Friday, March 29, 2013: Creighton 4, Nebraska-Omaha 3
After winning the battle for No. 1 spot in the starting rotation redshirt freshman right-hander Tommy Strunc looked like an ace for the first four innings. Strunc retired the first 12 UNO hitters he faced, including three via strikeout. Only two of those 12 outs were recorded in the outfield. Creighton’s offense got rolling out of the gate as well. RBI singles by Ryan Fitzgerald and Jake Peter gave the Bluejays an early lead, and a balk by UNO reliever Sam Murphy made it 3-0 Creighton after four innings. It appeared as though that would be more than enough support for Strunc as he cruised through the Maverick lineup.
However, the game, and the series, changed in the top of the 5th. After going perfect through the first four innings the wheels came undone in a hurry for Creighton’s young ace. He led off the inning by walking the first two hitters. Then UNO’s Cole Gruber loaded the bases with a bunt single. He then walked Connor Messinger to plate UNO’s first run of the game in what would be Strunc’s final batter of the game. After going perfect through the first four innings, he left after allowing the first four hitters to reach base in the 5th.
Strunc cited a loss of focus led to his troubles.
“After that fourth inning I looked up at the scoreboard and I realized what was going on,” Strunc said. “Then I went out there to not throw balls. You can never do that. You always have to go out, be aggressive, and throw strikes. That’s what got me tonight.”
Senior lefty Mark Winkelman relieved Strunc with the bases still loaded and nobody out. It took Winkelman just three pitches to induce a 4-6-3 double play. Unfortunately, UNO’s Ryan Keele came in to score on the play and cut Creighton’s early three-run lead down to just one run.
An RBI single off Winkelman by UNO center fielder Alex Schultz tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the 6th. With their lead now gone, the Creighton offense reapplied the pressure on UNO’s defense. Nine-hole hitter Kevin Lamb singled off UNO reliever Matt Tew to lead-off the bottom of the 6th. Lead-off Brad McKewon then laid down the sacrifice bunt, but Tew’s throw to first was wide and both McKewon and Lamb moved into scoring position on the error. Two batters later Creighton’s RBI leader Jake Peter lifted a fly ball into foul territory. UNO left field Cole Gruber made the easy play then threw home as Lamb tagged up from third. The throw was just in time, but catcher Alex Mortensen bobbled the ball as Lamb slid under the tag.
“[Gruber] had to make a long run down the line and it’s a pretty tough throw from down there,” Lamb said. “Coach said I had the green light, so I just put my head down and went for it.”
Mortensen protested, but to no avail as Creighton re-captured the lead, 4-3.
UNO threatened to tie up it in the top of the 7th when Tyler Splichal doubled to right center with a man on first. Creighton right fielder Brennan Murphy cut the ball off before it got through the gap, and threw to his cut-off man Jake Peter at the edge of the infield. Peter quickly turned and fired a strike to Lamb at home to nail Messinger at the plate and preserve the 4-3 lead.
“Well executed play,” said Creighton head coach Ed Servais. “Brennan Murphy cut the ball off before it got to the track. He executed a great throw to Jake Peter, and I think we’ve all acknowledged that Jake has a plus-arm for a second baseman, and he threw a strike to the plate. Obviously that was, really that was the game.”
Winkelman stifled the UNO offense in the 8th, and Peter came on in the ninth to shut the door and earn his second save of the season.
“He’s got a chance to be pretty special on the mound,” said Servais when asked about Peter’s ability to close out games. “The question is how do we use him, keep him healthy, and keep him fresh. We’re probably only going to get one outing a weekend out of him, so we have to pick the right outing and go for it. I wish we had more of him, but he’s a heck of a second baseman, a heck of a player and hitter, so we’re going to have to be smart.”
After a shaky end to an incredible start, Tommy Strunc was appreciative of the work Winkelman and Peter did to pick him up when things got out of his control.
“Mark Winkelman coming in for those four innings was clutch — it was unbelievable. To get out of the [fifth] inning only giving up two runs is unbelievable. You can’t ask for more than that,” said Strunc.
As for Peter, Strunc said the team feels pretty good whenever he’s on the mound,
“When Jake comes in in the 9th inning, the game is over. When he comes in you can just see the excitement in the dugout. Everybody’s ready to jump over that fence and get out on the field, because we know we’re going to win.”
Saturday, March 30, 2013: Creighton 11, Nebraska-Omaha 4
Game two moved to Werner Park as UNO was the home team this time, looking to even the series for a decisive third game on Easter Sunday. Unfortunately for the Mavs, they couldn’t keep the Bluejays off the base path all afternoon. The Mavericks sent five pitchers to the mound throughout the game, but they combined to allow 13 hits, five walks, and two hit batters. All that combined with four errors in the field led to lopsided, series-clinching victory for the Creighton Bluejays.
The bad news and re-occurring theme of the weekend for Creighton was the ineffectiveness of their starting pitching. This time fifth-year senior Nick Musec couldn’t shake his slump despite the run support he received. Musec uncorked two consecutive wild pitches in the third inning to bring in a UNO run. Then in the 4th he hit the lead-off man, allowed a single, walked the next two hitters to bring in a run, then went to a 3-0 count after that before Coach Servais had seen enough.
“We’ve got to get more out of Nick, there’s no doubt about it,” Servais said. “We can’t afford to walk five hitters. You can’t really overcome it very often. I don’t know how we did it today. He’s better than that, but that’s a couple rough weekends in a row. We’ll see, I think he’s capable of helping the team, but he’s got to step up a little bit.”
Luckily for Creighton the bullpen was up to the challenge again in this one as fellow underclassmen Mark Lukowski, a sophomore, and Nick Highberger, a freshman, allowed just two base runners over the final six innings to lock down UNO’s offense.
One night after their game-saving relay Jake Peter and Brennan Murphy decided to lead their team to victory with the sticks. The two combined to go 7-for-10 at the plate with four runs scored. Compare that to UNO, who, as a team only managed five hits on the day.
“We hit the ball really good today,” said Peter, “the wind was blowing out, so we got some lucky ones where they miss-played a fly ball. It was a good day to hit the baseball.”
Sunday, March 31, 2013: Nebraska-Omaha 4, Creighton 2
Ed Servais watches Jake Peter in the batter’s box against Nebraska-Omaha (Mike Spomer/WBR)
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After putting up 11 runs in the series-clincher on Saturday, the Creighton bats never woke up on Easter Sunday as they dropped the series finale to UNO. Apart from the offensive woes, it was more of the same from Creighton’s starting staff. This time it was freshman right-hander Matt Warren laboring as he entered his fourth inning of work before being replaced Brett Swain. In the third Warren served up the first long ball of 2013 at TD Ameritrade Park when UNO right fielder Ryan Keele hit a no-doubter into the parking lot to give UNO its first lead of the series.
Creighton answered with consecutive RBI groundouts by Kevin Lamb and Brad McKewon to tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the third. Unfortunately, that was it for the Creighton offense as they went 0-for-16 on the afternoon with runners on base. A wild pitch by Creighton junior right-hander Brett Swain plated the go-ahead run for UNO in the 4th inning, and Conor Messinger’s RBI groundout off Swain in the 5th gave the Mavericks their final margin.
Creighton went 3-for-17 at the plate from the 5th inning on, including stranding center fielder Mike Gerber at third after he hit a lead-off triple in the bottom of the 6th.
“It’s been an issue for us for about two weeks now,” Coach Servais said in regards to his offense’s production. “We’re getting a lot of baserunners, we’re getting a lot of guys in scoring position, but we’re not getting a lot of hits. I think the players are pressing a little bit. I don’t think the wind or the weather had anything to do with it. I think a lot of it is there not getting good pitches to put in play. We’re getting ourselves out a lot in those situations.”
While Creighton’s weekend starters struggled all weekend outside of Tommy Strunc’s first four innings on Friday, Coach Servais and the Jays can take solace in the fact that their bullpen was able to lock down the opposing offense no matter who was called upon. On Friday, Winkelman and Peter threw five innings of one-run ball. In the series-clincher on Saturday, Lukowski and Highberger allowed just one run over the final six innings, and on Sunday Swain, Winkelman, and last year’s junior college saves leader Bryan Sova allowed just one unearned run between the three of them over the final 5 & 2/3 innings. Overall the bullpen finished with a 1.11 ERA and 9:4 K:BB ratio in 16 & 2/3 innings over the weekend.
Knowing the bullpen is filled with capable arms will help while the offense and starting staff re-discover what has made them successful in the past.