Billed as a battle for Big East supremacy heading into the weekend, the three-game series between conference co-leaders Creighton and St. John’s turned into a rain-soaked two-game set that saw each team display how good they are capable of being one night and how poorly they can play the next. Creighton’s Friday starter Rollie Lacy pitched a complete game shutout in the first game while St. John’s starter Ryan McCormick did his best to match that with a one-hit performance over 7-plus innings on Saturday.
Behind Lacy’s performance on Friday, the Bluejays took game one easily, 6-0. They scored early and often while Lacy was zoned in on the mound, never allowing the St. John’s dugout to gain even a bit of momentum.
On Saturday, after rained delayed the original start time by five hours, McCormick and Creighton freshman Keith Rogalla were locked in a pitcher’s duel until the sixth inning when St. John’s finally started putting runs on the board against the Creighton bullpen.
As good as the Bluejays looked on Friday after the game was moved up an hour, in the hopes of beating the incoming storms, they were just the opposite after Saturday’s delay. While McCormick got a lot of credit from Bluejay hitters and coaches for his performance, there was still plenty to be disappointed about on their own end for the Bluejays after coming out flat in a big game against one of the top teams in the conference.
“I’m sure [St. John’s] was disappointed that they were flat yesterday, too,” Creighton head coach Ed Servais said after Saturday’s loss. “As soon as they took the lead, 2-1, we acted like it was a little bit bigger lead than 2-1. We just didn’t have much — we couldn’t pick ourselves up off the mat. These are the issues that we struggle with from time to time. I really believe we’re a team that can’t play that way. Sometimes teams that have just an overabundance of talent can, but we have to play a certain way. We just didn’t deal with the adversity that today brought.”
See photos from the series by Mike Spomer here
Game One, Friday, April 17: Creighton defeats St. John’s, 6-0.
Redshirt freshman starting pitcher Rollie Lacy tossed his first career shutout and designated hitter Matt Gandy went 3-for-3 at the dish, including an RBI double in the bottom of the 6th to cap off a 6-0 victory for the Bluejays on Friday night in front of 6,092 fans at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
Lacy started the game in cruise control and St. John’s was never able to rattle Creighton’s young hurler at any point throughout the evening. By the end of his third inning of work, Lacy had already surpassed his career-high for strikeouts as he sat down four St. John’s hitters and retired nine of the first 10 hitters to step in the batter’s box against him.
“We went over a pretty good game plan with our pitching coach and head coach,” Lacy said. “Everything they said seemed to work and we just tried to execute and get ground balls for our defense. That’s what we did today — I think we only had two or three fly balls, so I think as a team we executed the game plan pretty good.”
Early run support helped add to the momentum that Lacy’s pitching performance created for the Bluejays. The early runs didn’t come in typical fashion, though. By the end of the fourth inning Creighton held a 4-0 lead, but only one of those runs was scored off a base hit. The other three came courtesy of a ground out, a bases-loaded walk, and a sacrifice fly. Regardless of how they scored, the Bluejays were getting the job done; providing early run support for Lacy, and creating separation from the best-hitting team in the Big East in St. John’s.
“I liked the way we executed in the first inning — that’s how we gotta play,” said Creighton head coach Ed Servais. “We haven’t had enough of those innings … during the course of the game you have to get a cheap run or two like that, and we haven’t been doing that well enough. We’ve been leaving that guy at third.”
“I keep reminding the players it’s okay to get a run like that, too. I know we want to get more conventional runs where we drive the ball and stuff, but we have to pick up some of those cheap runs. The sooner we start to play like that a little more frequently I think our offense will be a little bit better. We only got, what, seven hits tonight? So you get six runs on seven hits, that’s being efficient with what you can do offensively.”
The Bluejays’ fifth run came on a more conventional play when junior college transfer Matt Gandy drove a ball deep into the left-center field gap for an RBI double to plate third baseman Harrison Crawford and cap off a perfect three-hit night at the plate. It gave Creighton a five-run advantage and improved the newcomer’s batting average to .370 over his last 11 games.
“He’s much more relaxed, much more composed,” Servais said of Gandy. “You have to remember where he came from now. That’s a big jump for him. You don’t just jump from Division III baseball to Division I without having some rough moments, and he had some. But he’s always showed us in [batting practice] that he’s one of our better guys, so it’s just a matter of when it was going to happen. Now he walks up to the box, that’s a whole different player than it was four weeks ago.”
The Bluejays tacked a sixth run after Gandy’s RBI double, which proved to be more than enough run support for Lacy. Aside from a spot of trouble in the ninth inning when he allowed the first two hitters to reach base before getting a strikeout and a game-ending double play, the young right-hander looked dominant in just the seventh start of his career. He scattered four hits, walked only one, and struck out a career-high eight batters in his nine scoreless innings of work.
“That was outstanding. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a complete game shutout with only one free base and they got three hits, and didn’t really drive a ball all night,” Servais said. “That just shows what you can do when you have secondary stuff. [Lacy] had his secondary stuff tonight. I hope the other pitchers were watching, because he gave you a blueprint on how to be successful on the mound.”
Game One Highlights
Bottom of the 1st: Center fielder Daniel Woodrow led off the evening for Creighton by dropping down a perfect bunt towards the third base side. He easily beat out the throw, then stole second without a throw to move into scoring position. After a sacrifice bunt by Nicky Lopez moved Woodrow to third, the sophomore lead-off man scooted home on an RBI ground out to second base off the bat of first baseman Reagan Fowler to give the Bluejays a 1-0 lead.
Bottom of the 2nd: With Harrison Crawford occupying first base, designated hitter Matt Gandy won an eight-pitch at-bat with a line drive single into right field off St. John’s starting pitcher Cody Stashak. Crawford advanced to third on the hit to put runners at the corners. Senior catcher Kevin Lamb brought Crawford in to score with a single through the left side of the infield to extend Creighton’s lead to 2-0.
Bottom of the 4th: After loading the bases with just one out, Kevin Lamb earned his second RBI of the evening when he drew a four-pitch walk to once again bring in Harrison Crawford from third base. Daniel Woodrow drove in a second run with a sacrifice fly to left field. Matt Gandy, who once again reached base with a single to right field, scored easily on the play to push the lead to 4-0.
Bottom of the 6th: Harrison Crawford and Matt Gandy continued to punish St. John’s. Crawford after reaching on a walk and a hit-by-pitch in his first two trips to the plate started the bottom of the sixth inning off by slapping an 0-2 offering through the left side of the infield. After Shawn Heide relieved Stashak he was greeted with an RBI double to the gap in left-center field off the bat of Gandy. A single by right fielder Kevin Connolly moved Gandy to third base and a double play ball by Kevin Lamb brought home the Creighton designated hitter and increased Creighton’s lead to 6-0.
Top of the 9th: Trying to finish out his first career shutout, Rollie Lacy issued a walk and a single to put two on for St. John’s with no outs. After a meeting on the mound with head coach Ed Servais, Lacy struck out pinch-hitter Anthony Brocato and then induced a 6-4-3 double play to wrap up the win.
Game Two, Saturday, April 18: St. John’s defeats Creighton, 4-1.
The second game of the series started out with more of the same from Friday night. Creighton scored an early run and freshman starter Keith Rogalla stayed out of trouble against a potent St. John’s lineup. It all changed in the sixth inning when the Red Storm chased Rogalla, then scored a pair of runs after getting shut out for the first 14-plus innings to start the series. Shortstop Jarred Mederos’ two-out RBI double gave St. John’s a lead they would never relinquish as they evened the series with a 4-1 victory over Creighton.
St. John’s starting pitcher Ryan McCormick struck out eight hitters over 7 and 1/3 innings and closer Thomas Hackimer earned his seventh save of the season. The duo combined to hold the Creighton offense to just one hit for the entire game.
“[McCormick] had a good rhythm going tonight,” said Creighton first baseman Reagan Fowler. “After the first time through the order he started a lot of at bats off with his off-speed pitches. He get ahead with his off-speed and kept throwing strikes with it, and kept us off balance.”
Though he surrendered an early run on an RBI single by Harrison Crawford, the junior right-hander McCormick controlled the game and didn’t let the Bluejays extend the lead and get comfortable. After Crawford’s hit, McCormick walked designated hitter Matt Gandy with two outs in the bottom of the second inning, then proceeded to retire the next 17 hitters he faced before another walk to Gandy with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning brought an end to his outing. Hackimer came on and finished the job by retiring each of the five hitters who came up against him.
“He did a great job,” Servais said of McCormick. “We saw him last year and he’s much improved over last year. He was throwing three pitches for strikes and didn’t give us many opportunities. We didn’t square many balls up. Sometimes you get one hit, but you hit a lot of balls hard. Tonight we got one hit and we did not hit a lot of balls hard. He deserves a lot of credit — he pitched a heck of a game. That’s one of the better pitchers we’ve seen up to today.”
Game Two Highlights
Brett Murray was the only one to score in Saturday’s game against St. John’s (Spomer/WBR) $Click to Buy$
Bottom of the 2nd: Left fielder Brett Murray led off the Creighton half of the second inning by working the count full and drawing a walk. He stole second and advanced to third base when St. John’s catcher Tyler Sanchez threw the ball into center field. With one out, Creighton third baseman Harrison Crawford drove in Murray with a base hit through the left side of the infield to put the Bluejays in front, 1-0.
Top of the 6th: Right fielder Zach Lauricella chased Creighton starter Keith Rogalla from the game after drawing a walk to lead off the sixth inning. Lauricella moved to third on a base hit by third baseman Robbie Knightes against Bluejay relief pitcher Connor Miller, then came home to tie the game on an RBI sacrifice fly to center field off the bat of designated hitter Troy Dixon. The Red Storm weren’t finished there as the next hitter up, shortstop Jarred Mederos, drove a ball into the right-center field gap for an RBI double to give St. John’s a 2-1 lead.
Top of the 7th: Catcher Tyler Sanchez was hit by a 2-0 pitch from Creighton reliever Nick Highberger to begin the inning. Then with one out, center fielder Alex Caruso hit a hard line drive into left field for an RBI single to extend the Red Storm lead to 3-1.
Top of the 8th: Troy Dixon was the catalyst for an insurance run in the top of the eighth inning when with one out the Red Storm sophomore hit a double into left-center field. After a ground out moved Dixon to third base, senior first baseman Matt Harris lined a ball into the right field corner for an RBI double to make it 4-1, St. John’s.
Next Up
- vs Nebraska-Omaha (Overall: 17-18, Summit: 10-7) on Tuesday, April 21 at 6:30 p.m. at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha (game will be televised on NET2)
- at Butler (Overall: 14-23, Big East: 1-4) on Friday, April 24 at 2:00 p.m.
- at Butler on Saturday, April 25 at 12:00 p.m.
- at Butler on Sunday, April 26 at 11:00 a.m. (game will be broadcast on Big East Digital Network)