Creighton University
Indiana State
Winkelmann's Eighth-Inning Solo Home Run Lifts Baseball Past Sycamores
4/21/2007 3:00:00 AM | Baseball
Tatusko, who came into the eighth inning having thrown 118 pitches had his 119th end up on the other side of the left field fence, as Winkelmann pounded his second home run of the season on the first pitch of his lead-off at bat to give the Bluejays the 3-2 lead.
Winkelmann ended his day 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, as Tatusko (3-6) was saddled with the loss going seven innings allowing three earned runs on nine hits with three strikeouts.
Venditte (5-2) who replaced Moore in the seventh picked up his fifth win of the season pitching two innings of scoreless baseball allowing just two hits, recording one strikeout. The Jays Andy Masten then shut the door in the ninth for the 11th-time this season, allowing just one hit as he moved into a four-way tie for third on the CU single-season list for saves in a season.
The Jays got their other two runs on the day in the top of the second, as ISU had single runs in the bottom of the first and third. Moore who got the start the Bluejays, ended his day going six innings allowing just one earned run on eight hits with four strikeouts. He and Tatusko started the day giving up two runs each through three innings, but came up big in key situations to keep the game at 2-2 going into the final two innings.
ISU took the early lead in the bottom half of the first, as the Sycamores took advantage of an uncharacteristic Bluejays error to get on the board. Josh Abercrombie, who led all ISU hitter's with three hits, reached base on a single to short to start the threat. Following a strikeout of Chris Schmidt, Nick Ciolli then had a base hit drop into left. That put two Sycamores on base as Moore made a throw over to first to get the runner to go back, but overthrew Darin Ruf to allow Abercrombie to come home and Ciolli to advance to third to give ISU the early 1-0 edge.
CU would answer back though in the top half of the second. Winkelmann and T. J. Roemmich reached base with a single and a walk, before Chad Ogden, advanced the runners on a sacrifice bunt. That brought up Michael Lam whose single to short scored Winkelmann to tie the game up. Robbie Knight then gave CU the lead on a sacrifice fly out to the first baseman in foul territory that scored Roemmich from third to give the Jays a 2-1 lead, but caught Lam out at second for a double play.
The Sycamores had something going in the bottom of the inning as Moore got in a jam with the bases loaded and no one out. Moore held strong though, getting Sean Osborne and Ryan Strausborger to strike out, before Abercrombie fouled out to left to end the inning. ISU would get the bags loaded again in the fourth with two outs, but once again the Jays defense held strong getting a first-pitch groundout to get out of the inning.
Moore, Masten and Venditte would combine to allow just three Sycamore hits the rest of the way, as CU moved to 26-11 overall and 11-3 in MVC play. ISU fell to 18-18 overall and 2-9 in the MVC.
Besides Winkelmann, picking up multiple hits on the day for the Jays were Ross Sinclair, who went 2-for-4, and Lam, who finished 2-for-3 with an RBI.
The Jays and Sycamores will wrap-up their three-game set in Terre Haute tomorrow with a 12 p.m. start time. Junior left-hander Ben Mancuso will get the start for the Bluejays, as he will face ISU's Ryan Hayes.
Notes: Gametime temperature was 72 degrees... Andy Masten's 11th-save of the season moved him into a four-way tie for third on the single-season Bluejay list and just one behind Chris Ringleb and Rick Heiserman, who each had 12 saves in a season... Robbie Knight was hit by two pitches in the game to improve his single-season CU record to 24 HBPs on the season... Creighton is 9-0 when Michael Lam starts at second base and 6-0 when Chad Ogden starts at shortstop... CU is now 21-0 on the season when leading after eight and 102-3 under head coach Ed Servais ... The six innings pitched by Zak Moore equaled his second-longest outing of the season.
