Weekend review: Northwestern at Wichita State

May 18, 201311:05 p.m.

Shocker infielder Erik Harbutz went 6 for 9 with two walks in the series.

Scores: WSU 8, Northwestern 2; WSU 5, Northwestern 0; WSU 4, Northwestern 3 (10)

Records: WSU 34-25, NU 22-26

Key stats: The Shockers didn’t commit an error, the kind of defensive effort it will take to win the MVC Tournament. Nine Shockers pitched and and two allowed runs (Cale Elam and T.J. McGreevy). WSU hit .373, totaling 38 hits. Only four went for extra bases (two doubles, two home runs), which explains why the games were all close going into the late innings.

  • The Shockers hit. 373 to Northwestern’s .250 and had to fight to win all three games. The largest margin entering the seventh was three runs. WSU doesn’t possess the extra-base power to blow teams out.
  • While Illinois State, Missouri State and Creighton played crucial MVC series filled with close games. While WSU starters came out after 70-80 pitches, Illinois State pushed its pitchers to two complete games. Creighton and MSU spread out the innings, especially on Sunday. We’ll see if that affects this week’s tournament. The No. 1 pitchers who went Thursday will come back Tuesday, short rest for college arms used to weekly start.
  • Wichita State catcher Tyler Baker made a fantastic defensive play in the 10th inning Saturday. With a runner on first on no outs, he barehanded a bunt bouncing about eye level and threw a rope to second baseman Tanner Dearman to cut down the lead runner. The inning went nowhere and Baker’s laser played a major role in keeping it tied 3-all. “It was just kind of an instinct thing,” he said. “Brandon (Peterson) was yelling ‘two, two, two’ the whole time. So I was going off of him and trusted what he had to say.”
  • WSU RF Garrett Bayliff went 8 for 12 in the series. 3B Erik Harbutz went 6 for 9 and walked twice. CF Micah Green went 5 for 8 and drove in three runs. While 1B Casey Gillaspie went 3 for 13, he did homer for the second time in the week. He is the one guy who can give the Shockers some pop.
Next up: vs. Southern Illinois, 12:30 p.m. Tuesday (MVC Tournament)

 

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Baseball | Comments

Shockers add two good guarantee games

May 15, 20138:25 p.m.

Wichita State’s men’s basketball team will play guarantee games against Western Kentucky and Oral Roberts, two programs that it wouldn’t seem odd for the Shockers play home and home.

Senior associate athletic director Darron Boatright said those games (at Koch Arena with no return to the other school) represent a need for WSU to be more aggressive in upgrading its schedule. He is concerned Creighton’s departure from the Missouri Valley Conference will hurt schedule strength and power rankings.  Every MVC team loses two (sometimes three) valuable games with Creighton. WSU possesses the money and cachet to try to bump up its non-conference schedule.  Other MVC teams may not.

“With the exit of Creighton, there’s no place it hurts worse than in men’s basketball scheduling,” he said.  ”I think we need to be pretty aggressive.”

ESPN helped WSU with the Western Kentucky game. It will be part of ESPN’s Tip-off Marathon on Nov. 11. The Shockers could sell an ESPN game, as well as a guarantee, to land the Hilltoppers. Last year, games started at midnight, 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 6 a.m. etc. WSU will lobby for one of the more reasonable tips.

“We will probably play at a crazy time, but we’re not going to play at a ridiculous time,” Boatright said. “I think it’s really good get. They’re back-to-back NCAA Tournament participants. We feel pretty confident scheduling them  because we feel like they will have success in the Sun Belt.”

The Shockers will play Oral Roberts (Dec. 7)  for the first time since a 76-73 loss to the Golden Eagles in 2003. Western Kentucky visited Koch Arena in 2005 for the NIT, an 85-81 Shocker win.

 Western Kentucky (19-16) finished the 2013 regular season with an RPI tied for No. 149. ORU  (19-15) is one spot back. Both programs are capable of performing better. If they stay the same, it is better than the 250-300 range guarantee games often bring.

 ”That is part of the department being more aggressive and trying to capture some of this momentum,” Boatright said. “We were able to put a little more money behind some of those games. In the case of Western Kentucky, we were able to guarantee them a nationally televised game. That’s usually not a card that we have in our pocket.”

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Weekend review: Creighton at Wichita State

May 13, 201311:22 a.m.

Scores: Creighton 6, WSU 5; Creighton 3, WSU 1; WSU 4, Creighton 1

Records: WSU 31-24, 15-6 MVC; CU 28-14, 11-7

Key stats: WSU ranked No. 25 nationally in fielding percentage entering the weekend, .975. The Shockers committed five errors, contributing to five unearned runs for Creighton. Errors – and walks – figured into most of Creighton’s scoring, especially in Saturday’s game. Creighton’s error-less defense magnified the Shocker mistakes. Most painfully, the errors (and walks) let Creighton get leads and neutralized WSU’s bullpen. Shocker relievers again starred, with four combining to pitch 9 2/3 scoreless innings. WSU out-hit Creighton 25-18, stole nine bases to its zero, walked 11 times to Creighton’s eight and struck out 12 fewer times than the Bluejays. Both teams scored 10 runs and Creighton won two of three because of timely hitting and Shocker mistakes.

  • WSU blew a chance to clinch the MVC title and build itself a good stretch of baseball after sweeping at Missouri State.  It went 1-3 (with a 7-5 loss to Kansas). Had the Shockers gone 3-1, they’re MVC champions and a team with a slim chance to win 40 games. Instead, Creighton almost did to WSU what WSU did to Missouri State. In two close wins, the Bluejays got the timely hits, executed and played cleaner baseball. In total, going 4-2 vs. the Bears and Bluejays is good. It’s disappointing that WSU had the MVC race in its hands and let it slip away at home.
  • Nine of WSU’s past 11 losses are by one or two runs (the other by three).  In four of those games, WSU score three runs or fewer. In the other five, it scored five or more.
  • WSU needs one Illinois State loss (at Southern Illinois starting Thursday) to win a share of the title. More important is the No. 1 seed in the tournament, which WSU would get because of its 2-1 series win over the Redbirds. The Shockers will either finish No. 1 or No. 2, avoiding the host Redbirds until the championship game. The No. 1 spot appears to be critically important because of the pitching matchups. The No. 1 seed is grouped with Nos. 4,5 and 8. The No. 2 seed gets Nos. 3,6 and 7. The current No. 7 seed is SIU, which will throw Shocker-killer Cody Forsythe in the opening game of the tournament. The No. 1 seed gets Bradley, which is 1-16 in Valley play. Forsythe beat WSU this season, holding it to three hits and one earned run over seven innings in a 5-4 victory. In the 2012 tournament, he struck out eight in seven innings and SIU won 6-3. In the regular season, he struck out seven in seven innings and didn’t allow an earned run in a game WSU won 4-3 in 10 innings. The Shockers want no part of Forsythe in the tournament.
  • WSU shortstop Dayne Parker went 3 for 4 on Sunday, scored and drove in a run. He played flawlessly at shortstop. What made the effort more impressive is that Parker, a junior who started 59 games last season, hadn’t played since April 28 at Southern Illinois. Losing his starting job, during a hitting slump, didn’t keep Parker from preparing for another shot. “He is a great student of the game,” WSU coach Gene Stephenson said. “Sometimes that opportunity helps guys a little bit, meaning that they get to sit and look at things and evaluate how they would approach something. He is an excellent team guy and he’s been putting in his work so that he could be in a position, if the time came, that he could help us.” Parker kept a bat in his hands even when he wasn’t starting, often working with junior infielder Sean Moore in the Eck Stadium batting cages. “Me and him hit after every game,” Parker said. “You’ve got to take a lot of reps on your own. I hit every day before practice and then after games.”
  • Creighton’s departure to the Big East hurts MVC baseball, although less than in men’s and women’s basketball. The addition of Dallas Baptist next season helps repair the damage some.  The Valley will miss Creighton, which is one of the schools that takes baseball seriously and plays a good non-conference schedule. It will also miss TD Ameritrade Park, which is a marquee place to hold a conference tournament. The Valley appears to be going in a strange direction for the tournament by downgrading from the home of the College World Series to smaller fields. This season’s tournament is at Illinois State and MVC officials recently visited Indiana State to evaluate its worthiness as a host. The fact they needed to go to Terre Haute to check out Bob Warn Field is troubling. It is a fine park for the Sycamores and it’s been upgraded in recent years. It is not worthy of hosting the MVC Tournament. When the MVC Tournament has options such as TD Ameritrade, Eck Stadium and Hammons Field, regression shouldn’t be considered.
  • Creighton is worth the price of admission for its defense. I would love to accompany Bluejays coach Ed Servais on a recruiting trip where he describes his style of play and the defensive practices. I can’t imagine how frustrating it is to hit against Creighton and see the groundballs that scoot through, or force errors, against other teams end up in easy outs. The Bluejays are a fantastic defensive team. WSU is a very good defensive team – even after the weekend its fielding percentage is .974, which ranks second in the MVC. But it is bunching errors recently – two or more in seven of the past 11 games. WSU’s margin of error with its pitching and offense is not enough to overcome two-plus errors and that trend must stop in the MVC Tournament.
Next up: vs. Oklahoma State, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday (Cox 22)

 

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Marshall likes the practice change

May 11, 20131:15 p.m.

NCAA rules makers made several changes for college basketball recently and turned down a chance to make one big alteration to the game. The headliners is a change in the start of fall practice. The big one that won’t change is the shot clock.

Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall is good with both.

In short, practices can begin six weeks before the first regular-season game. Coaches can get in 30 practices of that time. Previously, they got four weeks. That puts most practices starting around Sept. 27.

Marshall likes the idea of spreading out his practice time. He may consider a schedule that practices for three or four days, then takes a day or two off.  More time to teach and work around classes is helpful.

“I think this gives you more flexibility,” he said. “It gives you more time to implement your stuff. You’re starting earlier, so there is more time to get it their head, from a teaching standpoint.”

 A decline in scoring sparked a national debate about the length of the shot clock. Some coaches advocated cutting to back to force more possessions and, theoretically, help the offense. Not everyone agrees with that theory, and the NCAA did not make changes to the shot clock.

“I like it where it is,” Marshall said. “I’m not trying to become the NBA.”

The NCAA rules committee made other changes, most notably to the replays in the final two minutes and block/charge calls.

 

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Weekend rewind: Wichita State at Missouri State

May 6, 201311:09 a.m.

Scores: WSU 3, MSU 2; WSU 11, MSU 9; WSU 3, MSU 0

Key stats: WSU’s pitching controlled two of the wins and kept the Shockers close in a third. While the Bears battered A.J. Ladwig and T.J. McGreevy in the second game, seven Shockers held them to two runs in the other 18 innings of the series. WSU’s defense played a major role, committing two errors to MSU’s four. The Bears handed WSU the go-ahead runs in the 11-9 win on a two-run throwing error. In the ninth inning of the 3-0 win, a throwing error Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Baseball | Comments

Weekend rewind: Wichita State at SIU

April 29, 201312:51 p.m.

Scores: UE 5, WSU 4; WSU 8, UE 4; WSU 5, UE 2

Key stats: WSU’s bullpen filled a lot of innings after an injury to Friday starter Cale Elam limited him to three innings and Sunday starter Drew Palmer lasted the same amount. WSU pitching held SIU to six earned runs and their control decided the series. The Shockers walked two batters in 26 innings; SIU walked 10 and hit two. WSU took advantage of SIU’s free passes and fielding errors. It hit .252 and only got one RBI apiece from middle-of-the-order hitters Casey Gillaspie and Johnny Coy. Ten Shockers drove in runs, with OF Garrett Bayliff leading with three.

  • A team can win the MVC Tournament with four starting pitchers. The Shockers possess one (Elam) that they have total confidence in. A.J. Ladwig is on the right track. Beyond that, WSU needs at least one starter to step up. The bullpen is so deep the Shockers can win Sunday’s game after pulling Palmer in a situation most teams let ride. He pitched well for two innings and then struggled in a third. WSU’s offense didn’t help by leaving runs on the table while forging a 2-all tie. Asking the bullpen to cover two short starts (or more in case of losers bracket) is dangerous. Getting Palmer, Kris Gardner or Garrett Brummett into shape to get deeper into games is important for the late May trip to Duffy Bass Field.
  • Freshman third baseman Tanner Kirk, like second baseman Tanner Dearman, apparently didn’t waste time pouting when he didn’t play. When Kirk got a chance to start, he produced and it appears he isn’t coming out the lineup. He went 4 for 12 with a double against SIU and is 6 for 16 with two doubles and one strikeout in four games since starting against Oral Roberts.  At SIU, he refused to let two errors (on the same play) in Friday’s game ruin his weekend. He learned to be more aggressive to take away hops and played good defense on Saturday and Sunday, handling a field made for bad-hops in wet conditions. “You’ve got to want the ball and be ready for it,” Kirk said. “I had two errors (Friday) and I know I can field. You’ve just got to fight through it and be ready for the next one.”
  • The MVC race is headed for showdown weekend, with WSU and Missouri State, tied for second, meeting in Springfield. Fourth-place Creighton plays at Illinois State, which leads WSU and MSU by percentage points. The Redbirds are blessed with the best schedule _ home series against Creighton and Evansville and at struggling SIU. Creighton has the toughest road, playing at ISU and WSU before finishing with a home series against MSU. The Bluejays are in fourth place, but are the only team in the top four that hasn’t played another.
  • This week: At Kansas, 6 p.m. Tuesday; vs. Kansas Wesleyan, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday
By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Baseball | Comments

Murry wins NBA D-League title

April 28, 20137:17 a.m.

Former Shocker Toure Murry helped Rio Grande Valley, affiliated with the Houston Rockets, win the NBA D-League title. (Associated Press photo)

Former Shocker Toure Murry scored 13 points for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in Saturday’s NBA D-League championship series win over Santa Cruz. The Vipers won 102-91 to win the best-of-3 series 2-0.

Murry registered a triple-double (17 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) in a Game 1 victory.

Murry averaged 14 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.8 assists in six playoff games, making 33 of 67 shots and 7 of 18 threes. For the season, he averaged 8.3 points, 2.8 assists and 2.5 rebounds. Coaches voted him to the All-Rookie third team and All-Defensive second team.

 

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments

Where are the Shockers?

April 22, 20138:59 p.m.

Former Shocker Conor Gillaspie is playing for the Chicago White Sox (Associated Press photo)

Shockers playing in organized baseball. Email me at psuellentrop@wichitaeagle.com if I missed anybody.

3B Conor Gillaspie – Chicago White Sox

OF Andy Dirks – Detroit Tigers

P Mike Pelfrey – Minnesota Twins

C Koyie Hill – New Orleans Zephyrs (AAA)

C Cody Clark – Oklahoma City (AAA)

P Tommy Hottovy – New Hampshire (AA)

P Kris Johnson – Indianapolis (AAA)

P Travis Banwart – Sacramento (AAA)

SS Dusty Coleman – Midland (AA)

P Jordan Cooper – Carolina (A)

OF Ryan Jones – Inland Empire (A)

SS Tyler Grimes – Cedar Rapids (A)

P Brian Flynn - Jacksonville (AA)

C Chris O’Brien – Rancho Cucamonga (A)

P Josh Smith – West Virgina (A)

 

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Baseball | Comments

Weekend review: Evansville at Wichita State

April 22, 20131:29 p.m.

WSU first baseman Casey Gillaspie scored in the third inning of Friday’s win over Evansville.

Scores: WSU 5, UE 4; UE 6, WSU 3; WSU 6, UE 5

Records: WSU 23-18, 9-3 MVC; UE 15-25, 6-6

Key statistics: WSU pitchers struck out 19 and walked five in the three games, which kept the Aces from doing more damage. That was especially key on Sunday, when starter Drew Palmer gave up two solo home runs and a two-run shot. If Palmer walks a few batters, the story is quite different. Friday starter Cale Elam gave the bullpen a break with 7 2/3 good innings. Closer Brandon Peterson Read More »

By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Baseball | Comments

Signing classes around the MVC

April 19, 20138:39 a.m.
By Paul Suellentrop | Filed under Basketball | Comments