Ed Servais and the Jays looked good on Saturday (Spomer / WBR) CLICK TO PURCHASE
3-0 first batter, battles back, induces a ground out
2 seamer moving well
Mitch Ragan started the game with a 3-0 count.
Three pitches later, he’d record the first out of the game.
The Jays had a tough test with a top-30 RPI ranked Illinois State team. Though the Redbirds haven’t won a ton of games at 13-10 on the year, they were able to eke out a get-away Sunday game against the Vandy Boys, vaulting them into the stratosphere of college baseball. Hell, even D1 Baseball had a story about them and their perseverance in Nashville.
Ragan has had back-to-back quality starts, though, and after throwing three straight balls he cruised through the top of the first. He watched as the Bluejays went to bat and did something pretty incredible.
The Jays scored 8 runs in the inning and damn near batted around twice.
Isaac Collins got things started for the Jays on Saturday (Spomer / WBR) CLICK TO PURCHASE
It started with a long fly ball from Isaac Collins that just kept carrying. Off the bat it looked like a routine fly ball but it just kept floating deeper and deeper towards the batter’s eye until it finally came down just beyond the reach of ISU centerfielder John Rave’s glove.
John Rave. Remember that name.
Collins planted himself at second and then watched as Parker Upton mashed a baseball into deep left field. He hit the same jetstream as Collins, yet this one had a little more velo, and carried way out into the outfield bleachers. Before you could blink, the Jays led 2-0, and they weren’t stopping there.
There was something about that wind today. Typically it blows in from the south, but today it was blowing out of the northwest, giving hitters a perfect launch pad to mash dingers. It was constant. It was maddening.
Parker Upton noticed the wind from the jump and waxed poetic on the atmosphere. “Once the baseball goes over that awning up top it just swirls. There were some foul balls hit out over our dugout that came back in.”
Robertson acquired a meat unit after Upton’s home run, took second on a wild pitch, and after Jake Holton struck out and Jack Strunc flew out to left, it appeared to be just another crooked number on the scoreboard. Just another early push from the Jays, something they’d done all season.
But then the rally re-ignited.
Jordan Hovey slapped a single to right and Servais waved Robertson home. The throw was on time but up the line, caroming off the catcher’s glove and allowing Hovey to take second with ease. Jared Wegner followed with a slicing double, just over the third baseman’s head, down the left field line, scoring Hovey, and bumping the score to 4-0.
It was at this point that John Rave, the Illinois State centerfielder, had an opportunity to end the inning. End the rally. Get back to the plate to try to cut into this early lead. David Vilches lifted a lazy fly ball to center and the ball waggled and got pushed deeper into center. Rave settled under it a little uncomfortably but shoved his glove skyward, only for the ball to bounce off his mitt and innocently to the ground.
5-0.
In the next at-bat Will Hanafan slapped a routine grounder to third. The third baseman fielded it cleanly but the throw was short and the first baseman couldn’t scoop it. Vilches came home with ease.
6-0.
Rave had an opportunity to end it. To stop the bleeding. To keep the Jays at the six run they’d earned. He watched another baseball come his way, this time off the bat of Isaac Collins. The realization that the Jays had batted around perhaps perturbed the poor fella, but as he stabbed his glove in the air the All-Missouri Valley player watched the ball bound off of his leather mitt and to the turf. Again.
Hanafan scored easily. Collins went to second.
7-0.
To tie this inning up perfectly, Upton singled up the middle to Rave, allowing Collins to score easily.
8-0.
Will Robertson kept the rally going in the crazy first inning (Spomer / WBR) CLICK TO PURCHASE
Robertson followed with a base hit to right, giving Upton third, and setting the table for Strunc to cash in again. He didn’t, but at that point, it didn’t matter.
The Jays led 8-0 after one inning.
Ragan cruised after that. He’d end up having just three runs dinged to his ERA. He went 6.2, struck out four, but induced eleven ground outs on a day where fly balls were jumping out of the ballpark. Perhaps that was his greatest accomplishment today, not that he was able to strike out everyone up and down the lineup, but he was able to force weak contact with his four seamer that dives like a Major League sinker. It was everything Ed Servais could’ve asked for.
Jake Holton added some insurance – as if they needed it – in the fourth inning when he took a ball deeeeeep into right center. This time, Upton and Robertson were on the pillows, giving the Jays an extra three runs, and running the score up to 11-1.
The Bluejay offense wouldn’t let up. That was a testament to their performance against Nebraska on Tuesday, where Ed Servais believed their energy was lacking. He preached bringing it today, leaving that game behind, and letting the team swing for the fences.
In the fifth, they hit and hopped over the fences twice. Collins blasted a ground rule double to center, a ball that landed just shy of the warning track, but hopped over the fence and into the metal barrier in the bleachers. Robertson one-upped that performance by swatting a ground rule double that bounded into the home team’s bullpen in left. All in all, they put up three more in the fifth, bringing the total to 14-1.
After Illinois State got two back in the 7th, the Jays answered with three of their own off a dongshot into deep right center off the bat of Jordan Hovey.
17-3.
Final.
These two will meet for an Ernie Banks special tomorrow. Denson Hull will start the first game with Evan Johnson twirling in the second. Hope to see you there!