It was a far cry from the cleanest effort you’ll ever see on a diamond, but Creighton nonetheless managed to find itself on the right side of a tense 3-2 win over in-state rival Nebraska at Charles Schwab Field on Tuesday night. Veteran relievers Paul Bergstrom and Tommy Steier recorded the final 10 outs over six and a third innings of one-run baseball to help the Bluejays overcome a season-high five errors to beat the Huskers for the sixth time in the last seven head-to-head meetings.
“I’m a little bit lost for words here,” Creighton head coach Ed Servais said. “I’ve not seen a game quite like that before where we made a lot of mistakes, a lot of mistakes, and still found a way to win. That’s baseball, I guess. I can’t think of too many times where you make five errors and find a way to win a game and hold a team down to two runs. Paul and Tommy had a lot to do with that. We went into the game anticipating we would use six or seven pitchers, but Paul did a tremendous job out there and got it to within nine outs, and Tom’s had a lot of nine-out outings this spring so far and we felt like if we got it within nine outs that Tom could finish the game for us. Not the way we like to win, but we’re not going to give it back.”
Paul Bergstrom helped the Jays pitch out of trouble (Juszyk / WBR)
Freshman second baseman Core Jackson put Nebraska on the board first with an RBI single up the middle off Creighton’s junior ace Dylan Tebrake with two outs in the top of the second inning. However, the Jays responded with a crooked number in the bottom half of the frame to take a lead they would never relinquish.
It started with a one-out bunt single to the third base side of the pitcher’s mound by freshman designated hitter Nolan Sailors. Junior right fielder Jack Grace singled to right-center field to move Sailors up to third base, then sophomore shortstop Nolan Clifford slapped one up the middle into center field to bring him home to tie the game. The next batter, eight-hole hitter and sophomore third baseman Kyle Hess, smacked a line drive into left-center field that was snagged on a full extension dive by Huskers left fielder Cam Chick. The effort was worthy of the end-of-season highlight reel, but it couldn’t keep Grace from making the sacrifice count to give Creighton a 2-1 lead.
Junior left-hander Paul Bergstrom came in for freshman reliever Malakai Vetock in the top of the third inning with two outs and runners on first and second. Bergstrom walked clean-up hitter Griffin Everitt to load the bases, but after getting freshman right fielder Garrett Anglim to foul off four straight pitches, he induced a weak ground ball at the edge of the grass at short that Clifford charged, picked, and tossed over to first to end the inning and leave all three runners stranded.
Bergstrom got out of another jam in the following frame when sophomore first baseman Jack Steil doubled with one out in the fourth to once again put the tying run in scoring position for Nebraska. But just like the previous inning, Bergstrom escaped with a flyout to left field and a three-pitch punchout of nine-hole hitter Tyler Palmer to end the inning.
“I came in after getting that last out of the third inning and I was telling our pitching coach, Coach Mormann, that I just felt really good,” Bergstrom said. “I’ve been in that situation before. That kind of high leverage, playing Nebraska at home, so I drew on some of my experience. I had my slider and my fastball, and I felt really good. It makes it a lot easier when you have one of the best defenses in the country behind you. I know we didn’t quite show that tonight, but that’s what it’s about, guys picking up each other.”
Alan Roden got on base and helped get the Jays an insurance run (Juszyk / WBR)
Creighton tacked on what would prove to be a critical insurance run in the bottom of the fifth inning on Nebraska’s only fielding error of the night. With two outs and freshman catcher Hogan Helligso standing on third base, sophomore first baseman Alan Roden hit a grounder to first that should have been a routine play to end the inning, but Steil bobbled the ball as he tried to pick it with his bare hand. Roden beat it out and Helligso scored to extend the Bluejay lead to 3-1.
That miscue by the Huskers would prove to be costly. They were able to cut the deficit back to one in the top of the seventh inning when freshman pinch-hitter Gabe Swansen grounded into a double play up the middle with nobody out and runners on the corners.
With Tommy Steier on the mound in the eighth inning, the Huskers created not only their best chance to tie the game, but also to get over the hump. It started with a leadoff double by Chick, who then moved up 90 feet on a passed ball. Steier let one get away from him and plunked sophomore third baseman Max Anderson to put runners on the corners with nobody out and Nebraska’s 4-5-6 hitters due up. The junior righty executed two straight 2-2 sliders to get Everitt and Anglim swinging for the first two outs. He needed some luck on the third one as freshman designated hitter Luke Jessen grounded a ball to no man’s land in front of second base. Roden charged it but couldn’t pick it up cleanly on the first attempt as Steier raced behind him to cover the bag. Fortunately for Creighton, Jessen tripped and fell halfway up the line, giving Roden plenty of time to field the ball and make the throw over to first to get out of the inning with the lead intact.
“We practice that play almost every day,” Steier said. “I was getting over and calling ‘bag, bag, bag,’ but I saw Alan bobble it and was thinking it was going to be a bang-bang play. I caught it and kind of fumbled for the bag a little bit, then I turned around and saw him back there and thought that was very lucky. Thankfully he fell. That was a huge play. Great of Alan to stick with it and thankfully for us we got out of that inning.”
The Bluejays pulled this one out as a team (Juszyk / WBR)
The ninth inning was a microcosm of the entire night as the Jays allowed the tying run to reach first on an error with one out. Steier picked him off to erase it, but then allowed a single and put the tying run in scoring position on a botched pickoff attempt before inducing a ground ball to third to end the game. Between the two veteran relievers, they allowed four hits and an unearned run while striking out five batters over the final six-plus innings.
“That’s what veterans have to do,” Servais said of his two relievers. “When mistakes are made, and there were plenty, they didn’t get rattled. I think maybe the first weekend we would have got rattled, but now we’re starting to grow a little bit. We’re starting to understand that we’re not going to be flawless every time out. We are going to make mistakes, but we have to pick each other up. That’s what you expect out of your upperclassmen. Paul’s a senior and Tommy’s a redshirt junior, and you could tell by their presence on the mound and their body language that they still got this and we’re in control … that’s what I was encouraged with, because I didn’t see that in the early part of the year. We kind of came unraveled when we made a mistake. We are growing as a team, and we need to play in these kinds of games. These games better prepare us for our conference. I don’t think we necessarily get better in a 10-1 game.
“And like the players said, they had not been exposed to this series before. This is a different game. This is a different game than any other game we play all year. We have rivals in our league with Connecticut and Seton Hall and St. John’s and Xavier, but this is a different game. I was so happy that the guys found a way even though I’m not sure I’ve been a part of a game at Creighton where we committed five errors.”
The win improves the Bluejays to 12-3 over their last 15 games after getting swept in four straight games at Portland to begin the season. They are scheduled to host South Dakota State at Charles Schwab Field on Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. before closing out the five-game homestand with a three-game series this weekend against The Citadel.