Wichita State baseball battles back to advance to first AAC final in program history
It’s been 11 years since the Wichita State baseball team has played in an NCAA Regional.
The Shockers are now one win away from returning to the postseason for the first time since the end of the Gene Stephenson era.
After a devastating loss in the first game Saturday against top-seeded East Carolina, Wichita State roared back for a 12-2, run-rule win over the No. 9-ranked Pirates in the nightcap in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference tournament in Clearwater, Fla.
WSU (32-28) knocked off a top-10 team twice to advance to its first AAC tournament championship game in program history, where the Shockers will play Tulane at 11 a.m. Central on Sunday with a broadcast on ESPNews.
It has been a remarkable turnaround under first-year coach Brian Green, as the Shockers lost 17 of 21 games at one point in the middle of the season but have since recovered to win 10 of their last 12.
Since joining the AAC in 2018, WSU hasn’t come close to sniffing the tournament finals until this year’s team, which had three players on the roster in early June last year when Green took over.
It was a heroic effort in the first game from Favors, the senior ace who threw 113 pitches and 6 1/3 innings in Tuesday’s 8-2 win over UAB, then came back to throw 91 more pitches on three days’ rest. Not only did he last seven innings, but Favors limited a top-10 team to just two earned runs to give the Shockers a chance to win.
WSU broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the eighth inning with a RBI single from Wichita native Jaden Gustafson, then took a 4-2 lead on a solo home run by Seth Stroh in the ninth.
But ECU rallied for the win in the bottom of the ninth inning, as the Pirates tied the game on a pair of RBI hits and then won on a daring steal of home, as Dixon Williams raced home on a casual throw back to pitcher Nate Adler, who was caught off guard. The throw didn’t make it in time.
It was a gut punch for a team that was three outs away from Sunday’s championship, but a rash of injuries to ECU’s pitching staff left the Pirates depleted for a fifth game of the week.
Freshman Brady Hamilton was given the ball with the season on the line and responded with a superb outing, limiting ECU to two earned runs in five innings and striking out six hitters. Tyler Dobbs and Jack Mount teamed up to close out the game in the final three innings without giving up a run.
WSU broke open the game with a five-run third inning, a rally started with a pair of bases-loaded walks drawn by Livingston and Millan. An error scored two runs, then freshman Kam Durnin singled to bring home another run.
Freshman Lane Haworth provided another swing in the top of the fifth inning, blasting a three-run home run to build a 9-2 lead. Durnin, Stroh and Camden Johnson all added RBI hits in the eighth inning to secure the 10-run win.
