Forever until we depart this planet the game from Sunday night that featured 7 runs in the top of 9th inning to cap off a vicious rally will define the 2019 Creighton Bluejay baseball team.
That an onslaught of offense carried over for Michigan is no surprise; when a team is put into shock they simply have to bounce back or fizzle out hard. This team bounced back against a taxed and fatigued Bluejay bullpen and simply stepped on their necks til’ they couldn’t breathe anymore.
In reality, Creighton had a 4-1 lead going into the fourth. They looked sharp and poised behind a surprisingly tough outing from Mitch Ragan, and the offense cooked with dongshots from Will Robertson and Jack Strunc, a RBI triple by Parker Upton, and a RBI single from David Vilches.
The machine that is Creighton baseball sputtered when, in the bottom of the fourth, Evan Johnson walked the first two batters, handed the ball off to John Sakowski, but Sakowski wasn’t as effective as he’d been in the past. Five runs would score in the inning, giving the Wolverines a one run lead. In the next three innings they scored 12 more runs off a litany of different Bluejay pitchers, giving their opposition no room to breathe and especially no room to attempt a comeback.
All in all, the Jays used 8 different pitchers. Here’s a quick rundown:
Mitch Ragan
Evan Johnson
John Sakowski
Ryan Connolly
Jonah Smith
Mitch Boyer
Paul Bergstrom
Dylan Tebrake
It was a vicious onslaught, but these things happen in baseball. To come a win shy of potentially hosting a Super Regional (if Loyola-Marymount won) is something spectacular. They won the conference championship. They beat Scott Googins. They made it to the final effing game of the regional. Most importantly, they never said die until they’d been buried under multiple feet of rubber in Corvallis. They effing fought. That’s something that you’ll never forget.