Though cold weather once again forced a game cancellation, the Creighton baseball team made the most of a two-game series with the Fresno State Bulldogs by winning both games.
On Sunday, the Jays fought through the cold weather at TD Ameritrade Park and capitalized off of Bulldog mistakes to take a 6-2 win in the series finale.
In the second inning, the Jays jumped out to a 3-0 lead off of two hits and three errors. Sophomore infielder Reagan Fowler started the inning with a single but advanced to second on a fielding error by the Bulldog third baseman. Sophomore designated hitter Joey Mancuso then singled, moving Fowler to third, before senior catcher Jerry Mitchell’s sacrifice bunt forced an errant throw by the pitcher, scoring Fowler and moving Mancuso to third.
A groundout to first by sophomore infielder Ryan Fitzgerald scored Mancuso, and Mitchell scored because of a throwing error by the first baseman.
“[Fresno State] struggled that one inning,” head coach Ed Servais said. “They’re a pretty good club, but sometimes when you make a defensive mistake it kind of snowballs a little bit, and that’s what happened. We needed to take advantage of that because we didn’t hit particularly well with runners in scoring position again.”
The Bulldogs chipped away at the Bluejay lead, scoring a run in the fifth to cut the lead to 3-1. In the bottom half of the inning, junior infielder Jake Peter reached base getting hit by a pitch, and a double from senior outfielder Mike Gerber plated the junior.
The Bulldogs tacked on another run in the top of the sixth, but the Jays’ lead would hold. Two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth sealed the game for the team. Junior catcher Kevin Lamb drove in Fowler on a single and senior outfielder Ben Lahn scored off of a wild pitch to bring the score to 6-2.
Both teams had eight hits and five walks in the game, while the Bluejays stranded eight runners and the Bulldogs stranded 12. Fowler finished the game 3-3 with two runs and a walk, while Peter, Lahn and Mancuso each had one hit and one run. The frigid temperatures appeared to cause some struggles for both offensive squads.
“It’s tough,” Fowler said. “You had to stay on top of it because there wasn’t much carry. It’s hard to drive the ball.”
Sophomore Austin Groth started on the mound for the Jays, going 4 1/3 innings and allowing one run off of three hits and three walks while striking out two. Fellow sophomore Will Bamesberger earned the win, pitching 2/3 innings and striking out one. Sophomore John Oltman, junior Mark Lukowski and senior Bryan Sova locked down the final 2 2/3 innings of the game, allowing only one hit and keeping the Bulldogs off of the scoreboard.
“We got into a nice situation second half of that game, able to match the pitchers that we wanted to match up against their hitters,” Servais said. “Once again [our bullpen] did well. I think this game resembles a lot of what we’ve got to do this year.”
Saturday’s game was cancelled early in the morning as temperatures looked to be in the 30s during the scheduled game time. The game will not be made up.
The Jays used dominant pitching on Friday evening to take the series opener by a score of 2-1. Sophomore pitcher Matt Warren earned his fourth win of the season while helping the Bluejays improve their record to 10-6-1.
After the Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning, the Jays retaliated with a run of their own in the bottom half. Gerber led off the inning with a triple before sophomore outfielder Brett Murray lined out to left to bring him home. The Jays could not take the lead, however, stranding two runners at the end of the inning.
Freshman infielder Nicky Lopez singled and stole second in the bottom of the fifth inning. After Gerber was intentionally walked, Fowler singled up the middle to score Lopez and give the Jays the lead that would last for the rest of the game.
Both Lopez and Lamb recorded two hits in the game, while Lopez added a run. The Jays had eight hits and two walks compared to the five hits and two walks produced by the Bulldogs. It was the pitching, however, that proved to be the difference for the Jays.
Warren went 5 2/3 innings allowing one run off of four hits and a walk while striking out one before leaving the game in position to earn the win. Bamesberger got the final out of the sixth inning before junior Max Ising came in to throw a dominant 1 2/3 innings, striking out four while only allowing one hit and one walk. Oltman faced two batters and retired them both before handing the ball over to Sova, who earned his fourth save of the season.
“They’re doing a great job out of the ‘pen,” Warren said. “I have all the faith in the world in those guys. I have no problem turning it over to them at all.”
The Jays played the Kansas Jayhawks at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha on Wednesday, and this weekend the Kansas State Wildcats will come to town. The Wildcats are 14-9 on the season, but have struggled on the road.