Creighton University
Northern Colorado
Bullpen Propels Baseball To Comeback Win Over Northern Colorado
4/27/2007 3:00:00 AM | Baseball
Venditte would finish his day allowing just three hits and one walk, as he sat down seven UNC batters. Masten went 2-for-2 at the plate on the day, finishing with a career-high four RBI's after pinch-hitting for T.J. Roemmich in the designated hitter slot. His grand slam was the first of his CU career and tied him with first baseman Darin Ruf for the team-lead with five long balls on the year.
Masten's eighth-inning heroics didn't come easy though, as the Jays were behind 4-2 for the majority of the day. After the team's traded single runs in the first inning and the Bluejays took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second, the Bears answered with a three-run third inning to take the lead behind stellar pitching from starter T. R. Keating.
Keating allowed just two runs on seven hits through the first seven innings, before the Jays finally got to him in the bottom of the eighth. With UNC clinging to its 4-2 lead opening up the bottom half of the inning, Ross Sinclair got the Bluejays' rally started, as he reached base on an error by the third baseman to leadoff the inning. Chris Gradoville followed with a single through the left side before Ruf reached first on a bunt single to load up the bases.
With the bases juiced full of Bluejays, Steve Winkelmann came to the plate and recorded an RBI fielder's choice, as the Bears were unable to tag Sinclair coming in from third who scored to cut the UNC lead to 4-3. After UNC got the first out of the inning then on a strikeout, Masten stepped to the plate with the bases still loaded and just a single out in the inning. He fell behind in the count 1-2 and then turned on the 105th pitch thrown by Keating and sent it over the wall in left to give CU a 7-4 lead.
Chad Ogden and Michael Lam then reached on a double to left center and single to short, as Ogden scored the final CU run on an RBI sacrifice bunt laid down by Robbie Knight. Ogden finished his afternoon going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.while Lam was 2-for-4 and Knight finished 1-for-4 with an RBI and run scored.
Keating (1-4) earned the loss for UNC going 7.1 innings allowing six earned runs on 12 hits with six strikeouts. His counterpart to start the game, Lewis, finished his day going three innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits with three strikeouts, as he was forced to throw 73 pitches in the first three innings.
UNC started the scoring in the top of the first, as with runners on second and third and one out, Kevin Sandberg flew out to center field for a sacrifice fly that scored Cory Morales from third. CU countered in the bottom half of the frame with a sac fly of its own, as Gradoville's fly out to left center allowed Knight to come home from third to tie the game at 1-1.
The Jays would grab their first lead of the game then in the bottom of the second on an RBI-double from Ogden, but Lewis' struggles continued in the top of the third. John Ray and Grady Gorman would collect back-to-back RBI hits to give UNC a 4-2. Lewis was able however, to keep the damage to a minimum as he got some key outs and good defensive play behind him to prevent the Bears from breaking the game open.
Venditte (6-2) then shut the door on the Bears for the day, as UNC could only muster three hits against the totally right-handed throwing ambidextrous pitcher. He would record his career-high 24th-out on the final out of the game as he picked up his sixth-win of the season, which ties him for the team-lead with Lewis and Ben Mancuso.
With the win, CU improved upon its season-long winning streak and moved 28-11 overall, while UNC fell to 10-24.
The two teams will take the field again Saturday for game two of the three-game set at the CU Sports Complex. Sophomore right-hander Zak Moore (2-1) will be getting the start for the Bluejays against the Bear's Dan Kazell (1-1) with a first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.
Notes: Creighton has now won 33-straight games when leading after eight innings and is 103-3 under head coach Ed Servais.. Andy Masten's eighth-inning grand slam was the third by a Bluejay this season ... The Bluejays are now 23-2 in Marc Lewis' last 25 starts ... The Jays turned one double play on the afternoon to give them 51 on the season ... Pat Venditte moved his season ERA to 2.62 with his career-long performance and increased his strikeout total to 62 on the season ... Darin Ruf stretched his hitting-streak to nine-straight games with his eighth-inning hit and is now just one game behind his career-best 10-game hitting streak, which he set earlier in the season ... CU is now 80-5 under Servais when scoring eight or more runs and 104-11 when scoring five or more ... For the Jays it was their third late-inning come-from-behind win of the season and last since a three-run top of the ninth scored them a win at Wichita State on Apr. 6.
