Red Raider Baseball Preview - Wichita State Shockers

The Wichita State Shockers have had an interesting and lengthy history as a baseball program. They began play in 1899, but did not have a team from 1924-1948 and 1970-1977. In 1978 Gene Stephenson was named coach and remained there until his firing in 2013, leaving as the one of the most successful coaches in NCAA history. Current coach Todd Butler is in his 4th year, however the team has only 1 season over .500.

The Shockers play in the Missouri Valley Conference, which includes teams such as Dallas Baptist and Missouri State. This season the team is 11-10 overall, but has won 9 of 10 home games. They started the year with 7 straight wins, beating Omaha and sweeping Utah Valley and Grand Canyon. After getting swept by Louisiana Tech on the road, they beat Oklahoma 4-2 in a midweek game.

Sophomore infielder Luke Ritter was just named a MVC scholar athlete of the week. LAst week he went 9-19 at the plate, scoring four times, with a pair of doubles, a home run, and four RBI’s. Ritter was named to the preseason all-conference team in the MVC, and is hitting .379 over the past 10 games.

Senior pitcher Zach Lewis, who is presumed to start on Saturday, threw 7 shutout innings this past week against Cal Poly. He is 3-2 on the season with 5 starts, and the Cal Poly game is the only one where he pitched more than 4.0 innings.

Game 1 - Friday 6:00pm

Davis Martin (3-1, 3.10 ERA) vs Chandler Sanburn (2-1, 2.19 ERA)

Game 2 - Saturday 2:00pm

Steven Gingery (4-0, 1.23 ERA) vs Zach Lewis (1-1, 4.26 ERA)

Game 3 - Sunday 1:00pm

Ryan Shetter (2-0, 3.29 ERA) vs Tommy Barnhouse (1-1, 5.27 ERA)

All 3 games are scheduled to be broadcast online with ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app

After this series the Red Raiders return home for a pair of midweek games against Texas Southern before travelling to Norman for a big conference matchup next weekend.