David Vilches took one out of the park on Thursday night (Spomer / WBR) CLICK TO BUY
For a few weeks now Ed Servais has been hoping to see some more juice out of his team from the first inning on, but another slow start was once again met with a late-inning onslaught as the Bluejays scored seven runs over their final two frames to turn a nail-biter into a 10-1 rout of Villanova at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha on Thursday night.
Junior first baseman Jake Holton and sophomore catcher David Vilches each blasted balls to the bleachers in the eighth inning, and senior ace right-hander Mitch Ragan struck out nine Wildcats over seven and a third innings of work to help Creighton improve to 33-11 on the season and move into a tie with Xavier for first place in the Big East standings with two games to go.
“We have scored a lot of runs from about the fifth inning on,” Servais said. “We kind of did that Tuesday and again today.”
In the last two games against Nebraska-Omaha and Villanova, the Bluejays have outscored their opposition 16-3 after the fifth inning. Those second and third turns through the lineup have brought out the best in Creighton’s offense as they have a +57 run differential in the fourth and fifth inning and a +27 run differential from the eighth inning on. That effectiveness in the later innings helped the Jays overcome six men left on base through the first three innings on Thursday.
“We had the bases loaded a couple of times early and you could tell the guys were fighting it a little bit,” Servais said. “I hope that a game like this can just get them to relax from the get go tomorrow. They know what’s out there. We certainly did some good things at the end that’s for sure.”
Will Robertson was part of the action on Thursday night (Spomer / WBR) CLICK TO BUY
After trading zeros for the first four-plus innings, Creighton finally touched up Villanova sophomore right-hander Jimmy Kingsbury for three runs in the bottom of the fifth. Jake Holton and junior right fielder Will Robertson delivered back-to-back one-out RBI singles to the pull side, then senior third baseman Jordan Hovey capped off the frame with a two-out RBI double to base of the wall in straightaway center field.
That looked like it was going to be more than enough of a cushion for Mitch Ragan as he went back in the top of the sixth inning and struck out the side on 12 pitches. But the Wildcats started to barrel him up more frequently in the next inning, including a solo shot off the bat of freshman Nick Lorusso that cut Creighton’s lead to 3-1 heading to the seventh inning stretch.
Since their ace picked up the slack and kept them in the game for seven-plus innings, Creighton’s approach at the plate went to another gear against Villanova’s bullpen once it looked like the Wildcats were starting make more hard contact against Ragan. After Wildcat reliever Mike Schwartz started off the bottom of the seventh with a strikeout of Holton, the Bluejays proceeded to draw four consecutive walks to plate push the lead back to three before sophomore center fielder Will Hanafan made it a 6-1 ball game with a two-run single.
In the frame to follow, the Jays tagged Villanova’s Zach Lutner for four runs on a two-run homer by Holton — his team-leading 13th of the season — followed by a sacrifice fly by Hovey and a solo shot by Vilches to make it 10-1. That was all she wrote.
Mitch Ragan doesn’t want it to be his last time pitching at TD Ameritrade Park (Spomer / WBR)
Ragan improved his own record to 8-2 with the win, inducing 16 swinging strikes on 101 pitches and holding Villanova to 2-for-18 at the plate with seven strikeouts the first two times through the order. Despite it being 93 degrees for first pitch at 6:30 p.m., the senior from Omaha said it wasn’t a factor when he started to run into more hard contact after a dominant sixth inning.
“It actually felt great,” Ragan said of the mid-summer like conditions. “My adrenaline was pumping a lot at that time, because the sixth inning was the inning where I struck out the side. I didn’t get a call that I wanted early in the at-bat where [Lorusso] hit the home run and that kind of threw me off a little bit. But I was able to reset, rely on the defense, and things worked out.
“It was probably the hottest game I’ve thrown in since I’ve been here. A couple weeks ago at Georgetown was really hot, too, but that was more humidity. Today was a steamer. It was fun, though. I’m used to throwing in 35 degrees early on in the year and now I’m throwing in 95. It’s just something we get ourselves used to and something we have to adjust to. If you’re going to pitch you have to be ready to go any time of the year.”
With it being the final weekend of the regular season, the notion that this might be the last time he toes the rubber at TD Ameritrade Park was not lost on him throughout the night. Despite his firm believe that it won’t be, he understands that’s not something he can control and it prompted a tip of the cap to the home fans as he walked to the dugout with one out in the top of the eighth inning.
“It was kind of a bittersweet moment, because the leadoff guy got on base and I was pretty mad about that,” Ragan said. “Those kinds of things do go through your mind. It’s natural. But the way we’ve played and the way we think right now, we really do believe that this isn’t our last time playing here. It’s up to people with more power than us, but we just control what we can do each and every single game. I hope it’s not my last time pitching here, but if it is it’s been an unbelievable ride and a great experience, even though I’ve only thrown here like three times this year.
“Being here last year and throwing here I didn’t soak it up as much as I would have liked to. This year I’ve tried to soak up every minute that I can. We had a lot of opportunities taken away from us early on in the year, so it made this one tonight a little extra sweet. But like I said, hopefully we’re not done. We believe we aren’t.
“A lot of people might say aren’t those kind of lofty expectations to expect to host a regional, or a super regional, or the College World Series? But, why not? Why not have that big goal? If you don’t have lofty goals then you aren’t setting goals that are right for you.”
That debate will be had in by the NCAA Selection Committee in a few weeks. The first order of business for the Bluejays is the rest of this weekend as they control their own fate in race for a Big East title. With Xavier already in the clubhouse at 12-4, Creighton needs to either win one more game in the event game three gets rained out, or win the next two if they go on as scheduled in order to stay ahead of the Musketeers by percentage points to clinch the regular season title and the top seed in next week’s conference tournament. No matter which scenario ultimately determines that result it produces zero margin for error as one more loss takes both out of play for the Jays.
“I think [that pressure] is good because our players have to learn to play with that,” Ed Servais said. “That’s how it’s going to be in the conference tournament, and if we are fortunate to move on that’s what they are going to see. We’ve got to get more comfortable in these uncomfortable situations. We haven’t been in a ton of close games, and even thought tonight wasn’t close at the end it was pretty close there for the first five or six innings. We just have to get a little better at dealing with those kinds of situations.
“We are really good when we jump out. When we get a four or five-run lead on somebody boy the swings are different aren’t they? We need some of those swings when it’s 0-0 or 1-0. That’s what we are hoping to see tomorrow.”
Game two of the series is set for 6:30 p.m. Friday evening. Creighton will send senior left-hander Denson Hull (4-1, 1.65 era in Big East play) to the mound. Villanova will counter with freshman right-hander Gordon Graceffo (2-2, 2.43 era in Big East play).