The Creighton Bluejays baseball team earned a 3-2 victory against in-state rival Nebraska on Tuesday night, improving its record to 12-7 while having won 12 of their last 15.
In the top of the second inning, Nebraska scored the first run of the game off junior ace Dylan Tebrake.
In the bottom of the second, Creighton tied it up at one when sophomore shortstop Nolan Clifford singled to right center bringing in freshman outfielder Nolan Sailors to score.
The Bluejays kept the momentum going in the bottom of the second inning when sophomore third baseman Kyle Hess lined out to left center, causing junior outfielder Jack Grace to score, giving Creighton a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, Creighton was able to extend their lead when freshman Hogan Helligso doubled and scored two batters later on a fielding error that would have ended the inning, giving Creighton a 3-1 lead.
Nebraska got runners on in each of the following innings and were able to score in the top of the seventh which cut the Creighton lead to 3-2.
The Huskers threatened again in the eighth, advancing the tying run to third base and winning run on first with no outs. Junior closer Tommy Steier would go on to strike out the next two batters before getting Luke Jessen to ground out to first who tripped on his way to the bag.
That stumble saved the Jays lead and gave Steier momentum in the ninth, his third inning of work, as he fully slammed the door on the Huskers, locking up the save and Bluejays win.
It wasn’t the cleanest of wins however as Creighton had a season-high five errors and were out-hit by the Huskers 8-5.
“I’m a little bit lost of words here,” coach Ed Servais said. “I have not quite seen something like that before where we made a lot of mistakes and still found a way to win,” Servais said.
It was Servais’ bullpen that helped find that way after Tebrake was pulled after just five outs in order to save his arm for the weekend.
Between Tebrake and Steier freshman Malakai Vetock tossed a scoreless frame in the third, junior Paul Bergstrom surrendered three baserunners and zero earned runs across 3.1 innings pitched.
“I’ve been in that situation before, kinda that high leverage, playing Nebraska at home, so I drew on some of my experience,” Bergstrom said.
Due to the pandemic’s effects of cancellations and scheduling issues the past two seasons, Tuesday’s game was the first occasion since April 23, 2019, that Creighton and Nebraska were able to face off.
“There’s a little bit of a different feeling, you have the adrenaline going through your body, you can’t simulate that in the bullpen, you can’t simulate it in low leverage situations, so I felt that for kinda the first time this year,” Bergstrom said. “Thankfully I responded well and I think a lot of our guys did. But, absolutely, it’s a fun experience.”
This weekend the Jays will face The Citadel in a three game set at Charles Schwab Field Omaha with the first game getting underway Friday at 6:30 p.m.