Wichita State

On Sunday afternoon the Wichita State men's and women's tennis teams both won their Missouri Valley Conference tournament.  For the women it's the team's 5th straight Valley tournament title while the men won their first title since 2010.  Here's the release from the University: The Wichita women's tennis team claimed their fifth consecutive Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship on Sunday, defeating Southern Illinois 4-0...

Really? With some of the greatest marketing minds at their beacon call - the best that the BCS Commissioners could come up with for the new college football playoff - was the 'College Football Playoff'? Are these the same guys who came up with 'slippery when wet' or 'stay behind the fence' at the tiger exhibit? Bill Hancock, the BCS's Executive Director and a really good guy, said that they wanted to keep it simple, so they just called it what it is. Not everything has to be catchy--- When you stop to think of it there's a lot of 'cutesy' in sports.

Please excuse my inconsistency in blogging last week -- I was moving, which on the scale of desirablitiy falls a couple of spots behind a colonoscopy. Non-sports observation--- Is it just me or did the Boston Marathon bombing story almost completely block out the tragic events in West, Texas? Both of them were shockingly dramatic and profoundly sad, you wish neither had happened - but it was interesting to see how the national media prioritized the stories. Mixed reviews--- The steeper banked track at Kansas Motor Speedway didn't seem to impress the field yesterday, many of them saying that a second groove for racing didn't start to develop until late in the race.

Despite giving up three home-runs, Wichita State was able to take advantage of miscues by Evansville and went on to beat the Purple Aces 6-5 on Sunday afternoon.  The win gives the Shockers the series victory, 2-1. Drew Palmer started strong for Wichita State but gave up two home-runs in the 3rd inning, one solo and one a 2-run home-run, to give Evansville a 3-0 advantage. Wichita State got on the board in the 5th inning with an RBI single by Garrett Bayliff.  Heads up base-running earned the Shockers their next run as Erik Harbutz reached on a throwing error and Tanner Dearman came home from third base.  Evansville added to its lead in the top of the 6th with another solo home-run to make it 4-2, but the Shockers once again pounced on the Aces' mistakes.

Cale Elam moved his record to 5-1 on the season as Wichita State defeated Evansville 5-4 on Friday night at Eck Stadium Elam pitched 7.2 innings, allowing four runs on eight hits and striking out six. Garrett Bayliff went 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBI. Micah Green also knocked in two runs, going 1-for-4. Tyler Baker was 3-for-4 with a double and Erik Harbutz went a perfect 3-for-3. Shain Showers went 2-for-4 at the plate for Evansville with a RBI. Wichita State scored the first runs of the game in the third inning.

Wicita city leaders say they're surprised by the results from a new community survey.  The survey went out to 25,000 people in the area back in January. Early results show a strong preference to spend money on areas including new water resources, fighting homelessness, improving public transportation and expanding passenger rail service. Click here for survey results Mayor Carl Brewer says this is just the beginning.  "We're going to be going back out to the communities and saying, this is what the survey said, these are the things you told us what you want to see. Now let's start defining it and really honing down," Brewer said.

Kansas State knocked Wichita State starting pitcher Kris Gardner out of the game after just two-thirds of the first inning on their way to a 4-1 victory over the Shockers.  The win gives KState its first sweep of Wichita State since 2010. Gardner found himself in a jam early after a fielding error by Erik Harbutz helped put two runners on base in the top of the first.  Gardner got tagged for a solo home run by Jared King on a 2-0 count to give the Wildcats an early 3-0 lead.

A three run ninth inning rally tied the game at 6-6 to force extra innings and Garrett Bayliff's RBI double started a four run tenth inning as Wichita State stole game two from the Braves, 10-6. Tyler Baker led the offensive attach for the Shockers going 3-for-4 with two RBI. Brandon Peterson earned the win, pitching the ninth and tenth inning, striking out three and allowing one hit. Micah Green walked to lead off the second inning for the Shockers and advanced to second on a throwing error from Bradley starter Brent Stong.

Career firsts for Cale Elam and Parker Zimmerman helped lead the Wichita State baseball team to a 4-0 victory at Bradley on Friday night. Elam earned his first career complete game shut-out on Friday and struck ou 13 batters in the process.  Elam gave up just 5 hits over 9 innings and held a 1-0 lead for 6 innings for the Shockers. Zimmerman's first career home run came as exclamation point on a 3-run 8th inning that helped seal the win for Wichita State. The Shockers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 2nd inning on a Tyler Baker double.  It stayed 1-0 until the top of the 8th inning when Wichita State got hot.  Erik Harbutz scored on a Micah Green triple then Green came home on a wild pitch before Zimmerman went yard.  The last two batters that Elam faced went down swinging to end the game.

Jake White has asked for his transfer from Wichita State, a source close to the situation confirmed to Eyewitness Sports Thursday night.  The sophomore forward asked for his release this week, following the Shockers' run to the Final Four. White was averaging less than 11 minutes a game for the 2012-13 season, averaging a little less than four points a game. He hauled in 107 rebounds in his sophomore year. His time and numbers went up in the Valley but not much from the non conference season.