- Friday: 8:00 p.m. CT
- Saturday: 4:00 p.m. CT
- Sunday: 3:00 p.m. CT
Klein Family Field opened in 2006 as the home of Pacific Baseball (Spomer/WBR)
Creighton baseball’s spring break trip to California has been challenging. The Bluejays took two of three from UC Davis last weekend, but lost midweek games at Cal and Sacramento State. The team’s home opener (vs. BYU) is Tuesday, but before the Bluejays (5-5 overall) come back to Omaha they’ll face Pacific (2-11 overall) for three games beginning today.
Media Menu
You can watch or listen to the games via Pacific’s online broadcast system here. Or you can follow Creighton’s live stats here.
This Week…
Mike Gerber connects on his first home run of 2012 (Spomer/WBR)
The Bluejays got their first shot at a nationally ranked team Tuesday, when CU went to Berkeley and faced the #25 California Bears. Creighton got on the board first, as Chance Ross led the game off with a triple and he scored on a Nick Judkins RBI groundout. The Bears answered in the bottom of the first, but the Bluejays took the lead back in the top of the second inning thanks to two two-out hits and a Cal error. Ross scored his second run after Brennan Murphy came home before him, making it 3-1 Creighton. The Bears would answer with three straight runs, the last two coming off a two-out home run in third, taking a 4-3 lead into the middle innings.
With the Cal lead 5-3, Mike Gerber hit his first homer of the year and then Brad McKewon tied the game at 5-5 after walking, stealing second, advancing to third base on a wild pitch, and then scoring on another errant pitch. But the Bluejays would allow a single run in the seventh and eighth innings, ultimately dropping the game 7-5.
Chance Ross makes a catch against Sacramento State (Spomer/WBR)
The next day, Creighton travelled to the state capital to play Sacramento State. The Hornets humbled the Bluejays 7-2, jumping on Brandon Koenigstein and knocking him out of the game after 4 runs scored without the starter recording an out. From there the game became a bullpen showcase for Creighton coach Ed Servais, as he saw six different pitchers each throw at least one inning. That included the first appearances of the season for Ryan Knott (1 inning, 2 runs, 1 hit, 2 walks) and Mark Lukowski (1 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit). Shane Liska threw 3 innings, surrendering just 2 hits and 1 run.
The lone offensive highlight for Creighton against Sacramento State was Gabriel Thibodeaux’s two-out, two-run double in the fourth inning.
Historically
Creighton and Pacific have played once before, with the Bluejays beating the Tigers 14-5 in 1996 during a tournament at Fresno State.
On the Mound
- Friday: Creighton’s Ty Blach (1-0, 1.86 ERA) vs. Pacific’s Michael Benson (1-1, 2.08 ERA)
- Saturday: Creighton’s Andrew Urban (0-0, 1.29) vs. Pacific’s John Haberman (0-1, 5.74 ERA)
- Sunday: Creighton’s TBD vs. Pacific’s TBD
Ty Blach will take the ball for the Bluejays Friday night and will try to stop a two-game losing streak. He’ll face freshman Michael Benson, who got a win in his last start, a 7-2 Pacific victory against Kansas State.
Andrew Urban will start for Creighton either Saturday or Sunday. He didn’t get a decision in his last start, ultimately a victory for the Bluejays against UC Davis. He and Blach have sub-2.00 ERAs but just one win between the two of them. Blach leads the Jays with 19 innings pitched.
Reese McGraw and Mark Winkelman are tied for the team high in appearances (7) through 10 games.
Pacific’s team ERA is 6.73, a good two runs greater than Creighton’s 4.41 team mark.
At the Plate
Judkins leads Creighton’s regulars with a .366 batting average and 9 RBI. He’s tied for the team lead for home runs with Gerber and Ross, with each hitting one out so far this season. Jake Peter (.360) cooled off a bit in the midweek games against Cal and Sacramento State but is leading the way for Creighton’s newcomers on offense.
His home run against Cal notwithstanding Gerber (.158) and fellow returning starters Alex Staehely (.179) and Anthony Bemboom (.158) continue to struggle offensively to start the season. As a team the Jays clock in with a .244 batting average and 42 runs (giving up 44) through 10 games.
Pacific, meanwhile, has been outscored nearly two to one through 13 games, giving up 101 runs while posting 55 themselves. They hit .268 as a team with 5 home runs and a .359 slugging percentage.
Facts, Figures, and Fodder
You might remember Pacific coach Ed Sprague. He played MLB baseball for 11 seasons, following a decorated collegiate career that saw him win back-to-back national championships with Stanford in 1987 and 1988. He won consecutive World Series rings in 1992 and 1993 with the Toronto Bluejays. And he helped the USA Baseball team win gold at the 1988 Summer Olympics… Two players (Judkins and Ross) have one-third of Creighton’s 83 hits through 10 games. Every Creighton hitter with at least five at bats has at least one hit… Opponents have struck out 66 Creighton hitters, while CU pitchers have struck out 52 opponents… The Bluejays, annually one of the best defensive teams in the nation, have posted a .988 fielding percentage through 10 games.
Weather Forecast
Repeat after me: seventy degrees and sunny, seventy degrees and sunny, seventy degrees and sunny…