailey (third), freshman Luke Czarnecki (fifth) and sophomore Luke Porter (seventh). Czarnecki also took third in high jump.

Other medalists on the men’s team included senior Yuben Goncalves (long jump, sixth), junior Creighton Camp (weight throw, sixth), freshman Josh Parrish (60 hurdles, fifth; long jump, eighth) and freshman Jacob Meyers (800, fifth). The 1600 relay team of Joakim Genereax, Jason Parrish, Bryan Haney and Trace Spires also placed third.

On the women’s side, senior Farrah Miller, who broke the meet record in the 800 but finished second in the race with a time of 2 minutes, 4.68 seconds. Other medalists included junior Lucy Ndungu (3,000, fifth), junior Chidera Okoro (long jump, fifth), junior Kylie Zimmer (shot put, sixth), junior Kenisa Meyer (pentathlon, eighth), sophomore Mattelyn Swartz (high jump, eighth) and freshman Kate Campos (60 hurdles, seventh). The 1600 relay team of Sydney Brown, Sadie Millard, Kate Campos and Miller placed eighth, while the distance medley team of Lea Jerkovic, Brown, Audrey Parson and Jenna Muma placed fifth.

Shocker softball concludes successful Arkansas tournament

Highlighted by a road top-15 win over Arkansas on Friday, the Shockers wrapped up a 4-1 stay in Fayetteville with an 8-1 win over Illinois State on Sunday morning.

Freshman pitcher Chloe Barber stole the show, tying the program record with 15 strikeouts in the win over Arkansas and then claiming the record for herself on Sunday with 16 strikeouts on Sunday. In three appearances over the weekend, Barber struck out 33 hitters in 15 innings.

WSU improved to 7-3 this season, a record which already includes two top-25 wins away from home and all three losses to nationally-ranked opponents.

Following the Friday defeat, Arkansas came back to score 13 runs in the fourth inning of the rematch on Saturday to run-rule the Shockers in a 15-4 win. Earlier in the day, WSU managed a split with a 6-1 victory over UT Arlington.

Graduate transfer CC Wong hit a home run in three straight games to close out the weekend, upping her season total to five. Addison Barnard added a solo shot against Arlington, while Taylor Sedlacek homered against Illinois State.

WSU will play its first home game of the season at 1 p.m. Wednesday against Iowa at Wilkins Stadium, then compete in the Big Red Invitational this upcoming weekend with two games apiece against Nebraska and Missouri.

Roy Williams watched Shocker women’s basketball team

It’s been 24 years since Terry Nooner played for Roy Williams at KU, but the two have remained close in the two decades since.

Their bond was never more evident than on Saturday afternoon when Williams, a legendary men’s basketball coach at Kansas and North Carolina, made the drive to watch his former player coach the WSU women’s basketball team in Charlotte.

“Happy that Coach Williams was able to watch us play (Saturday),” Nooner posted on social media with a picture of Williams talking to him after the game. “And as you can see, he’s still giving the best advice!”

The Shockers lost 74-48 to Charlotte to drop to 8-19 this season with a 4-11 record in American Athletic Conference play. WSU returns home to host SMU on Wednesday and UTSA on Saturday.

Wichita native notches another top-5 finish for WSU women’s golf

In her first year playing for the Shockers, Wichita native Kate Tilma found herself near the top of the leaderboard once again in the WSU women’s golf team’s opening spring tournament in Rio Verde, Ari.

Tilma carded 1-under rounds of 71 on Friday and Sunday and shot even-par on Saturday, to finish with a 52-hole total of 214 strokes to finish in a tie for fifth place.

It is the second top-10 finish for Tilma, who finished in a tie for fifth place at the Payne Stewart Memorial back in September.