In a one-two punch, Wichita State delivered a doubleheader knockout of Hawaii — 13-3 and 7-1 — at Les Murakami Stadium.
A crowd of 2,509 saw the Shockers dominate on the mound and at the plate to earn a split of the four-game series. The Shocker are 6-2. The Rainbow Warriors fell to 5-3.
“We weren’t prepared,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “They kicked our butt in every phase of the game. We weren’t doing a good job on the mound. We didn’t manage the moment. And we really haven’t hit for eight straight games.”
The ’Bows also were caught off base three times in the doubleheader.
Hill said the Shockers “are going to have a good season. They’re extremely well coached. They’re older, they’re veteran. … They came out and punched us in the face today. … You’ve got tip your cap to those guys. It was like they were going to steal our lunch money all day long. We just didn’t have an answer for it.”
Adding injury to insult in Sunday’s second game, UH third baseman Tate Shimao left in mid-at bat because of back spasms. Outfielder Christian Hoffman departed after fouling a ball off his right foot. Hill also confirmed that left-handed pitcher Sebastian Gonzalez will not play this season after suffering an ACL injury.
Saturday’s third game of the series was postponed because of inclement weather. The game was rescheduled as part of Sunday’s doubleheader. But the weather cleared enough for the Shockers to conduct a workout at Mid-Pacific Institute on Saturday.
“With the rain, I really thought we caught a break,” WSU coach Brian Green said. “We went over to Mid-Pac and we were able to reset offensively. It looked like a Jekyll-and-Hyde offense the first couple days. … We were chasing a bunch (of pitches) in the dirt.”
Instead of pulling pitches, particularly against Les Murakami’s cross winds, the Shockers worked on hitting balls between center and right field.
“UH can really pitch,” Green said. “They command the ball where they want to throw it. They throw their secondary (pitches) for strikes. They’re good, man. … Coming here 0-2 (in the series on Sunday), sweeping a doubleheader is really hard to do. I was proud of the guys.”
Hill said the ’Bows were not impacted by Saturday’s rainout.
“Absolutely not,” Hill said. “We’re built for this. We’re built for conditions that are not the norm — rainouts, delays of game, hard travel, everything. No excuses at all.”
In the opening game, which was scheduled for seven innings, the Shockers sent 16 batters to plate in scoring 11 runs in the third inning against four UH pitchers. Right-swinging shortstop Alex Ulloa smacked two bases-clearing, three-run doubles to right in that inning.
“That was pretty fun,” Ulloa said. “I was trying to see the ball deep. We had gotten a day off to work. We just got a chance to reset and go back to our plan to see the ball deep and go to right field. That was the whole approach today. I tried to spread the ball. I did my job. Sometimes you need a reset. We got lucky with one, and took advantage of it.”
In the second game, the Shockers scored a run on a UH error and another on Jayson Jones’ sacrifice fly to extend the Shockers’ lead to 3-0 in the third.
Shimao’s RBI single plated Elijah Ickes in the fourth for the ’Bows’ only run. Wichita State left fielder Jaden Gustafson pulled a solo home to right to restore the three-run advantage in the fifth. Gustafson reached base all five times on three hits, a walk and a hit by pitch.
Owen Washburn powered a three-run homer to right in the WSU seventh to end the suspense.
In the second game, the ’Bows were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Overall, they are 13-for-47 this season. They also struggled with two-out at bats.
“That’s baseball,” Hill said. “Two-out hits are golden. We work a lot. That’s called ‘winning the tough one’ in our culture with guys on base. Usually when you’re having a good season, you’re getting a lot of two-out hits. It just wasn’t the case today.…We’ll go back to the drawing board this week. We’ll rest. We’ll recover. We’ll lift. And we’ll get better.”
