The Creighton baseball team got off to a rocky start to the 2019 season when senior left fielder Ryan Mantle suffered a minor groin strain during practice the day before the team’s season-opener at Arkansas-Little Rock. Mantle was a revelation last season as he led the team in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage in Big East play.
He was expected to start Friday’s opener in the clean-up spot and offer some protection in the lineup behind Preseason All-American Will Robertson, but as it turned out the Jays were just fine without him for now as they scratched across 10 runs on 10 hits despite leaving 11 men on base in a 10-8 win over UALR.
Senior shortstop Jack Strunc moved down from the two-hole to take Mantle’s spot in the batting order and responded with three hits in five at-bats, including two doubles, two runs scored, and three runs batted in. Santa Barbara Community College transfer Jake Holton drove in a pair of runs behind Strunc as the designated hitter, while senior third baseman Jordan Hovey went 2-for-3 with two runs batted in of his own. Overall, Creighton one through six hitters in the lineup went 9-for-24 with five walks, three extra-base hits, and nine runs scored on the afternoon. Even sophomore Will Hanafan, who started in center field in his Bluejay debut after Parker Upton moved over to take Mantle’s spot in left, drew a couple walks, stole two bases, and scored a run out of the nine-hole.
“We got production out of a lot of guys that we were maybe not anticipating,” Creighton head coach Ed Servais said. “I thought Jordan Hovey had a tremendous game, Will Hanafan got on base several times, and Jack Strunc had a great game. We lost Ryan Mantle last night with an injury, and he’s one of our better offensive players, so we got a couple guys to step up today and when he comes back it will make us even stronger.”
Servais said that the senior from Linn, Missouri is day-to-day and isn’t expected to miss significant time. For now he was especially impressed with the way Strunc, in particular, took up the … umm, mantle, in his place when he gave the Jays a 1-0 lead with an RBI double in the top of the first inning, then later in the top of the fifth when he gave Creighton the lead for good on a two-run double down the left field line after the Trojans had moved in front 3-2.
“He’s going to get pitched to pretty good because they walked [Robertson] in that situation and he came up with a double to drive in two runs,” Servais said. “That’s what you need. Whoever hits behind Will is going to get some great pitches. We were going to have Ryan Mantle do that until last night’s injury, but that’s what you expect out of your upperclassmen — Jack did a really good job.”
Creighton did strike out 11 times on the afternoon, but seven of those came from the bottom of the order, including three apiece from seven-hole hitter Jason Allbery and eight-hole hitter Garrett Gilbert, who made just his second career start behind the dish. Other than that, the Jays did everything else at the plate except leave the yard.
“This team has a chance to do some things offensively, because they have a nice blend,” Servais said. “We bunted when we had to — we executed a safety squeeze with Jordan Hovey, which was excellent. We were able to run the bases, we had a little power with two or three extra-base hits. I liked the blend. I don’t want to be one dimensional.”
On the mound, right-hander Mitch Ragan picked up where he left off last season as he struck out seven Arkansas-Little Rock hitters over six inning of work. He allowed six hits and three runs, including a solo homer in the bottom of the second inning, but he didn’t walk a single batter and threw 61 of his 90 pitches for strikes before leaving with an 8-3 lead.
“His last three innings were outstanding,” Servais said of the senior ace out of Millard West. “They were just absolutely outstanding. I thought we might only get four [innings] out of him, but then he cruised in the fourth, fifth, and sixth, and really was pitching his best the last couple innings. That’s not usually the case this time of year. I’m really pleased with how he commanded all three pitches today and gave us a chance. Sometimes around this time of year if you have to go to your bullpen in the fifth inning, things can get a little dicey … Mitch was in mid-season form today.”
The bridge to the back-end of the bullpen was as Servais worried, dicey, as junior right-hander Jonah Smith struggled with his command in the seventh and allowed four runs — three of which were earned — on three hits and a walk without retiring a batter.
“He couldn’t get the ball down, and he couldn’t get to his breaking ball,” Servais said. “His breaking ball is his best pitch, but he was behind [in the count] a lot, he was up in the zone a lot … these guys haven’t really pitched off dirt much before today, and it’s tough to make adjustments. There were a lot of factors that went into it, but he’ll get another opportunity this weekend, and knowing Jonah he’ll be ready to roll.”
A pair of juniors in left-hander Justin Wick and right-hander Mitch Boyer wiggled the Bluejays out of the jam with the lead still intact, and senior right-hander Bobby Kametas closed the door with a pair of strikeouts in a clean 13-pitch bottom of the ninth to secure the season-opening victory.
Game two of the three-game series is set for Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. (CST). Creighton will go with senior left-hander Denson Hull on the mound, while Arkansas-Little Rock is expected to counter with junior right-hander Jose Torres.