Creighton was eager to get a crack at competing against No. 3 overall seed Arkansas after blowing out Kansas in Friday night’s regional opener. The opportunity to compete against one of the premier programs in the country, in front of one of the truly elite environments in the sport, had the Jays chomping at the bit.
The one problem: Arkansas didn’t mess around.
The Razorbacks had a mostly clean performance in their opener on Friday afternoon. But for the most part they didn’t really play with a ton of urgency in a 6-2 win over 4-seed North Dakota State. They were at an entirely different level in the Saturday night winners’ bracket game against the Bluejays.
Arkansas’ lineup produced 12 runs on 13 hits. They drew 12 walks, smacked five home runs, and stole three bases. Every which way you can think of to put pressure on an opposing team’s pitching staff and defense, they did it.
“Arkansas played a heck of a game,” Creighton head coach Ed Servais said. “Give them a lot of credit. They were good in all three phases. Their pitcher was outstanding. He threw a lot of pitches, quality pitches for strikes. Obviously, offensively, they were on point tonight. They drove the baseball, hit several home runs, and then defensively, they made the plays. Give them all the credit. They certainly outplayed us tonight.”
Omaha native Cam Kozeal got the scoring started for the Hogs. The 2023 Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year cranked a solo homer off of Creighton’s Wilson Magers with one out in the top of the second inning. He added an RBI double off of Magers, and later came around to score, in the third inning. That gave Arkansas an early 4-0 edge. They only piled on from there.
Magers, the Freshman of the Year in the Big East this season, lasted three innings. He surrendered four earns, all earned, on seven hits, while punching out four and walking one on 79 pitches. Despite getting roughed up a bit by a club that ranks in the Top 20 nationally in several major offensive statistics, Servais felt the first-year hurler managed the moment about as well as could be expected given the circumstances.
“That’s a tough spot to put a freshman in,” he said after the game. “I thought he got off to a relatively good start. He was throwing a lot of strikes. Then he hit a little bump in the road, and it’s hard for a young player to kind of navigate through that. But he was our best option tonight. I have zero regrets about giving the ball to Wilson in this environment. He was our best guy. He pitched in a tough situation last weekend in the Big East tournament, and did outstanding, so it was our best option.
“I don’t know if we would have had too many guys on our staff that would have been able to beat them tonight. I mean, they were locked in. They were just a better team than us tonight, clearly.”
The Razorbacks added four home runs off of Creighton’s bullpen to continue to extend the lead and ignite the crowd of over 10,000 fans in attendance. Reigning SEC Player of the Year Wehiwa Aloy launched a 3-run shot in the fifth inning and 2-run blast in the seventh for his third multi-homer effort of the season. Sophomore catcher Ryder Helfrick also left the yard twice for the third time this year with a solo shot in the sixth and a 2-run shot an inning later.
On the mound, Razorbacks ace Zach Root kept Creighton’s offense dormant while his sluggers did their thing. The left-hander was 91-95 MPH was his fastball and even dialed it up to 96 and 97 on occasion. He balanced the heater a curveball and a changeup that he threw for strikes all night to keep the Jays off balance.
With his team leading 8-0, Root was pulled after six innings of shutout baseball, having struck out seven hitters and scattering three hits and walk over 94 pitches.
“He commanded three pitches for strikes, and fastballs to both sides of the plate,” Creighton senior shortstop Ben North said. “He’s got some velocity and some perceived velocity when it’s in too. Especially when he’s throwing a change up for strikes before that. He’s a heck of a pitcher. I would imagine he’ll be an early round draft pick this year.”
North and Bluejays now turn their sights to an elimination game with North Dakota State at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. They know going in that it could be the last time they take the field together. As well as the last game for Ed Servais as head coach at Creighton.
“I think we’ve played our best baseball this year when our backs have been up against the wall,” North said. “We’re going to play fast, we’re going to play hard, we’re going to play loose. Like we always do. I believe that if we do that, we’ll be successful.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDgVWVS8BX