By DAN OBERHELMAN
Sports Reporter
The Creighton softball team is finally coming back to Omaha after a season-opening 23-game road trip that featured an upset of the No. 7 Arizona Wildcats.
The Bluejays (14-9) played 11 games in the Grand Canyon state over spring break, including games against No. 1 Arizona State, La Salle, and Arizona.
On March 4, the Jays battled top-ranked and one-loss Arizona State for nine scoreless innings before ASU senior outfielder Jackie Vasquez drove a home run over the centerfield wall in the tenth to give the Sun Devils a 1-0 victory. All-America candidate and sophomore Tara Oltman threw the entire game for the Jays, allowing just seven hits and recording six strikeouts.
The Jays then played back-to-back doubleheaders on March 7 and 8. Each day, the first game was against LaSalle and the nightcap featured Arizona. Creighton lost both games the first day before taking two games on Saturday.
LaSalle dropped freshman starter Emily Humpal and the Jays, 4-2, in game one before Oltman allowed only one hit and struck out five en route to a 9-0 Jays win in game two against the Explorers.
“I like playing on the road because I like the feeling of beating a team on their own turf,” senior catcher and Arizona native TJ Eadus said.
She ignited the nine run burst with a two-run homer in the third inning. Sophomore outfielder Jessi Jadlowski and junior catcher Laura Kratochvil each had three hits as well.
In the first two games of a three-game series against defending National Champion Arizona, Creighton suffered losses by scores of 6-0 and 15-1, while being out-hit 20-3.
However, in the third game, Oltman and Kratochvil helped lead the team to a 2-1 upset.
Oltman allowed just one run and four hits, silencing some of the country’s toughest bats with nine strikeouts and out-dueled 2007 College World Series Most Outstanding Player and ESPY award winner Taryne Mowatt.
“I approached the game much like I would have approached any other game, but afterwards I was pretty pleased with the team’s and my own effort,” Oltman said. “Although I would have liked it better had they not scored at all.”
Sophomore infielder Renae Sinkler got things going for the Jays with a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth before Arizona came back to tie the score in the top of the fifth.
Creighton responded with a two-out rally in the bottom of the sixth. Eadus walked and moved to second on a single from sophomore outfielder/first baseman Michelle Graner and scored when Kratochvil lined an RBI single to center field.
“Beating Arizona was such a huge win for us in so many ways. Of course, Arizona being a top team, it’s great to be able to beat them and on their home field,” junior outfielder Jessica Wakasugi said.
The Jays opened their home schedule with a doubleheader against North Dakota State on Thursday. Results were not available by press time.
“[I’m] definitely looking forward to playing at home,” Wakasugi said. “It’s always fun to be home where a lot of our family and friends are able to support us.”
The team will head back on the road for the weekend, with a three-game conference series against Illinois State, before returning home next Tuesday for another afternoon doubleheader against Iowa State.