One day before his Creighton Bluejays welcome the rest of the Valley baseball programs to TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Ed Servias caught up with White & Blue Review to talk about CU’s recent regular season MVC championship and this week’s league tournament.
White & Blue Review: You’ve got to be ecstatic to be hosting the Valley tournament in the beautiful new stadium as the top seed. What did you tell the guys after Saturday’s win? What is the mindset going into this week’s tournament?
Ed Servais: I told them to enjoy this for a day. I knew we needed to win four of six to tie, but for them to go out and get the last five of six was great. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised with this group, but it was great to see them pull it off. They really pushed themselves these past few weeks, and I wanted them to enjoy this feeling and appreciate what they had done. We met yesterday for a quick meeting and we will have a walk through today at TD Ameritrade Park like all the other teams. We will start to break Bradley down tonight, and we are fortunate to have played them pretty recently. We have a lot of work to do yet, but I think if we play like we have been, we have a good shot.
WBR: Maybe Creighton fans are taking Jonas Dufek and Ty Blach’s seasons for granted. In the context of college baseball in general, can you talk about how special it is to have two starters as good as those guys are?
ES: Wow, they have been great. It is really tough to have two guys that are throwing that well in a season. Also, with the amount of road games that we had on our schedule, it makes their numbers even more impressive. I know that we as a team do not take these guys for granted, and I surely hope our fans don’t. They are special.
WBR: The bullpen regulars have done a great job these past few weeks in finishing games for Jonas and Ty. Can you talk a little bit about the guys in the ‘pen and their collective mindset entering a week where they’re likely to be needed often to get all the way to a win on Saturday?
ES: We will be using those guys a lot in the next several weeks. I would have to say that out of all the teams we have seen this season, we have a very unique advantage in having five guys able to come in and either finish a game or keep us close enough to go ahead. The combination of starters we have with the depth in our bullpen, I would have to say that I think we could match up with anyone in the nation, should we get to the regionals.
WBR: Who is the most valuable player in the Valley this season? Trever Adams and Chris O’Brien and Cody Fick seem to be the top choices for the Joe Carter award. Who means the most to his team?
ES: Trever. Without him, I don’t know if we win the Valley. He has added so much to this team, and for that reason, I would give him the nod for Player of the Year. However, with the year that O’Brien had, I would be surprised if Trever got it, but we will see tonight.