Creighton University
Missouri State
Lewis Pitches Gem In Final Home Start As Baseball Earns 1-0 Win
5/17/2007 3:00:00 AM | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb - Senior left-hander Marc Lewis
allowed just two hits in seven innings during his final start at the CU
Sports Complex to lead the Creighton baseball team to its
ninth-straight victory and 20th in its last 21 games with a 1-0 win
over Missouri State Thursday afternoon. The Plainfield, Ill. native
tied a season-high going seven innings, tying a season-best six
strikeouts to improve his season record to 8-1 and 4-0 at the Complex,
as he was able to best MSU left-hander Ross Detwiler in a pitcher's
duel that remained scoreless until the seventh inning.
Senior Andy Masten then continued to improve upon his CU record for saves in a season with his 14th of the year, pitching a hitless ninth inning with two strikeouts. Pat Venditte also made an appearance in the game pitching a scoreless eighth inning in relief of Lewis to improve his scoreless inning streak to 28.2 innings.
It would be an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning that changed the complexion of the game, as the Bears' Detwiler had allowed just two hits through the first six innings. The 6-foot-4 southpaw finished his day allowing just three hits with nine strikeouts, as the unearned run saddled him with his fifth loss of the season, moving him to 4-5.
The unearned run came via a throwing error by MSU second baseman Matt Lawson, as the Jays finally found a way to manufacture a run on the day. Andrew Small led-off the CU seventh with a high-bouncing base hit to third before Steve Winkelmann moved him over to second on a school-record setting sacrifice bunt. After Detwiler got Masten to go down swinging then, Chad Ogden was able to hit a hard ground ball towards second, which was fielded by Lawson, who proceeded to throw wildly to first baseman Josh Mazzola as Small came around to score from second.
That would be all the Jays needed on the day as Lewis was brillant in his final home appearance. He wouldn't allow a single MSU runner to advance past second base, as he scattered both hits in the second and fourth innings.
MSU threatened once on the day in the top half of the eigth, but clutch pitching by Venditte was able to get the Jays out of the jam. Brayden Drake led-off the inning with a single through the left side, as Chris Taylor followed with bunt single to get runners on first and second with no outs. Ben Woodbury then advanced Curt Courtwright, who pinch ran for Drake to third on a fielder's choice before stealing second to put runners on second and third with a single out.
That brought up Tanner Mattson, who was threatening to bring Venditte's scoreless inning streak to a close and tie the game up after the Bluejays finally got the lead in the seventh. However, Venditte was able to get Mattson swinging before inducing an inning-ending groundout to second.
Masten then came in the ninth and retired the side, getting the final two batters to go down on strikes, as the Bluejays improved to 39-12 on the season and 18-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference. The loss dropped the Bears to 21-31 and 6-16 in MVC play.
CU will look to keep pace with Valley co-leader Wichita State atop the league standings when the two teams meet again for game two tomorrow at 3 p.m. Sophomore Zak Moore (4-1, 4.10 ERA) will be getting the start for the Jays against MSU right-hander Scott Carroll (4-3, 2.80 ERA).
Notes: Creighton had never won 20 of 21 games in its recorded history, going back to 1966 ... Steve Winkelmann's seventh inning sacrifice gave the Jays 82 for the season, which sets a new Creighton and Missouri Valley Conference record ... Creighton is now 10-4 in one-run games this season and have won 44-straight games when leading after eight innings ...The Bluejays have now won 31 of Marc Lewis' last 33 starts, as his shutout as the second in a row against the Bears after throwing a complete-game seven-hit shutout in a seven inning run-ruled game in Springfield last season ... Andy Masten has now converted 10 save opportunities in a row ... Chris Gradoville had his career-high 15 game hitting streak snapped on the day, but was announced as a semi-finalist for the 2007 Johnny Bench Award... Creighton was hit by a pitch once in the game to move their season team total to 99, which is just two away from their all-time single-season record of 101 set in 2005 ... The Jays are now 22-1 when Michael Lam starts at second and 20-1 when Chad Ogden starts at short.
