Creighton Bluejays (26-13, 9-6 MVC) at Wichita State Shockers (30-22, 14-4 MVC)
- Friday: 6:30 p.m. Eck Stadium
- Saturday: 2:00 p.m.
- Sunday: 1:00 p.m.
Depending on seeding and matchups in the MVC Tournament, this weekend could be the last time Gene and Ed share a field for a while
Media Menu
Creighton fans willing to deal with a likely pro-WSU play-by-play broadcast of the games can tune into Cox Cable channel 126 Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Cox will carry the local TV broadcast from Wichita for the first and third games of the series.
You can watch the webcast of the games here. You can listen to John Bishop and Dave Gustafson on KOZN 1620 AM all weekend (stream here). You can catch the live stats here, and follow in-game tweets from the @gocreighton and @cu_baseball Twitter accounts.
Weather
The high temps in Wichita this weekend will reach the lower 70s, according to Accuweather.com. Not too shabby.
Last Weekend
The Bluejays traveled to Normal, Illinois, for a chance to take Illinois State down a rung or two in the Valley standings. Instead, it was Creighton that dropped the first two games of the weekend (9-2, 6-0). Sure, CU salvaged Sunday’s series finale (9-4 in 11 innings), but the two Redbird wins are now the margin between ISU-Red and CU in the current MVC standings.
Meanwhile, Wichita State went on the road to Springfield and left with a three-game sweep of Missouri State. Tied with MSU at 11-4 entering the weekend, the Shockers took a 3-2 decision Saturday and then swept a Sunday doubleheader (11-9, 3-0) to distance themselves from the Bears a bit in the race for a regular season championship.
Series History
Let’s not dwell on this too long. Wichita State leads the all-time series with CU 112-45-1. The last time Creighton won a series in Wichita was 2003, my senior year at CU. Yuck.
On the Mound
Probable Starters
- Friday: CU’s Tommy Strunc (6-2, 4.05 ERA) vs. WSU’s Cale Elam (5-2, 2.26 ERA)
- Saturday: CU’s Nick Musec (1-5, 5.19 ERA) vs. WSU’s A.J. Ladwig (4-4, 5.37 ERA)
- Sunday: CU’s Austin Groth (2-0, 4.26 ERA) vs. WSU’s Garrett Brummett (2-0, 1.59 ERA)
Wichita State brings the league’s third-best team ERA into the weekend series (3.56), while the Bluejays are fifth (3.82). Creighton’s staff limits opposing hitters to a lower batting average (.246) than the Shocker staff does (.261). But WSU hurlers have almost twice as many strikeouts (356) as their CU counterparts (196).
Elam, Wichita State’s Friday night starter, is sixth in the Valley in ERA (2.26), seventh in strikeouts (59), and ninth in opposing batting average (.238).
Strunc, Creighton’s counter to Elam, is fourth in the Valley in opposing batting average (.200).
The Shockers (13) and Jays (10) are the only two teams in the Valley with double-digit save totals. WSU’s Brandon Peterson leads the MVC in saves (8). Jake Peter, CU’s closer, has 6 saves, good for fourth among league leaders.
The WSU bullpen has 14 of the team’s 30 wins, compiling a stingy 2.73 ERA on the season.
At the Plate
The Bluejays lead the league in batting (.295) and on base percentage (.398). Wichita State is fourth in average (.287), fourth in on base percentage (.367), and fifth in slugging percentage (.373).
Individually, Creighton continues to impress with the bats. Jake Peter is second in the league in batting average, with a robust .369 clip. Frederico Castagnini enters the weekend with the ninth-best average (.341), while Kevin Lamb is tenth at .337.
Still, the Jays miss Mike Gerber’s bat in the middle of the lineup. He remains sidelined while recuperating from an appendectomy surgery.
For the Shockers, Garrett Bayliff (.386), Tanner Dearman (.367), and Taylor Doggett (.348) are on a roll in WSU’s last 10 games. Bayliff is fifth in the MVC in average this season (.355). And local Omaha product Casey Gillaspie is always trouble: he is in the top ten among league leaders in slugging and on base percentage, runs scored, runs batted in, and home runs.