Dominant pitching leads Wichita State baseball to best 10-game start to season since 2020

The weather in early March couldn’t have been much better for Wichita State’s opening weekend at Eck Stadium, and neither could the team’s pitching.

Behind a dominant performance from the pitching staff, the Shockers had little trouble finishing off a three-game series sweep of Utah Tech on Sunday, much to the delight of WSU fans who enjoyed the scenic view from Coleman Hill on a sunny, 79-degree afternoon.

“We really did catch a break with this weather and coming off a big win over Iowa and then Oral Roberts,” WSU head coach Brian Green said. “We really had a feel. Two outs, the crowd was up clapping and they had the brooms out there on the deck and a couple RV’s out there. This weekend was awesome, man.”

Eight different pitchers combined to hold Utah Tech to a single run on 11 total hits during its 27-inning stay in Wichita. Perhaps just as impressive, WSU’s pitching staff racked up a combined 36 strikeouts to only four walks.

Add it all up and Wichita State (7-3) is off to its best 10-game start to a season under first-year head coach Brian Green since the club opened 13-2 during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Including a 3-1 win at Oral Roberts in last week’s midweek game, WSU’s pitching staff has a 0.50 earned run average in its last 36 innings.

“We’re pitching really well right now,” Green said. “We didn’t hit a lot this weekend, but we did just enough.”

WSU ace Caden Favors set the tone in Friday’s 8-0 win with a complete-game shutout, striking out 10 with one walk and five hits allowed. He improved to 2-0 this season and lowered his ERA to 2.11 with 25 strikeouts and just four walks in 21-plus innings.

“Caden has been the same guy for us three straight weekends now,” Green said. “He’s been so good. When you go CG on Friday night, that gave us two starters and the entire bullpen for the rest of the weekend and that takes a ton of pressure off.”

WSU experimented with an all-freshmen infield in Saturday’s game, starting Gannon Snyder at first, Kam Durnin at second, Darnell Parker Jr. at shortstop and Camden Johnson at third. It was a risk considering WSU’s defense failed sophomore Daniel Zang in his previous start against Iowa, but this time the Shockers were flawless for the junior-college transfer.

Zang struck out eight and didn’t allow a hit in six-plus innings, while the bullpen unit of Caleb Anderson, Hunter Holmes and Nate Adler combined for a one-hitter. Josh Livingston tied the game early on a solo home run, then Derek Williams crushed homers in his final two at-bats to lift WSU to a 4-1 win.

In a 5-0 victory to close out the sweep, Sunday starter Tommy LaPour flashed his immense potential. The highly-rated freshman from Blue Springs, Mo. pitched five scoreless innings and struck out eight hitters, while walking none and allowing just two hits.

Green hopes it was a breakthrough for LaPour, who had yet to make it out of the third inning and had allowed 10 earned runs in four combined innings before Sunday’s outing.

“If you watch Tommy, you know he’s a dugout leader and a very emotional kid,” Green said. “The difference (Sunday) was he was just locked in on being approach-based, process-based and if you watch the video, his slot from his slider to fastball to change was all very consistent. Most importantly, he didn’t get too wound up. That’s kind of his thing. But he’s a freshman and that’s what freshmen do. I think he really found himself in week 3 and was mentally really locked in.”

Johnson, a freshman from Boerne, Texas, has been a revelation early in the season and enjoyed a strong opening weekend on his home field with a combined 8-for-12 at the plate with five runs scored. He owns a team-high .463 batting average and .542 on-base percentage, plus a team-high 11 runs scored to go along with seven RBIs.

But it was Dayvin Johnson who stole the show on Sunday, producing his own multi-home run game with a three-run shot in the third inning and then a solo shot in the eighth inning. Ryan Callahan added three hits and Williams delivered a RBI double.

WSU will travel to Oklahoma for a single road game at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday before returning home to host its next nine games at Eck Stadium, beginning with a weekend series against Long Beach State. First pitch on Friday is slated for 3 p.m., followed by a 2 p.m. game on Saturday and a 1 p.m. finale on Sunday.