The Creighton baseball team was stifled by its first ranked opponent of the season as the No. 25 UNLV Rebels capitalized off of dominant pitching and Bluejay errors to take the 3-1 win Monday.
The game, originally scheduled for 6:30 p.m., was moved up to 4 p.m. due to the threat of poor weather conditions, but winds of more than 30 mph were still prevalent as the Jays and Rebels squared off at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
Freshman Jeff Albrecht got the nod for the Jays after a tough weekend series with Kansas State left the team with a fatigued pitching staff. Albrecht pitched three strong shutout innings without allowing a hit while striking out three batters and walking two.
In the bottom of the third, freshman infielder Nicky Lopez singled to left to start the inning. Two wild pitches moved Lopez to third base and he then scored when sophomore infielder Ryan Fitzgerald grounded out to second base to give the Jays the 1-0 lead.
After struggling early in the season, sophomore Big East Preseason Pitcher of the Year Tommy Strunc took over in the fourth and worked a scoreless inning with no hits to maintain the Bluejay lead.
In the fifth, the Jays were forced to use three different pitchers, but were able to exit the inning unscathed on the scoreboard. Junior Mark Lukowski allowed a walk and induced a groundout before handing the ball to sophomore Will Bamesberger, who struck out the first batter he faced. A passed ball and a walk gave the Rebels runners on the corners with two outs, and junior Max Ising was brought in to end the threat, inducing the fly out to right field.
Ising continued into the sixth inning, but two unearned runs came in as a result of two errors to give the Rebels their first lead of the game. The Rebels had two hits in the inning to go along with two Bluejay errors.
“We broke down today and I think it had a lot to do with our preparation,” Creighton head coach Ed Servais said. “Poor preparation leads to poor execution in a game.”
Ising suffered the loss Monday night.
With two outs and runners on second and third, sophomore John Oltman was brought in and ended the threat with a strikeout.
Senior Bryan Sova took over in the seventh and eighth for the Jays and allowed one run off of three hits while striking out one as the Rebels’ lead extended to 3-1. Junior Jake Peter maintained the margin with two strikeouts in the ninth inning, but the Jays could not capitalize after senior outfielder Brad McKewon led off the bottom of the ninth with a single.
The Jays were limited offensively, only producing three hits and one walk in the game. Aside from Lopez and McKewon, sophomore outfielder Brett Murray was the only other Bluejay with a hit, finishing 1-3 with a walk.
Sophomore pitcher Kenny Oakley was the dominant force for the Rebels, allowing three hits and one run while striking out nine in eight innings pitched.
“What we wanted to do was get off to a good start, and Jeff Albrecht gave us a good start, and gave us a chance to get into that game … We had an opportunity and we let it slip away,” Servais said.
The Bluejays were scheduled to take a trip across town on Wednesday to face the Omaha Mavericks on Wednesday at Werner Park, but the game was postponed due to poor playing conditions. Creighton will return home for a three-game series with North Dakota starting on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.