WICHITA, Kan. – The Wichita State baseball team (1-0) opened the 2005 baseball season with an 11-0 shutout of Northwestern State (0-1) on Friday afternoon at Eck Stadium. It was the first time the Shockers shutout an opponent in the home opener since 1996 when WSU shutout Washington 10-0.

The Shockers got five innings from pre-season All-American Mike Pelfrey (1-0) who picked up the win, registering seven strikeouts while giving up only four singles.

WSU was led offensively by first baseman Derek Schermerhorn who knocked home a career-high four runs on two hits. Kenny Waddell registered four walks, which were turned into three runs scored.

The Shocker pitching staff gave up only five hits on the afternoon with a total of 15 strikeouts, while WSU hitters scored 11 runs off of seven hits.

The Shockers got things going in the second inning. Demons’ pitcher Daniel Lonsberry (0-1) walked Nick McCoola and Matt Brown, before giving up a sacrifice bunt to Joe Muich, to leave runners on second and third with one out. Waddell then walked to load the bases, and with two outs Damon Sublett drew the walk to plate McCoola and give WSU a 1-0 lead. Schermerhorn followed with a three-run double to score Brown, Waddell and Sublett to put WSU up 4-0.

Wichita State struck again in the fourth when Josh Workman singled to score Waddell and later scored himself on a Schermerhorn groundout to put WSU up 6-0 after four innings.

Things were quiet until the Shockers put three more runs up in the seventh on the strength of a Tyler Hill single that brought home Waddell and Brown. WSU picked up its third run of the inning on a throwing error by Demons’ shortstop Ben Rodriguez that allowed Hill to score and put Wichita State up 9-0.

WSU closed out the scoring in the eighth when pinch hitter Carlos Jackson scored on a wild pitch and Sublett drew another RBI walk to plate Muich and set the final score of 11-0 for WSU.

Kyle Touchatt (1) went 3.1 innings in relief to pick up the save and struck out a career-high six, while Derek Roach filled in two-thirds of an inning between Pelfrey and Touchatt.

Lonsberry (0-1) picked up the loss for Northwestern State, going two innings and giving up four runs and six walks.

Wichita State will play game two of the three game series at 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon at Eck Stadium.

-Wichita State-