Wichita, Kan. – A four-run eighth inning proved the difference for Wichita State on Sunday afternoon as the University of Evansville baseball team couldn't mount a late comeback in an 8-4 loss to the Shockers at Eck Stadium.
"I really felt like we were in a great position headlining into that bottom of the eighth inning," UE head coach Wes Carroll said. "Our at-bats were getting better and our guys were getting locked in. Then we went back to what's been hurting us all year, and that was our pitching and defense in that seventh, eighth and ninth innings. We just couldn't get that last out in the eighth, and it was unfortunate because of the opportunity that we had in front of us."
With the loss, the Aces dropped their first Missouri Valley Conference road series since opening weekend at Southern Illinois. UE will now enter the final week of the regular season with a 16-34 overall record, including a 7-10 mark in Valley play. Meanwhile, the Shockers improved to 25-26 and established a little more cushion with the Aces in the league standings, moving to 9-9.
Once again, starting pitching led the way for UE as Justin Hayden put together his deepest outing of the season, scattering nine hits and allowing four runs over 7.1 innings of work. However, after the junior left the mound in the eighth, the UE bullpen was on the hook for four runs, all coming with two outs.
The Shockers drew first blood with a Willie Schwanke single in the first, and they'd double the lead two innings later as Greyson Jenista followed up a Jordan Boyer double with a single through the left side.
Schwanke ended the day 2-for-5, and Jenista reached base three times, going 2-for-3 with three scores.
UE would tie things up in the fifth, beginning with a Craig Shepherd leadoff double. Brendan Krob would single him home before ultimately coming around to score on a Troy Beilsmith bunt. From there, Trey Hair was issued an intentional walk to load the bases, but unlike Saturday's contest, Andrew Tanous couldn't make them pay for it as the Aces stranded the bases loaded.
Shepherd and Krob both led the Aces offensively, going 2-for-4 at the plate.
WSU answered with a score in both the fifth and sixth innings to re-establish the two-run cushion.
UE began its comeback bid in the eighth as Trey Hair and Travis Tokarek singles as well as a fielding error put runners on second and third with one out. Hair would be tagged out at the plate on a chopper to third for the second out before a wild pitch let Tokarek score and cut the deficit to one run.
In the bottom half of the frame, Hayden picked up the first out before the Aces made four pitching changes, bringing Nathan Croner, Ryan Brady, Hunter Porterfield and Brandon Gomer out of the pen. After a walk to Alex Jackson put the first runner on, Travis Young singled him home to make it 5-3 before singles from Boyer and Alec Bohm resulted in three more runs to put the game out of reach.
The Aces plated a consolation run in the ninth as Krob scored on a Beilsmith groundout.
UE will return to Charles H. Braun Stadium this week to close out the regular season with games against Belmont and Dallas Baptist.
NOTES: UE had won each of its last two conference road series. The Aces have not won three in a row since 2000 … Since 1978, the Aces are 30-59 against WSU … Since 1987, UE is 224-196 in the month of May.
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