It wasn’t the smoothest start, but Creighton baseball found its rhythm when it mattered most. After dropping Friday night’s opener to Connecticut, the Bluejays roared back to take the final two games of the weekend series, securing their first-ever series win over the Huskies and starting Big East play at 2-1.
“It was a huge win for us, especially when we started out so slowly on Friday, and to see how the guys responded with the second half of the game on Friday, then yesterday’s game,” Head Coach Ed Servais said.
Creighton’s late push in the series opener nearly turned the tide. After falling behind 8-0 on Friday night, the Bluejays strung together six runs in the eighth and another in the ninth to come within one. With the tying run on second and the winning run on first, Creighton’s rally came up just short in an 8-7 loss—but something clicked.
“Those first innings we didn’t play how we normally do all season… things weren’t going our way, but then we finally clicked and we started to get runs in the eighth inning, I think it was, Friday night, and then we continued into that into Saturday, continued that into Sunday, and just kept the foot on the pedal,” senior outfielder Nolan Sailors said.
On Saturday, Creighton took full advantage of that momentum, decisively evening the series with a 14-2 win. The offense erupted early, scoring nine runs in the first three innings. A leadoff walk from junior Tate Gillen and back-to-back doubles from graduate student Dakota Duffalo and Sailors set the tone, as the Bluejays capitalized on mistakes and never looked back.
Sunday’s game saw the offense pick up right where it left off on Saturday. Creighton quickly went to work in the second inning, scoring five runs on three hits. With the bases loaded, graduate student Matt Scherrman knocked in an RBI single, and Gillen added another with a walk to put Creighton up 2-0. Duffalo came through with a two-run single, and Nolan Sailors followed with an RBI single to right to cap off the inning.
The Huskies quickly responded in the top of the third, capitalizing on a Creighton error and a pair of walks. Tyler Minick’s grand slam to left field brought the game to a 5-4 score, shifting momentum momentarily in favor of the Huskies. However, Creighton didn’t flinch.
“This is a mature team. It’s an older team. They don’t panic,” Servais said. “When something bad happens, like the grand slam… all of a sudden they get one hit and they score four runs. We’ve had teams that might have folded a little bit in that situation and might have allowed the opposing team to have the momentum. And these guys, you know, just kept playing… they just know, ‘hey, we have outs left, we have innings left, and we’re going to score some more runs.’”
Sure enough, Creighton answered back with a pair of runs in the fourth. Duffalo and Sailors each singled, with Ben North following up with an RBI double. A pair of walks then extended the lead to 7-4. From there, the Bluejays added four more in the fifth, with Sailors contributing an RBI hit-by-pitch and North adding a two-run double to push the score to 11-5. The Huskies managed two more runs on a two-run blast from Sam Biller, but it wasn’t enough.
Reliever Matt Aukerman (6-0) earned the win, allowing just one run in 1.2 innings, while graduate student Garrett Langrell picked up his seventh save of the season, retiring all seven batters he faced.
“The offense has been pretty big all weekend, and even though they’re scratching a few here and there, [the] offense always did a really good job of responding to it,” Langrell said. “Then it just got to the point late in the game where [we] had the opportunity to come into a big spot and shut it down. It’s really easy going out there with a four-run lead and being able to finish the game, so it’s a good feeling for sure.”
The win was particularly significant for Creighton, marking the program’s first-ever series win over the Huskies.
“If you want to play in late May, you’ve got to take care of business at home. And we knew, ‘hey, we’re going up against one of the top teams in our league at home.’ We had to hold serve. We had to at least get two and we did that,” Servais said. “It was very important that we win this series and the guys knew that. We didn’t talk about it much. They knew that. And they know the issues we’ve had with Connecticut over the years and they were looking forward to it.”
As Creighton heads into the rest of the Big East schedule, the series win over Connecticut sets the stage for a crucial stretch. With only 21 conference games, each one becomes even more significant as the Bluejays aim to reach the conference tournament.
“It’s always good to start out good in the conference [and] 2-1 is a great place to start, especially [against] a good team [like] UConn,” Sailors said.
After a 3-2 loss to North Dakota State at home on Tuesday, Creighton will look to bounce back as they travel to South Orange, New Jersey, for a three-game series against the Seton Hall Pirates. The first game is today at 3 p.m.