Jonas Dufek was brilliant against the Georgia Bulldogs in a 2-1 Creighton win (WBR/Adam Streur)
Creighton defeated Georgia 2-1 in the first of two Friday games at the Corvallis regional in the 2011 NCAA Baseball Tournament. The nightcap featured host team Oregon State climbing back from a 4-0 deficit to beat Arkansas-Little Rock 7-4. The Bluejays and Beavers meet tonight at 8 p.m. Central (6 p.m. Pacific) in a winners’ bracket game, while the Bulldogs and Trojans fight to avoid elimination in a 3 p.m. Central losers’ bracket matchup.
NOTE: Both games Saturday are available to watch online at ESPN3.com. Want to hear John Bishop and David Gustafson, instead? Their radio broadcast of the game takes place on 1620 The Zone (1620 AM).
Below is a roundup of coverage of the Corvallis regional:
- Creighton’s Jonas Dufek was outstanding against Georgia, pitching his second complete game of the season and allowing just one run on five hits.
- After surrendering a one-out RBI double in the seventh, Dufek retired the last eight batters of the game to allow his offense a chance to rally.
- Chance Ross and Alex Staehely were the only CU starters to not record a hit against Georgia’s ace Michael Palazzone.
- The matchup of Creighton and Georgia’s aces didn’t disappoint, as Dufek and Palazzone both went the distance in a game that took shy of 2 hours to complete.
- See Jimmy Swift talk about Creighton’s win.
- Watch Creighton’s press conference following the Jays’ 2-1 win over Georgia. Or, click here to read what Ed Servais, Jonas Dufek, Scott Thornburg, and Anthony Bemboom had to say after the game.
- Georgia’s Dave Perno said his Bulldogs didn’t put enough pressure on Dufek and the Bluejays.
- A few hours after Creighton’s win, Oregon State had to rally to defeat Arkansas-Little Rock 7-4.
- Read what Oregon State’s coach Pat Casey had to say about his team’s resiliency against the Trojans.
- It took some clutch hits for the Beavers to overcome UALR, but by saving his team’s top two pitchers and starting James Nygren instead Casey set his team up well for the rest of the weekend.
- Creighton’s Ty Blach will take the mound with a 10-2 record and a sub-3.00 ERA against Oregon State’s ace and second-team All-American Sam Gaviglio.
- Tonight’s Creighton-Oregon State game will pit a few friends against each other.
- Meanwhile, regionals got underway from sea to shining sea. Check out the rundown of Friday’s games by Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt.