Preston Snavely struck out a season-high seven batters and Hunter Gibson homered as the Wichita State baseball team posted a 9-5 win over Memphis in game three of a four-game series on Senior Night Friday, May 21, at Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field.
With the win, the Shockers secure a series win over the Tigers and improve to 30-20 overall and 18-12 in The American.
Additionally, with the victory Friday, Wichita State clinches the three seed in the American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship and will play the six seed in the opening round Tuesday, May 25, at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla.
Snavely, a senior right-hander from Fort Collins, Colo., earned the win on the mound, improving to 4-6 on the season after allowing three earned runs on just three hits with seven Ks and three walks on 85 total pitches.
Hunter Gibson had two hits, including a homer, and drove in two runs, senior Corrigan Bartlett added a pair of hits and tallied two RBI, and Paxton Wallace batted in a team-best three runs and doubled, pacing the Shockers at the plate.
Jack Sigrist also had two hits in the contest, and Andrew Stewart (triple) and Seth Stroh (double) each posted extra base hits, respectively.
With the Tigers leading, 3-2, going into the fifth inning, the Shockers scored four runs to take control of the game.
Stewart led-off the inning with a triple to right field before scoring on Ross Cadena's single to centerfield, tying the game, 3-3. Wallace drove in Sigrist on an RBI ground-out to put Wichita State in front, 4-3, prior to Gibson hitting a line-drive, two-run homer over the right field wall for a 6-3 advantage. It was Gibson's sixth homer of the season.
Memphis (16-37, 6-25 American) hit back-to-back homers in the top of the sixth to trim it to a one-run game, 6-5, but the Shockers answered with three in the bottom-half of the frame, building their lead to 9-5.
Stroh hit a leadoff double before moving to third on a wild pitch and scoring on Sigrist's single up the middle, and Bartlett plated Sigrist and Cadena on a two-run single up the middle for the second and third runs of the inning.
Ian Bibiloni went 2-for-2 with a pair of home runs and three RBI, leading the Tigers.
Reliever Jackson Cothren (1-8) suffered the loss on the rubber for Memphis, giving up four earned runs on three hits with a walk in a third of an inning.
Wichita State and Memphis will wrap up the series and 2021 regular season with a noon game on Saturday, May 22.