Highs and Lows

Whenever we play Wichita State, it’s an important game to play well and win. This game means a lot to the players. We have guys on the team like Jordan Jakubov and Jake Marasco, who grew up minutes from the WSU campus, that want nothing less than a win against the Shockers. This game is also big for bragging rights. A lot of us have played summer baseball with the Wichita State players over the years and a lot of talk each year leads up to these games.

So to say the least, last week’s sweep over in-state rival Wichita State was special for us, especially after a very disappointing weekend at Texas Tech.  Last season, WSU handed us a beating at their place, and I think it’s safe to say we returned the favor this season.

The two games against the Shockers may have been two of our best overall games all season. Our pitching was great and kept the WSU hitters off-balance in both games. Our defense was terrific, including big-time plays like Casey Lytle’s diving catch to save possibly three runs and Brandon Macias making a Jeter like play on a groundball hit deep in the 6 hole to end the game. The bats were red hot and really worked the WSU pitching staff including a season-high in hits for the team on Wednesday. Everyone on the team contributed in some way in those two wins and it was a very good midweek series for us.

Jimmy Waters at Wichita State.

If you have never heard that baseball is a humbling game… well here is an example. After dismantling WSU, we were confident heading into Oklahoma for a huge Big 12 Conference matchup. Oklahoma had our number last season and this was a chance to return the favor on their home field. We started off the first game by taking a 1-0 lead after I hit a home run in the first inning. Things seemed like we were going to keep rolling like we had done against WSU, but that was not the case.

We played poorly all game and made many mistakes and, to Oklahoma’s credit, they exposed those mistakes and took advantage of them.  The second game was very similar to game one which made the finale very important. After battling back-and-forth on Sunday we found ourselves down by 3 runs in the ninth. Chris Manship led off the inning with his first career home run. Two batters later, Macias hit a two-run homer to tie the game. This was very similar to the Sunday game against Texas Tech when freshman Tucker Tharp hit a three-run home run in the ninth to take the lead. We headed into the bottom of the ninth hoping to get to extra innings, but in the end the baseball gods could not reward us for our effort and we lost off a walk-off grand slam.

Baseball is a funny game. Right when you think you have turned the corner and things are going good, you get humbled in heart-breaking fashion. The only thing you can do is let that burn inside and use it has a motivator to keep working hard and getting better.