Nolan Sailors did it all for the Jays in their NCAA Regional opener (Spomer / WBR)
Creighton has always known what they have had with Nolan Sailors. For four years the speedy playmaker in the field and on the base paths with discipline for all day at the dish has been a steady, dependable presence. On Friday night in Fayetteville, Ed Servais penciled the left fielder into his lineup card for the 200th time, and the Omaha native used the opportunity to properly introduce himself to the college baseball world.
Three hits, including a double, a triple, and a home run to go along with a pair of walks, two runs scored, four runs driven in, and six putouts tracking down balls off the bat from the power alley to the foul line. The only out he recorded at the dish came in his first plate appearance and it landed in an outfielder’s glove at the wall in left-center. Sailors was the catalyst throughout a thoroughly impressive performance by No. 3 seed Creighton as they produced an 11-4 dismantling of No. 2 seed Kansas for their first NCAA Tournament win since 2019 and their first win in a regional opener since 2011.
Servais long ago ran out of original superlatives for his star left fielder. After the dust settled on a Friday night performance that saw Sailors come up a single shy of hitting for the cycle in the program’s biggest game in six years, he opted for “outstanding.”
“He’s a good player. He’s a really good player,” the 22-year Jays skipper said. “When you have good players, nothing surprises you. You forget about two or three catches he made in center field. His speed, I mean, his speed is just — that may be the thing I enjoy the most is when he gets out and runs like when he hits a triple, or when he runs down two or three of those balls. Off the bat, they look like extra-base hits, and he catches them waist high. He’s got that difference-making speed that we don’t really appreciate as much as we should.
“He’s just an outstanding player and even an outstanding young man too. It’s been an honor to be around him for four years. Nothing he does on the field surprises me. He’s got a bright future. You’ll see him on TV someday, besides in college. If you flip it on, he’ll be out there.”
Every time the former All-Nebraska and Super State First Team selection stepped to the plate at Baum-Walker Stadium on Friday, it was an edge-of-your-seat experience for everyone watching.
In his first plate appearance, he went the other way on a 2-2 pitch and the park just held it in for Kansas center fielder Derek Cerda to grab it at the warning track for the one and only time the Jayhawks would retire him all game long.
His second trip, came with Creighton trailing 2-1 with one out in the top of the third inning and he watched four straight pitches go by for a game-tying, bases-loaded walk. This is where he really started to put on a show.
He led off the fifth inning with a triple to right center. In the sixth, he followed a two-run single by Tate Gillen and a base knock by Matt Scherrman with a bases-clearing double to open up a 7-3 lead for the Jays. Then in the seventh, he homered to scoreboard in right center off his former Creighton teammate Malakai Vetock before drawing another walk in his final plate appearance in the top of the ninth.
According to longtime CU Sports Information Director Rob Anderson, his monster night made him the first Bluejay to hit a double, a triple, and a home run in the same NCAA Regional game since Chad McConnell back in 1992.
“He’s our guy,” senior first baseman Will MacLean said. “He’s been our guy all year. Ever since I stepped foot on this campus, he’s been the dude. He showed that again tonight, and he’s going to keep doing it for the rest of the year.”
MacLean had himself a night to remember as well with a pair of hits, including a thunderous 456-foot solo home run off of Kansas ace right-hander Dominic Voegele. That blast came in the top of the second inning to put the first run on the board for either team.
“I was talking a lot with [associate head coach Mark Kingston] before this week, and he said the ball flies if you really get into one,” MacLean said. “I went up there with a simple approach and got a pitch that I liked and put a good swing on it.”
Kansas took the lead in the bottom of the frame when left fielder Tommy Barth capitalized on a two-out walk to extend the inning by launching a 2-run homer off of reigning Big East Pitcher of the Year Dominic Cancellieri.
Ian Koosman retired the Jayhawks at a key time for the Jays (McAtee / WBR)
The bases-loaded walk to Sailors followed by an RBI ground ball to third by shortstop Ben North flip the early seesaw affair back in Creighton’s favor at 3-2. Cerda tied it up with KU’s second long ball of the game. This time it was a solo shot to left in the bottom of the fourth inning to make it 3-3.
Creighton appeared poised to retake the lead in the top of the fifth when Sailors led off the frame with a triple. Voegele had other ideas, however, as he punched out North and sophomore catcher Connor Capece before getting MacLean to pop up to shortstop to strand the go-ahead run 90 feet from home. That turned out to be the beginning of the end, but not for the team you suspected had just seized the momentum.
Instead, junior right-hander Ian Koosman took the ball for the Bluejays in the fifth in relief of Cancellieri and promptly retired the top of the Kansas lineup in order on just seven pitches to get his team back up to the plate. That’s when Creighton broke the dam.
Senior right fielder Teddy Deters started the sixth inning with a walk, then after a one-out base hit by Dakota Duffalo, Gillen came through with the go-ahead, two-run single off of Voegele to hand the Jays a 5-3 lead. Then came the 2-run double by Sailors, a sacrifice fly to left center by Capece, and back-to-back RBI doubles by MacLean and Deters to cap off a 7-run barrage. All together nine men came up to bat a total of 12 times in the inning. Six of them delivered hits to flip a 3-3 ballgame into a 10-3 lead.
“We were just feeding off each other,” Sailors said. “When we find a way to get that leadoff batter on and then keep building on that, we definitely feed off each other’s energy. When one guy gets going, we all get going, and we feel the energy from the guy in front of us, the guy behind us, and the guys on the bench. Once we get hot, we stay hot, and for us to have a big inning like that and really pull away, that’s something we are going to learn from, and keep doing into tomorrow.”
Koosman came back out after the extended break in the dugout and recorded nine more on 35 pitches before giving way to senior right-hander Jimmy Burke in the ninth. The 12 outs that Koosman was able to produce to quiet the game down allowed Creighton to save its top backend bullpen arms for a Saturday night showdown against No. 3 overall seed Arkansas, who defeated North Dakota State 6-2 in their regional opener earlier in the day.
“It gave us a really good chance tomorrow,” Servais said of Koosman’s extended relief work. “If we were burning a lot of our bullpen tonight, you know, advantage Arkansas, but we have all our guys there that we want available tomorrow night. So not only do we get a chance to play a quality team like Arkansas, but we get a chance to play them with some guys. Sometimes you play these games, and you don’t have your bullpen rested, or you don’t have your starting pitcher that you want out there. We got everything lined up for it to be an interesting game.”
All week leading up to the regional, Servais couldn’t help but bring up the potential of lining up against Arkansas on a Saturday night with a raucous crowd doing all it can to rattle his club’s cage. Normally coaches won’t dare look ahead to such a moment, especially with a tough Kansas team in their way first. But the 22-year Bluejay skipper felt his club had earned the opportunity to face off against the Hogs.
Now they’ve got it, and Nolan Sailors was chomping at the bit thinking about it in the lobby of the team hotel after Friday night’s win over the Jayhawks.
“It’s going to be a dream experience,” Sailors said. “This is my first time playing at an SEC stadium and then playing against one of the best programs in the nation right now. It’s going to be, literally, a dream come true. I can’t wait for the experience. I can’t wait for the atmosphere. I haven’t really thought too much about it. I’ll probably get a little nervous tomorrow. But yeah, I’m definitely excited for it.”
Kansas and North Dakota State will kick off the second day of the Fayetteville Regional with a 2:00 p.m. elimination game. Creighton vs. Arkansas will follow that with a scheduled first pitch of 7:00 p.m. (CT).