Spring Shocker sports recap: Wichita State softball notches an important road sweep

The Wichita State softball team notched its first undefeated weekend of the season, defeating Northwestern State and North Texas twice to extend its winning streak to seven games early in the season.

Considering the competition — Northwestern State is solid and North Texas entered the season ranked in the top-25 — it’s a weekend that could prove extremely helpful to the Shockers come May.

Sydney McKinney is batting .708 through the first 15 games of the season for Wichita State (12-3), as the star senior shortstop extended her hitting streak 33 games, the sixth-longest in NCAA Div. 1 history.

Here’s a rundown from the four wins in Denton:

Game 1: WSU 7, Northwestern State 1

Arkansas transfer Lauren Howell notched a complete-game victory, tying her career high with seven strikeouts and allowing four hits and one earned run.

Lauren Lucas went 3-for-4, McKinney added two more hits and Addison Barnard hit her second home run of the season to deliver three RBI.

WSU extended its lead to 4-0 in the top of the third inning on back-to-back RBI groundouts by Lauren Mills and Sami Hood, then Barnard unloaded on a 3-run home run in the fourth to close out the scoring.

Game 2: WSU 8, North Texas 6

Each team traded 6-run innings late in the game, but the Shockers prevailed behind a 4-RBI performance from Mills.

The Topeka native smashed a 3-run home run over the center-field fence to highlight a 6-run fifth innings for WSU to build a 7-0 lead.

Starter Alison Cooper was brilliant through five innings, but ran into trouble in the sixth inning when North Texas had its own 3-run home run and tacked on six runs to cut WSU’s lead to 7-6 entering the final inning.

WSU scored an insurance run with Barnard delivering a lead-off single, then scored on an RBI single back up the middle by Mills. Freshman Alex Aguilar came on in relief to register the final four outs of the game, retiring North Texas in order to record her first career save.

Game 3: WSU 5, Northwestern State 2

WSU rallied for a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third when Krystin Nelson led off with a walk, McKinney followed with a single, Barnard produced an RBI double into the gap and Zoe Jones followed with a sacrifice fly for the lead.

Aguilar replaced Cooper after three innings and shut down Northwestern State’s lineup, as she allowed no runs and just one hit in the final four innings while striking out a season-high seven batters.

Zoe Jones hit her fifth home run of the season, a 2-run shot in the fourth, to tack on insurance runs.

Game 4: WSU 5, North Texas 3

Jones blasted another home run in Sunday’s finale, her sixth total and most important so far of the season, as a towering, 3-run shot in the top of the first inning immediately gave the Shockers a 3-0 lead.

WSU added two more an inning later with three straight singles from Bailey Urban, Lainee Brown and McKinney, while McKinney’s hit and a throwing error brought in both runners for a 5-0 lead.

Howell won her fifth game of the season in the circle after six strong innings. North Texas rallied in the bottom of the seventh inning facing Aguilar in relief, but the freshman was able to induce a game-ending double play to secure the win.

Wichita State baseball wins series at Utah Tech

The Wichita State baseball team is on its first winning streak of the season, as the Shockers won the final three games at Utah Tech to also claim their first series victory.

WSU hit seven home runs and used a dominant start from Derby native Grant Adler to sweep Saturday’s doubleheader, as the Shockers won 10-3 and 10-0 in seven innings to improve to 4-3 this season.

Adler allowed just one hit and no runs over six innings in Saturday’s second game, striking out a career-high 11 batters.

In the three WSU wins, transfer Garrett Pennington was 10-for-14 at the plate with home runs in both games on Saturday to lead the Shockers.

Sawyre Thornhill and Chuck Ingram each hit solo home run shots in the first game, while Seth Stroh and Brock Rodden followed suit with home runs of their own in the second game.

Wichita State (4-3) will return home and make its season debut at Eck Stadium with a 3-game series against Oakland starting with a Friday 3 p.m. first pitch.

Wichita State track features heptathlon AAC indoor champion

Adria Navajon strengthened his claim as the best multi-event athlete in the American Athletic Conference with his third straight multi title in a conference meet on Saturday at the AAC Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala.

The sophomore from Barcelona, Spain scored a personal-best 5,641 heptathlon points, including the best mark in five of the seven events, as he improved to No. 6 all-time in WSU history with his score and repeated as indoor champion. He also finished third in the 60-meter hurdles and eighth in the long jump.

He was followed by teammate Nathan Vann, who took third in the heptathlon with 4,999 points, while Destiny Masters finished second in the women’s pentathlon with 3,958 points.

Other notable performances from the WSU track and field team at the conference meet:

• Yuben Goncalves competed in the triple jump for the first time this season and finished second at the AAC meet with an indoor PR of 50 feet, 1.75 inches — the seventh-best mark in program history.

• Adrian Diaz-Lopez finished second in the 3,000-meter race, but with a time (7:55.06) that broke the previous meet record.

• Farrah Miller ran a personal-best time in the 800 with a time of 2:08.80 to place third and move up to No. 3 all-time in WSU history.

• The men’s distance medley relay team of Bryce Merriman, R.J. Hutchison, Toby Penner and Diaz-Lopez placed third with a time of 9:52.05, which was good for the fourth-best time in WSU history.

• The men’s 1600 relay team of Joakim Genereux, Hutchison, Bryan Haney and J.D. Prinsloo also notched a third-place finish in a time of 3:14.00 to register the sixth-fastest time in school history.

Shocker women’s basketball wins on senior day

The Wichita State women’s basketball team closed out its senior day festivities with a 79-67 win over Temple on Saturday.

Senior Curtessia Dean delivered her best game of the season in her final home game at Koch Arena, as she scored a career-high 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go with 10 rebounds.

Jane Asinde notched her 11th double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while she also added three assists and three steals. Trajata Colbert finished with 13 points, while Shamaryah Duncan chipped in 11 to give WSU four double-digit scorers.

The Shockers led 63-59 entering the fourth quarter and pulled away for the comfortable win behind their defense, which held Temple to just eight points in the final frame.

WSU improved to 16-12 overall and 6-9 in AAC play with the regular-season finale at Houston slated for Wednesday.