As the season stretches into its final month, the path toward the Big East Tournament is coming into sharper focus for the Creighton Bluejays baseball team. After dropping a series at Seton Hall the previous weekend, the Jays needed a strong response to stay in the postseason hunt—and they delivered. Creighton stunned Big East leader St. John’s with a three-game sweep at home, winning the opener 12-8 before taking back-to-back 4-3 victories. With the sweep, the Bluejays improved to 6-3 in conference play, climbing into a tie for first place in the Big East standings.
“We need to continue to improve. I still don’t think we have played our best game yet,” Head Coach Ed Servais said. “I’m looking forward to seeing if we can peak at the right time to get into the conference tournament and try to win it. I’m encouraged because I still think that there is a lot of growth with this team. I think we’re going to get better and get healthier at the right time…I still think we’re going to play our best baseball here in the [last] four weeks.”
“We knew [St. John’s] was off to a really good start in conference,” graduate Matt Scherrman said. “We talked a little bit about what happened last weekend, and we knew we were talented, so all we had to do was play our game.”
The first game of the pivotal series got off to a rocky start for the Bluejays. In the first inning, a lead-off walk and a double led to a pair of runs for the Red Storm. St. John’s held onto the 2-0 lead through the first four innings as neither team was able to score any runs. This changed in the fifth inning when the Red Storm added to their lead. A pair of RBI singles extended the St. John’s lead to 4-0 with the Bluejays still waiting to get on the scoreboard.
In the fifth inning, the Bluejays were able to get on the scoreboard. A throwing error from St. John’s led to the first run of the inning, and junior Tate Gillen hit a single to add on the second run of the inning. Following a scoreless top of the sixth inning from St. John’s, the Bluejays trailed 4-2 entering the bottom of the sixth inning.
The sixth inning saw a scoring explosion from the Bluejays. Senior Will MacLean got the scoring started with a run coming in on his RBI single. Sophomore Connor Capece brought in two more runs on his two-RBI double. This was followed up by a pair of RBI triples from infielders Matt Scherrman and Kyle Hess. This brought the score to 7-4 following the sixth inning. The rest of the game was then postponed until the next day due to the weather.
Following the postponement, the bats continued to stay hot for both teams. Scherrman batted in another two runs on a single in the bottom of the seventh inning to bring the lead to 9-4. The Red Storm responded in the top of the eighth with a two run homerun. The Bluejays added three more insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, coming off of an RBI single and a pair of sacrifice flies. This brought the score to 12-6 going into the ninth inning. The Red Storm scored two more runs off a single and triple, but the Bluejays were able to hold on to take the first game 12-8.
“In the early part of the game, the wind was blowing in, so we had a lot of fly balls,” Servais said. “Then, we made a slight adjustment, staying flatter to the ball so we got more ground balls and line drives. They had a couple of rough plays in the outfield, which opened the door for us, but the offense is capable of putting up big innings. They’ve done it a lot this year, but we needed it since we were down 4-0.”
The second game of the series saw much less scoring, but the Bluejays once again fell behind early. After a scoreless first two innings, the Red Storm scored two runs in the top of the third inning off a fielder’s choice and an RBI single. The Bluejays responded with an RBI single from Gillen in the bottom of the third inning. This meant the Bluejays were trailing 2-1 following the third inning. Pitching dominated the next three innings with neither team able to score another run. The Red Storm finally added on a run at the top of the seventh inning via an RBI single. Trailing 3-1, the Bluejays seized the momentum in the bottom of the seventh inning. To continue his monster series, Matt Schermann hit a three-run home run to give the Bluejays their first lead. This gave Schermann six RBIs in the first two games of the series alone. Bluejays pitcher Shea Wendt dominated the rest of the game, getting four more strikeouts from the Red Storm. This gave the Bluejays a 4-3 win to take the series win.
“[Scherrman] had a couple of great at-bats today, including a three-run home run that gave us the lead and ultimately the win,” Servais said. “He had a good year for us last year, but got off to a little bit of a slow start this year…We’re starting to see signs that he is coming around offensively, and of course, he showed us a big sign with the home run today…We could use a little bit of offense from the bottom half of the lineup, and he provided that for us today.”
“The two guys ahead of me did a great job of getting on base ahead of me,” Scherrman said. “[The pitcher] threw a first pitch slider, and I saw it well and put a good swing on it. Luckily, those guys were on base ahead of me. Shea did a great job of shutting them down after. Those last six outs were tough to get, and he looked phenomenal, so shout out to him as well.”
The Bluejays continued the trend of falling behind early in the third game. The Red Storm got the scoring started in the third inning with an RBI single to take a 1-0 lead. St. John’s added another run in the top of the fifth inning via an RBI single. However, Capece roped a triple in the bottom of the fifth inning to get the scoring started for the Bluejays. MacLean and Scherrman also added a pair of RBIs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 3-2 lead. A sacrifice fly from Capece in the sixth inning gave the Bluejays an insurance run for a 4-2 lead. A St. John’s RBI in the bottom of the seventh tightened up the score once again. However, the Bluejays’ bullpen finished strong once again, led by graduate Matthew Aukerman, for the Bluejays to capture another 4-3 victory and the series sweep.
“Matt Aukerman and Shea [Wendt] both did a tremendous job in games two and three,” Servais said. “We’re going to be in a lot of close games as we play the rest of the season, so that bullpen is going to come into play quite a bit.”
Outside of the Big East standings implications, this was a historic moment for the Bluejays. The second game of the series became the 700th career win for Head Coach Ed Servais.
“It’s pretty [amazing],” Scherrman said. “I know he’s been doing this for a long time, but I don’t think any of us knew that it was 700, so it was pretty cool. To do it against a team that was doing well in the conference, it means a little bit more.”
“You just reflect on all the players you had an opportunity to work with,” Servais said. “It’s been an honor to work with so many quality guys over the years. I’m not going to say it’s not special because it is, but I should thank all the players [who] got those 700 wins.”
The Bluejays have had a busy week, hosting North Dakota State Tuesday night before traveling to Brookings to face South Dakota State Wednesday night.. They will return to Charles Schwab Field today when they host rival Villanova for a three-game series. First pitch is set for 6 PM.