Championship Central
CLEARWATER, Fla. – Mason O’Brien hit a grand slam and a two-run home run as No. 8-seeded Wichita State eliminated top-seeded ECU 12-5 Friday in the American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship presented by Air Force Reserve at Spectrum Field.
The win sends the Shockers (28-30) to the semifinal round of the American Championship for the first time. Wichita State, which has one loss in the double-elimination tournament, will face UConn Saturday at 10 a.m. ET. The Shockers would have to win twice against the Huskies Saturday to advance to Sunday’s winner-take-all final.
ECU (43-15), which lost only four American Athletic Conference games during regular-season league play, was eliminated from the tournament with its second loss of the week, both to Wichita State. It marks the sixth consecutive season in which No. 1 seed in the American Championship did not win the tournament title.
O’Brien’s grand slam came with two outs in the second inning as he took the first pitch he saw from Jake Kuchmaner deep over the rightfield fence, giving the Shockers a 5-0 lead. He then capped a six-run third inning with a three-run blast to the same spot, which gave Wichita State an 11-1 cushion.
Jordan Boyer’s RBI single in the bottom of the fourth inning gave the Shockers their largest lead at 12-1, which was more than enough for starting pitcher Liam Eddy, who battled through an early high pitch count to scatter eight hits and three runs with seven strikeouts in 6.1 innings of work.
Needing two runs to continue the game, ECU put three on the board in the top of the seventh as Christian Jayne delivered an RBI double for his second hit of the season. Nick Barber and Chandler Jenkins followed with back-to-back RBI singles to cut the deficit to 12-4. The Pirates added one more in the eighth on Seth Caddell’s base hit to make it 12-5, but Mitchell Walters worked a scoreless ninth to end it for the Shockers.
O’Brien tied The American Championship’s single-game records for home runs (two), RBIs (six) and total bases (10) as part of a Shocker lineup that registered 15 hits with five going for extra basese against the Pirates. O’Brien went 3-for-5 to lead a group of seven Wichita State players with at least two hits.
O’Brien joined Houston’s Joe Davis (against Tulane in 2018), Cincinnati’s Jace Mercer (against Memphis in 2017) and Houston’s Connor Wong (against Memphis in 2015) as the only players in American Championship history with six RBIs in a game. He became one of six players in tournament history to hit two home runs in a game.
2019 American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship
Spectrum Field · Clearwater, Fla.
Tuesday, May 21
Game 1: No. 4 UConn 4, No. 5 Houston 3
Game 2: No. 8 Wichita State 6, No. 1 ECU 2
Game 3: No. 2 Cincinnati 11, No. 7 Memphis 6
Game 4: No. 3 Tulane 5, No. 6 UCF 2
Wednesday, May 22
Game 5: ECU 13, Houston 2 (Houston eliminated)
Game 6: UCF 8, Memphis 7 (10 innings) (Memphis eliminated)
Thursday, May 23
Game 7: UConn 9, Wichita State 7
Game 8: Cincinnati 8, Tulane 4
Friday, May 24 | American Digital Network
Game 9: Wichita State 12, ECU 5 (ECU eliminated)
Game 10: Tulane vs. UCF | 7 p.m. ET
Saturday, May 25 | American Digital Network
Game 11: UConn vs. Wichita State | 10 a.m. ET
Game 12: Cincinnati vs. Winner of Game 10 | 47 minutes following Game 11
Game 13: Loser of Game 11 vs. Winner of Game 11 (if necessary) | TBD
Game 14: Loser of Game 12 vs. Winner of Game 12 (if necessary) | TBD
Sunday, May 26 | Championship | ESPNews
Game 15: Semifinal winners | Noon ET