Series: Creighton sweeps 3-0
- Creighton 3, Evansville 2
- Creighton 7, Evansville 3
- Creighton 15, Evansville 5 (7 inn.)
Creighton: 22-17, 9-9 MVC (4th)
The Creighton baseball team took on Evansville in its second-to-last Missouri Valley Conference series of the year over the weekend. If this isn’t of any sort of importance to you, please note that new Creighton men’s basketball coach GREG MCDERMOTT threw out the first pitch at Friday’s opener at Rosenblatt Stadium. The Jays, coming in at 19-17 overall and 6-9 in the Valley, were in sixth place in the conference and fighting to stay out of the cellar with only six MVC games left.
Today, they sit in fourth place after their first series sweep of the year with second-place Wichita State coming to town this weekend to put a close to the Jays’ Valley regular season, and they FINALLY might have a little momentum. Let’s recap how we got here, kids!
There were 2,664 people at Friday night’s game. Fortunately for them, McDermott threw out the first pitch before the game and there was a spectacular fireworks show after the game. I say fortunately because the baseball game in between, by itself, probably wasn’t worth the price of admission.
Creighton scored two runs in the third inning. Here’s how that inning played out:
- Junior third baseman Jimmy Swift singles through the right side. Yay for hits! Trust me — in retrospect, this will be exciting. Remember this moment and cherish it like it was your child.
- Swift steals second.
- Junior left fielder Trever Adams walks. Men on first and second, no outs.
- Senior right fielder T.J. Roemmich lays down a sac bunt, he’s out at first. Swift advances to third, Adams advances to second. Second and third, one out.
- Vitale hits a sac fly to center field, RBI, Swift scores. Jays lead 1-0, man on second, two outs.
- Adams advances to third on a wild pitch.
- Sophomore designated hitter Scott Thornburg strikes out swinging, but reaches first on a wild pitch, Adams scores. Yes, an RBI* strike out. [*It actually doesn’t count as an RBI, but you get the point.]
- Senior first baseman Ian Dike flies out to center field.
That had to have been coach Ed Servais’ favorite inning of all time. There was a single, a steal, a sac bunt, a sac fly, an advancement via wild pitch and an RBI strikeout. If that inning was a person, Servais would marry it. Or at least give it a coaching position. I assured all of the local television reporters in the press box that those highlights would guarantee their highest-rated Friday night sportscast of the year. Just six more innings ’til fireworks!
In the fifth inning, Roemmich tripled and then scored on a wild pitch. RBI wild pitch! Game-winning RBI wild pitch!
The Purple Aces weren’t getting much in their halves of the inning either, though. Junior right-hander Jonas Dufek allowed only two runs through eight innings — a two-run homer in the sixth — and he struck out eight and walked two in what would be his Valley-leading seventh win against only one loss on the year.
Dufek came back out for ninth, going for his second-career complete game, but walked the lead-off batter and was pulled for freshman left-hander Mark Winkelman. The runner advanced to third with two outs and Winkelman walked a batter to put runners at the corners. Though this put the team I was rooting for in a tough spot, it was the first exciting moment in the game and the great crowd finally got into it. Winkelman struck out the last hitter to end the game and record his first-career save (five different Creighton pitchers have now recorded a save, something that speaks more to the inconsistency of the bullpen rather than to its versatility), and one of the better fireworks displays I’ve ever seen wrapped up the night. POETIC!
Creighton’s regular Saturday and Sunday starters switched spots this weekend, meaning freshman Ty Blach started Saturday’s contest. He wasn’t perfect, scattering seven hits over six innings as five Creighton pitchers stranded 16 Evansville runners (the Aces left the bases loaded three times), but he allowed only two runs — one of them earned — as he improved his tough-luck record to 2-2 and dropped his ERA to 2.57, a number that ranks fifth in the Valley. You will have to go back a ways to find a Creighton freshman pitcher contributing in such a major way at such an effective clip.
Seven different Jays recorded at least one hit in the team’s nine-hit, 7-2 win. Sophomore center fielder Joey Bowens, who has stepped into a starting role over the last week due to senior Robbie Knight’s injury and junior Clay Cuno’s ineffectiveness after returning from an emergency appendectomy, scored twice while hitting in the ninth spot in the lineup. Knight’s situation is still uncertain after he re-injured his hamstring April 20 against Nebraska.
With Blach going in game two, that left sophomore Brandon Koenigstein to start Sunday’s finale. The game went from tight to a no-doubt, mercy-rule affair quickly. Creighton had a 5-0 lead after three, but Evansville came all the way back and tied it on a solo home run in the sixth. The Jays then blew it open with 10 combined runs in the sixth and seventh, and Koenigstein went the full seven innings to improve to 4-2.
Often a small-ball team (see: Game one), Creighton played some gorilla ball on Sunday. Junior left fielder Trever Adams went 2-for-5 with two home runs to lead the way, while freshman second baseman Alex Staehely launched a three-run bomb and senior right fielder T.J. Roemmich added a solo shot. Perhaps intending to add a little balance, junior shortstop Elliot Soto added an RBI bunt double (seriously).
The Jays won’t play any mid-week games during finals week. They take on Wichita State (29-16, 10-5) in their final MVC series of the year (each team gets two bye weekends, and Creighton’s happen to be the last two weeks of the season). Friday and Saturday’s games are at Rosenblatt Stadium, and both are at noon. That is not a typo — a little Friday afternoon matinee. Sunday’s game is at 1 p.m. at the CU Sports Complex.
