Creighton University
Northern Iowa
Season-High Performances Lead Baseball To Fourth-Straight Win
3/30/2007 3:00:00 AM | Baseball
Omaha, Neb. - Junior ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte pitched a season-best 5.1 innings of one-hit baseball, while the Creighton offense brought out the bats as the Bluejay baseball team run-ruled the Northern Iowa Panthers 13-3 in eight innings on Friday afternoon at the CU Sports Complex. Venditte (3-1), whose previous career-high was 4.2 innings, struck out four Panthers (11-12, 1-3) on the day earning his third win of the season, as he got plenty of backing on the field with three different CU (16-8, 3-1) batters collecting multiple hits and four collecting multiple RBI's.
Leading the way at the plate for the Jays was senior outfielder Andrew Small, who went 3-for-5 with a career-high four RBI's and a run scored. Also adding to the CU offense was senior Chris Gradoville, who went 3-for-4 with three RBI's and two runs scored and senior Steve Winkelmann, who went 1-for-2 on the day with two RBI's, including his first-career home run as a Bluejay.
The Jays scored two in first, two in the second, three in the fourth, one in the sixth, one in the seventh and four in the bottom half of the eighth. They held UNI to just a single run in the top of the first and two in the top half of the third to earn their fourth-straight victory and third-straight in MVC play.
Senior left-hander Marc Lewis earned the start for the Bluejays going 2.2 innings allowing three runs on five hits, recording a single strikeout, as he re-started his streak of starts with the Jays earning a win.
CU earned the win by scoring four runs in the bottom of the eighth, as they collected four hits with no outs on the board to put away the Panthers as Winkelmann ended the day with a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Small from third. Winkelmann's game-ending RBI was proceeded by Darin Ruf, Andy Masten and Small all collecting RBI singles in the inning off UNI reliever Chad Epperson.
The Jays collected 13 hits on the day against three different UNI pitchers. After UNI first baseman Brett Featherston started the game's scoring with an RBI sacrifice fly in the top half of the first, the Bluejays went to work on their scoring in the bottom half of the inning. Following a Gradoville single and walk issued to Ruf, Small brought both runners home with a double to left center as the Jays took an early 2-1 lead.
They would add to it in the bottom half of the second as Chad Ogden led-off the inning with single to second and Winkelmann drew a four-pitch walk. Ogden then stole third before Robbie Knight was hit by his 15th pitch of the season to setup Gradoville just a two batters later. Gradoville then took 0-2 pitch and sent it down the right field line for a double that scored two runs to bring it to 4-1.
Controversy erupted on Gradoville's play though that delayed play for 15 minutes, as the umpires met with the coaches and conversed numerous times to decide whether or not his hit was fair or foul. Finally after the 15- minute delay ended, UNI protested the rest of the game as the hit was deemed fair after the first base umpire had originally called it foul on the play. The umpire then changed his signal to fair once the ball made it to the CU bullpen area after the ball hit the bag at first and rolled down the right field line, as UNI kept Knight from scoring with a 9-1-2 play at the plate.
UNI would recover though from the controversy as they scored two runs in the top half of the third to bring the game to 4-3. However, Venditte would replace Lewis with two outs in the third and would proceed to allow UNI just one hit the rest of the game.
After Venditte sat the Panthers down quietly in the fourth, the Bluejays would ride his momentum into the bottom half of the inning, collecting three runs to break the game open once again. Winkelmann led-off for the Jays in the fourth and pounded a 1-1 pitch over the fence in left center for a solo-home run to make it 5-3. CU then took advantage of a few walks and a UNI fielding error, as a fielder's choice by Ruf brought home Ryan Urzendowski from third and Small followed with an RBI single to short to make it 7-3.
Gradoville and Urzendowski would add RBI's hits in the sixth and seventh that scored single runs in each inning, as the Jays cruised to victory.
Taking the loss for UNI was Aaron Jenkins, who finished the game pitching 3.2 innings giving up five earned runs on six hits, but added eight strikeouts to his MVC-leading total of now 58 on the season.
The Jays and Panthers will return to action again on Saturday with game two of their three-game set. First pitch will take place at 2 p.m. at the CU Sports Complex.
Notes: Creighton is now 51-7 under head coach Ed Servais when leading after the first inning, 99-7 when out-hitting its opponent, 43-2 when scoring 10 or more runs, 99-11 when scoring five or more runs and 93-3 when leading after eight ... Pat Venditte struck out two batters with his right arm and one with his left in his performance ... Robbie Knight's 15 HBP now ranks him tied for fourth on the all-time CU single-season list ...Chad Ogden's triple in the seventh inning was the first of his CU career ... CU now has eight triples on the season, which ties its total from all of last season.
