The Creighton Bluejays baseball team bounced back from a gut-wrenching one-run loss to in-state rival Nebraska to put away a scrappy South Dakota State squad, 8-5, at Lewis & Clark Park in Sioux City, Iowa, on Wednesday night. Creighton (Overall: 25-13, Big East: 8-3) was trying to build off the positives from the 7-6 loss to the Huskers ahead of a big weekend series with new conference rival Seton Hall.
“It showed a lot,” Creighton head coach Ed Servais said. “It would’ve been easy for us to come out here after an hour and half bus trip, the atmosphere is different here than we’re used to playing in at TD Ameritrade, and it would’ve been easy for these kids just to roll it up.”
“I give [our players] a ton of credit. This was a tough, tough game to play. South Dakota State beat Oral Roberts two out of three over the weekend, and I was very worried about our level of energy for this game, and the last five or six innings we did a tremendous job.”
It wasn’t a perfect performance out of the gates for the Bluejays, especially on the mound. Starting pitcher Tommy Strunc worked a perfect first inning on the mound, but his struggles over the past two seasons rear their head again in the bottom of the second. The redshirt junior issued two walks, hit a batter, and allowed a two-run single to South Dakota State nine-hole hitter Eric Danforth before Ed Servais pulled him with two on and two out. Sophomore left-hander Jeff Albrecht replaced Strunc, and after loading the bases with a walk he got Jackrabbit center fielder Zach Coppola to pop one out in foul territory to limit South Dakota State to a 2-0 lead.
The Bluejays got a run back in the top of the second inning when designated hitter Brett Murray drove a ball into center field for a RBI sacrifice fly. Daniel Woodrow scored easily from third base after starting the inning with a lead off single to right-center field.
Creighton entered the fifth inning still chasing a run, but Brett Murray came through again with a runner in scoring position. Just as he did in the second, Murray lifted a ball to deep center field with Daniel Woodrow standing on third base. The RBI sacrifice fly tied the game at 2-2.
The game didn’t stay tied for long. With runners on first and second in the bottom of the fifth inning, Jackrabbit second baseman Al Robbins knocked in a go-ahead run with a single up the middle. Catcher Reid Clary scored from second to put the home team up 3-2 after he reached on a one-out single earlier in the inning.
Trailing once again, the Bluejays finally cashed in some of their base runners in the top of the sixth inning. Batting with runners on first and second and no outs, right fielder Kevin Connolly hit a come-backer to South Dakota State pitcher Derringer Huff. The junior right-hander tried to start a double play, but left fielder David Wiedeman slid in safely at second, allowing second baseman Ryan Fitzgerald to scoot home to tie the game. Wiedeman later scored on a bases-loaded throwing error by Jackrabbit first baseman Matt Johnson. Creighton shortstop Nicky Lopez made it 5-3, Bluejays, on an RBI ground out with one out.
The Jackrabbits didn’t fold after giving up the lead. In their half of the sixth, South Dakota State once again tied things up. Designated hitter Luke Ringhofer drove lead off hitter Paul Jacobson with an RBI single to right field. Jackrabbit speedster Zach Coppola went first to third on Ringhofer’s single, then scored when catcher Reid Clary squeezed him home, bunting a ball that was up near his eyes to bring in the tying run.
Through the first five-plus innings Creighton pitchers allowed five earned runs, issued six base on balls, and hit two South Dakota State hitters.
“I was hoping for a little more out of some of the pitchers that had not pitched much this year,” Servais said, “but it’s tough to come in there after you haven’t pitched for three or four weeks.”
Continuing the back and forth affair, the Bluejays broke the tie for the final time in the seventh inning. A shallow fly ball to center field off the bat of David Wiedeman was deep enough to score third baseman Harrison Crawford after the junior college transfer started the inning with a walk, then went first to third on a hit-and-run single by Ryan Fitzgerald. With a one-run lead, freshman catcher Luke Horanski added a little cushion to it when he crushed a ball to the warning track in center field that easily scored Fitzgerald. Horanski was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple, but the run had already crossed home plate to give the Bluejays a 7-5 lead.
In the top of the eighth a head’s up play on the base paths by Nicky Lopez pushed Creighton’s lead to 8-5. Lopez reached on a single with one out, then went from first to third on a weak ground ball down the third base line by Reagan Fowler. His hustle on that play allowed him to score easily on Brett Murray’s base hit to shallow left field.
“He’s got great instincts,” Servais said of his sophomore shortstop. “There are so many good things that he does on a day-to-day basis. We need our players to be a little more instinctive, and he’s got those.”
The three-run lead was more than enough run support for relief pitcher Nick Highberger to work with. The junior right-hander tied Rollie Lacy for the team lead with his fifth win of the season. He retired the first seven hitters he faced out of the bullpen, and held South Dakota State scoreless over his 3 and 2/3 innings of work. More importantly he gave a tired bullpen a much needed break in advance of this weekend’s upcoming three-game series at Seton Hall (Overall: 20-18, Big East: 5-4).
“I tried not to think that far ahead and just took it one batter at a time,” Highberger said in regards to extending himself to spare the rest of the bullpen. “Just get that guy and then move on to the next batter. I wasn’t really thinking about innings down the road.”
The win helps Creighton’s confidence, especially on the offensive side of things after scoring 14 runs on 22 hits in the two games against Nebraska and South Dakota State. They’ll need that as they face a Seton Hall that sits second in the Big East, behind only Creighton, with a 3.50 team earned run average. On the offensive side, the Pirates lead the Big East and rank in the top 25 nationally with 70 stolen bases as a team. After taking three games against Seton Hall last season by just a single run, including two in extra innings, Nicky Lopez says the coaches will put together a game plan and that despite the short turnaround the players will be ready to execute it come Friday night.
“[Coach Servais] is going to have a good scouting report for us, he always does,” Lopez said. “We’ll go over that before the games. We’ll try to play our hardest and see what can happen. We’re in a good spot in the Big East right now, and this weekend is a huge series for us — we’re excited.”
The first game of this weekend’s series is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. (CT) this Friday evening at Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, N.J. The next two games on Saturday and Sunday are set for noon and 11:00 a.m. (CT), respectively.