Creighton University
North Dakota State
Wild Third Inning Allows Baseball To Pull Away For 7-4 Win Over NDSU
3/16/2007 3:00:00 AM | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. - A wild third inning that saw a double steal score a runner and saw the Creighton baseball team collect four runs on six hits propelled the Bluejays to a 7-4 win over North Dakota State Friday at the CU Sports Complex. Senior left-hander Marc Lewis (4-0) and junior ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte combined for nine strikeouts on the day as Lewis improved his unbeaten streak to 19 games, while Venditte earned his second save of the season.
Lewis finished his day going five innings giving up just two runs and scattered five hits, as he recorded four strikeouts. Venditte, who pitched the final four innings allowed just two runs as well, as he allowed just three hits and improved on his team-best strikeout mark recording five in relief.
Senior catcher Chris Gradoville recorded his fifth multi-RBI game of the season as he finished 1-for-3 on the days with two RBI. Outfielders Robbie Knight and Andrew Small were the only Jays to get multiple hits as they both finished 2-for-3 in the game.
The Bluejays started off the game with two runs in the first, adding four in the third and single run in sixth, as they held the Bison to two runs in both the fifth and seventh innings.
CU started the scoring in the bottom half of the first. After Knight was hit by his 12th pitch of the season to lead off of the inning, Michael Lam laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Knight to second. Knight then advanced to third on a wild pitch just before Gradoville platted him a sacrifice fly on a line out to center. Small then picked up his lone RBI on the day with a double to right center following a walk issued to Darin Ruf as the Bluejays took a 2-0 lead.
With Lewis giving up just one hit in his first three innings of work, the Jays road his momentum to add to their lead in the bottom of the third inning.
With CU up 2-0 in the bottom of the third and with Small and Steve Winkelmann on base on singles, the Jays used some base-running strategy to get a run home. After Brett Mieras took ball two in his at-bat, Winkelmann who was on first took off in an attempt to steal second, but got caught in a rundown. Winkelmann however, was able to use some crafty running to get to second, as the play then turned to third base where Small was caught in a rundown between third and home. Winkelmann than made the play get even more interesting when he tried to steal third during the rundown with Small, which caught the NDSU infielders off guard as they threw back to the shortstop as Small made a move for home. With Small running for home the NDSU shortstop threw home, but his throw went high enough to allow Small to come home safely and allow Winkelmann to advance to third on the throw giving CU a 3-0 lead.
Just as everyone recovered from what had just happened, Mieras proceeded to pound a single up the middle to bring home Winkelmann from third to make it 4-0. Following a single then by Brandon Knox, Ryan Urzendowski and Lam hit back-to-back RBI doubles to give the Bluejays a commanding 6-0 lead.
The Bison would finally counter in the top half of the fifth with Gavin Hofer and Matt Watson collecting RBI base hits to bring the score to 6-2.
Gradoville would add some insurance in the sixth, as he tripled to right field bringing home another CU run, as the Jays went up 7-3 on Gradoville's first-career three-bagger.
NDSU would collect two in the top of the seventh, but Venditte wouldn't give them anymore as he shutdown the Bison in the eighth and ninth allowing just one hit.
With the win, CU improves to 9-7 on the season and 4-1 at home. The Bison fell to 2-6.
The two teams will resume their four-game weekend set tomorrow with a single game starting at 2 p.m. The orginally scheduled doubleheader, is now scheduled for Sunday due to weather conditions. Sunday's doubleheader will start at noon with the second game taking place shortly after completion of the first.
NOTES: The Bluejays turned one double play in the game, giving them 20 for the season ...Marc Lewis' win upped his winning percentage to .789,as he remains second to Steve Neneman on the all-time CU winning percentage list ... Both Steve Winkelmann (4) and Andrew Small (5) set new career-highs for hitting streaks ... Pat Venditte recorded all four of his strikeouts with his right arm.
