Ed Servais and the Creighton Bluejays baseball team begins their season Saturday, February 19, in Cary, North Carolina. The Jays will play Toledo and Canisius (twice) at the USA Baseball National Training Complex. White & Blue Review takes a look at the team all this week, ahead of the season opener.
Creighton's Ty Blach
Ty Blach will start Creighton’s opener against Toledo. The sophomore made 11 starts and 14 appearances for the Bluejays last season as a freshman. He posted a 3.11 ERA, third best in the Missouri Valley Conference, and limited opposing hitters to a .231 batting average, second best in the Valley. Blach finished with a 3-3 record, and he struck out 58 hitters while issuing just 18 walks. Those stats were good enough to earn the left-hander third-team Freshman All American honors from PingBaseball.com.
“Ty just continues to get better,” CU coach Ed Servais told WBR. “He has a great fastball as a left-handed pitcher.”
Jonas Dufek will start the Bluejays’ first of two games against Canisius in North Carolina. The senior right-hander has come along way since pitching just one-third of an inning his freshman season in 2008. Dufek earned second-team All-Valley honors as a junior, leading the Bluejays in wins (8) and strikeouts (65). His 8 wins were fourth best in the Valley, and he issued just 19 free passes, also fourth best in the MVC.
Dufek led the team in starts in 2010, and he brings a lot of experience to the staff — along with some good stuff. “Jonas has a nasty slider from the right side,” Servais said.
Bluejay Greg Hellhake
Greg Hellhake and Brandon Koenigstein round out a group of weekend starters that Servais is excited about. “Greg will give us another option as a lefty, and Brandon is more of an accuracy pitcher and can really hit his spots from the right,” Servais said. Hellhake, a fifth-year senior, started 7 of the 10 games he appeared in last season, picking up his only win of the year against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Koenigstein, a junior, is 10-2 over his first two seasons at CU. In 2010, he finished sixth in the Valley in ERA (3.95), innings pitched (93.1), and walks (20).
“These guys give us a lot of different looks to use, and we will probably look more at match-ups as the season goes on,” Servais said. “We are in a great spot, as all of our weekend pitchers have experience in that role. You can’t put a number on experience.”
In the bullpen, senior Jack VanLeur leads the way. This season marks his fifth in the Creighton program, having redshirted in 2007. Through three season of play, VanLeur has accumulated 81 appearances and posted a 4.15 ERA. His 30 appearances last year were second on Servais’ squad, and his 4 saves led the team.
Also returning to the ‘pen are junior Kurt Spomer and sophomore Mark Winkelman. Spomer, a right-hander, drew some high praise from Servais. “He started making some big steps at the end of last year, and that’s continued into this season, really adding to his fastball” he said. “I like the progress Kurt has made.” Winkelman had one of the busiest seasons for a freshman pitcher in Creighton history, making 27 appearances — fourth most among CU freshman pitchers all time. Like Spomer, Winkelman got better as the season went on, and he posted a five-appearance scoreless streak in late May.
JUCO transfers Chase Webb, Reese McGraw, and Erik Mattingly join the bullpen in 2011 as juniors. Mattingly will see time in the field, too, bringing explosive his bat to the outfield. Sophomores John Sorenson and Nick Musec also enter the program from a JUCO.
Freshmen Matt Hartmann, Ryan Price, and Andrew Ostapowicz round out the 2011 Creighton Bluejays pitching staff.