Friday, April 5, 2013: Creighton 5, Bradley 4
If baseball was a four-inning game Creighton redshirt freshman Tommy Strunc would’ve made history twice in the span of seven days.
Last Friday, the young right-hander retired the first 12 hitters he faced in a 4-3 over Nebraska-Omaha. This time out he held Bradley hitless through the first four frames. Against UNO, Strunc realized what he had done through four innings and came unglued in the fifth. He came out trying to stay perfect and the result was him leaving after allowing a run, leaving the bases loaded, and failing to record an out in the fifth inning. Strunc was able to keep his composure to begin the fifth inning this time around as he easily retired the first two hitters of the inning.
His first moment of adversity came with two outs when he hung a 0-1 pitch over the plate to Bradley third baseman David Compitello. Compitello sent the pitch sharply up the middle and into center field to break up Strunc’s no-hit bid. Tommy allowed another single immediately after that, but struck out Bradley second baseman Nolan Sponsler to end the inning and strand the runners. It may have only been seven days later, but Strunc showed that he is a quick learner by not deviating from his approach like he did against the Mavericks.
“I tried not to think about it,” said Strunc, “I tried to keep a level head. I knew I had no hits going into [the fifth], but I went out there with the mentality of who cares as long as I throw strikes it doesn’t matter.”
Strunc ended going six innings while allowing just one run. He was still in line for the win when the seventh inning started, but Bradley scored four runs in the top of the seventh to take a 4-2 lead and leave Strunc with a no decision and Creighton in danger of dropping game one.
The Bluejays, who had managed just two runs on seven hits in the first six innings, promptly responded to the Braves rally. With every player and coach up on the steps of the dugout encouraging each hitter the Jays recaptured the lead on an RBI single by third baseman Federico Castagnini. Pinch-hitter Jordan Makovicka slid to beat the tag of Bradley catcher Austin Jarvis and give Creighton a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the seventh.
Jordan Mackovicka scores the go-ahead run in Creighton’s win over Bradley (Mike Spomer/WBR)
“I was getting a big lead knowing there were two outs, trying to score from second on anything,” Makovicka said. “The ball squirted threw infield, I rounded third hard, and just got my hand in there before the tag.”
Creighton head coach Ed Servais was pleased with the way his team responded to the gutcheck.
“That’s the first big inning we’ve given up in a long, long time, and for our guys to come back and score three in the bottom of the seventh tells you a little bit about what kind of club these guys want to be,” said coach Servais. “We’re still not there yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but this would’ve been an easy one to let get away from us.”
Junior Bryan Sova and sophomore Jake Peter needed just 20 pitches to get the final six outs and preserve the come-from-behind victory for Creighton.
Play of the Game: Jordan Makovicka’s go-ahead run in the seventh inning.
Creighton head coach Ed Servais on the play:
“It was a good slide on Jordan’s part. The catcher had the frontside blocked off, as he should. Jordan went to the backside and got his hand in there before the tag. Jordan is an aggressive base runner and an aggressive player. It was a good situation and we had the right guy on the bases. Give ‘Freddy’ some credit, too, for putting the ball in play, hitting into that four-hole and giving us a chance. There are no easy runs at TD when the outfield plays very shallow. With those outfielders charging the ball it’s a very short throw, but we had to take a chance in that case.”
Player of the Game: Sophomore 2B/CP Jake Peter (2-for-5 at the plate, 5 assists, 1 ip 2 k, SV, 20th Birthday)
Starting pitcher Tommy Strunc on Peter’s performance: “Jake Peter was making unbelievable plays tonight.”
Creighton head coach Ed Servais: “Jake came in there [in the 9th], and I was hoping not to use him tonight to be honest with you, because he threw a lot of pitches on Tuesday. We really didn’t have any other choice, and he gives us our best option to close the game.”
- Win: Winkelman (4-0)
- Loss: Johnson (1-1)
- Save: Peter (5)
- Time: 2 hr 53 min
- Attendance: 3,830
Saturday, April 6, 2013: Creighton 7, Bradley 5
Entering Saturday’s game, right-hander Nick Musec had really struggled in his starts this season, and prior to the game head coach Ed Servais made no secret of how important this start was his only senior starter. ]
“We used a lot of guys out of the bullpen [Friday night], so we have to get some innings out of Nick,” Servais said. “I saw his bullpen this week and I was very pleased with it, so I anticipate a good outing out of him.”
For the first four innings it appeared Musec had figured things out, at one point retiring seven straight Bradley hitters and carrying a 5-1 lead into the fifth inning.
Unfortunately, things went south on the senior right-hander to begin the fifth. He allowed two singles and two walks, one with the bases loaded before sophomore Mark Lukowski relieved him with still nobody out in the inning.
Musec left with a 5-2 lead, but a bases-clearing triple off the bat of Bradley left fielder Mike Tauchman tied the game at 5-all and left Musec with a no decision and an ugly stat line after a promising first four innings.
“I’d obviously like to go a little deeper, but getting us off on the right foot was good,” Musec said after the game. “I just stopped executing pitches. I let the two singles to start the inning just kind of derail me. I have to be tougher than that out there, so it’s something to work on going forward.”
Musec was clearly frustrated after the game, but his head coach was encouraged by what he saw in those four innings.
“I thought he threw more strikes today. He kind of hit the wall a little bit in the fifth inning, so we have to keep working on that, but it was much better than what it has been the last couple of weeks,” said coach Servais. “He got us in to the game. I’d like to see him have better command of his secondary stuff. He had a good changeup going today, but he didn’t a good feel for his breaking ball. He has to be a three-pitch guy in order to get these guys out.”
Despite allowing the two-out, three-run triple to tie the game, Lukowski was dialed in all afternoon. After Tauchman’s triple in the fifth, he allowed just two base runners the rest of the game, both on singles with the bases empty.
Creighton’s offense again offered a quick response for a second day in a row after watching a lead disappear. An RBI single in the bottom of the fifth put them back out in front, and they added an insurance run for Lukowski in the eighth. Despite leaving 12 men on base after leaving 13 on in Friday’s win, it was encouraging to see the offense respond positively in those situations.
Play of the Game: Go-ahead RBI single in the bottom of the fifth by Brad McKewon to give Creighton a 6-5 lead.
Player of the Game: Mark Lukowski (5 ip, 3 h, 0 r, 0 er, 0 bb, 4 k)
Creighton head coach Ed Servais on Lukowski’s performance:
“He was huge. Our bullpen was pretty tired. We determined before the game that we were not going to use Mark Winkelman or Jake Peter. I knew we were going to try to extend [Lukowski] for two innings, but I didn’t think we’d get five out of him. He only threw 55 pitches and got 15 outs, so that was a tremendous job.”
Starter Nick Musec:
“Mark was phenomenal. To come in that situation, with all of the guys I left on base, and then go out there in the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th and just shut the door on those guys. Mark did a phenomenal job.”
Shortstop Alex Staehely:
“Mark did a great job today. You couldn’t ask for anything more. I think he got 15 outs on 55 or 60 pitches, so that’s about four pitches per batter which is what we try to do. Our pitchers try to get an out within four pitches so Mark did a great job. His ball moves a lot. That action on the ball helps him get outs.”
- Win: Lukowski (4-1)
- Loss: Scheuermann (2-2)
- Save: None
- Time: 2 hr 44 min
- Attendance: 2,375
Sunday, April 7, 2013: Creighton 7, Bradley 3
With seemingly every Creighton starting pitcher, with the exception of Tommy Strunc, searching for consistency, and a spot in the weekend rotation, every outing is crucial. If Sunday was any indication, head coach Ed Servais may have found another trustworthy arm for his weekend rotation after freshman Austin Groth allowed one run on three hits over five innings to help Creighton complete the series sweep over Bradley.
Groth only ran into trouble in the 2nd inning, and he retired the side in order in three of his five innings.
“I just tried to throw a lot of first pitch strikes, and get the first guy of the inning,” said the young right-hander from South Sioux City, Iowa. “My fastball I felt worked pretty good, and I backed it up with a good slider to get a lot of ground balls.”
His head coach was so impressed with his young starter that he indicated this wouldn’t be Groth’s last shot in the weekend rotation.
“He was able to throw strikes. He’s always had good stuff, but sometimes that’s easier said than done with young pitchers. Austin showed us a good two innings at [Kansas], and I believed after watching what I saw that he would come out and give us a chance. That’s what you want your starting pitcher to do. This guy has a lot of talent, and once he gets more comfortable with the Division-1 college baseball game he’s going to be a good pitcher,” said coach Servais. “It gives him a better opportunity next weekend it’s just a matter if it’s going to be on Saturday or Sunday. We might do some juggling. We’ve got to find roles for each one of these pitchers. We have quite figured out all the roles yet, so Austin helped us with that today.”
Another positive to take away for the Bluejays was that, despite leaving 34 runners on base throughout the series, the offense always had an answer when they needed it. Bradley scored runs in just five of the 27 innings they played over weekend. In all five instances Creighton answered in the bottom half.
“That’s a good sign,” Servais said, “every game they made a charge at us. We had leads in all three games, and they’d come right back at us and get the momentum in the later part of the games. You’ve got to give our offense some credit for responding.”
Play of the Game: Alex Staehely’s go-ahead two-run double to left-center in the bottom of the third inning broke a 1-1 tie and put Creighton ahead for good in the final game of the series.
Creighton head coach Ed Servais:
“That’s what you’d like to see out of your senior. Alex had a rough go of it last year offensively, and he’s worked very hard in the fall and early part of the spring, and he’s getting rewarded.”
Player of the Game: Brad McKewon (3-for-4, 2 r, 2 RBI, SB)
Typically Creighton’s table-setter at the top of the lineup, the junior from Omaha found himself in some RBI situations over the weekend.
Left fielder Brad McKewon:
“The last couple days I’ve been really getting around balls, and today I was just trying to work up the middle. Our first RBI situation I just wanted to keep it in the middle of the field so we could get that run in. Getting a base hit was just a bonus.”
- Win: Austin Groth (2-0)
- Loss: Stephen Toma (1-1)
- Save: Bryan Sova (1)
- Time: 2:32
- Attendance: 2,278