Mike Emodi got some key hits on Wednesday night (Spomer /WBR) $CLICK TO BUY$
Ed Servais’ baseball team didn’t let a season sweep of one in-state rival affect their performance against another one night later. Less than 24 hours after earning their first season sweep over Nebraska, the Creighton Bluejays pounded out 14 hits on Wednesday night to clinch the season series against Nebraska-Omaha with a 10-6 victory in front of a crowd of 770 at Werner Park in Papillion.
Eight different players recorded a hit for the Jays, including junior designated hitter Michael Emodi who went 3-for-4 with two RBI and sophomore right fielder Will Robertson who went 4-for-5 with three RBI. It was Emodi’s first game with three or more hits since March 13th and Robertson’s first four-hit game since April 21st of last season. Prior to Wednesday night, Emodi hadn’t driven in a run in his last 10 games and Robertson was 0-for-10 with seven strikeouts in his last three games, so to see them both have breakout games with the sticks was a welcomed sight to their head coach.
“It was good to see Will come around tonight because he was kind of sluggish over the weekend, and Mike had a three-hit game tonight and got a couple RBI,” Servais said. “That’s something he hasn’t been able to get recently. He looks a lot more comfortable. When we’re playing our best baseball obviously we need those two guys, so I liked that they got themselves going tonight a little bit.”
Sophomore second baseman Isaac Collins set the table all night for the Jays’ big hitters from the two-hole. After leadoff man Clark Brinkman was retired to begin the game, the Bluejays battered UNO starter Grant Suponchick for three runs on three hits with Collins starting things off with a one-out walk, the first of three straight batters to reach base. Robertson cashed in the first run with an RBI single to left center, then junior third baseman Tommy Luevano brought home the next two when he drove a ball into right center for an RBI double after fouling off four two-strike pitches to keep the at-bat alive and cap off a three-run frame for Creighton.
Isaac Collins was a catalyst for the Jays all night (Spomer / WBR) $CLICK TO BUY$
Collins was the catalyst again in the third inning. The Maple Grove, Minnesota native singled to lead off the inning, stole second, then scored his second run of the game on an RBI single through the five hole by junior shortstop Jack Strunc with one out. Robertson followed Collins home three pitches later on another clutch hit by Luevano — this time on an RBI single — to extend the lead to 5-0.
The Mavericks got on the board with a run in the bottom of the third inning, but Robertson extended the lead to 7-1 two innings later when he belted his 12th home run of the season onto the sidewalk behind the right field fence to give the Jays a 7-1 lead. The ball left the yard in such a hurry that UNO right fielder Ben Palensky didn’t even so much as turn around to see where it landed.
Creighton’s lead was trimmed to two in the bottom half of the fifth, but Emodi broke the Jays out of a mid-game funk with a clutch two-run single off of UNO reliever Malik Moore with two outs in the top of the eighth to double up the lead at 9-5. The left-hander struck out Emodi on four pitches for the first out in the seventh, but Creighton’s normal every day catcher was ready for the rematch in the eighth.
“He got me earlier with changeups away, so I just changed my stance in the box,” Emodi said. “I went more towards the front of the box and closer to the plate because I knew he was going to throw me away. There were a couple I took that I thought were close, but I was able to adjust and tap one over the shortstop.”
Junior right-hander Evan Johnson helped silence UNO’s offense late in the game with 2.1 scoreless innings. He allowed only two singles and one walk while striking out three. Johnson joined a growing list of bullpen arms that have had eye-opening performances late in tight games. Sophomore Jonah Smith struck out five and didn’t allow a single baserunner over 2.1 innings on Friday, senior Grant Spranger also punched out five hitters over 3.2 innings while only allowing a hit and a walk on Saturday, and junior closer Bobby Kametas gave up just two hits and struck out four over 2.2 innings on Sunday. All together, the four relievers struck out 17 hitters while only allowing seven men to reach base in those 10 innings.
“Their putaway pitches have gotten much better,” Emodi said of the late-season emergence. “That’s something they have worked on throughout the year and you can see that their offspeed is a lot sharper now as they get more used to coming out of the bullpen. I think they are putting more focus on action early in counts. Once you get into deeper counts the hitter has a better chance of putting it in play because they have seen more of your stuff, so forcing action and forcing contact in the first three pitches is big for our staff.”
The big hitters in the lineup and the bullpen seem to be in a good groove at the most important time of the season as Bluejays head to Villanova for a three-game series that they, for all intents and purposes, need to sweep in order to keep their hopes alive of qualifying for the four-team Big East Tournament field at the end of May.
“Now it’s time. We gotta go,” Ed Servais said. “You have to have a bullpen at this time of year, because sometimes your starting pitching gets warn out a little bit. They’ve logged a lot of innings and thrown a lot of pitches, so we have to go to our bullpen guys. I think we need another bullpen piece and it looks like Evan Johnson has potentially worked his way back into being that. Our bullpen has also been so important to us in our program … it’s starting to look like we’re getting something.”
The Jays improved to 28-15 overall with the win over UNO, but all that matters at this point is the 5-9 league record they will take into their weekend series with the Wildcats. It’s likely that they will still need some help from the teams currently above them in the standings, but it starts with taking care of their own business first. Game 1 of the series is set for at 2:00 p.m. Game 2 is Saturday at 12:00 p.m. and Game 3 is currently scheduled for noon as well on Sunday, however weather might force the teams to play a double-header on Saturday in order to finish the series. Creighton has already lost one game due to weather when they split a two-game series with a Butler team that is currently above them in the standings, so they will do whatever they can to make sure they get in all three must-win games this weekend.