Creighton University
Indiana State
Baseball Falls in Home Opener To Indiana State, 8-5
4/2/2010 10:40:00 PM | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. - Jacob Petricka made his 34th round selection in last year's Major League Baseball Draft look pretty accurate.
The junior twirled seven masterful innings, as Indiana State (16-7, 2-2 MVC) used a six-run, eighth inning to defeat Creighton (12-7, 2-2 MVC) 8-5, Friday evening at Rosenblatt Stadium.
Petricka (4-4) picked up his fourth win by allowing just four baserunners in his seven innings. He finished with five strikeouts, while allowing just three Creighton hits, in spoiling the Bluejay home opener.
Grant Grgurich led the Sycamore offense, going 2-for-4 with two triples and four RBI; three of which came on his second triple.
Ian Dike made the most noise of any CU hitter, as he blasted a three-run homer in the eighth. Jimmy Swift and T.J. Roemmich also added RBIs for the Jays.
Indiana State blew open a close game in the eighth, sending 10 men to the plate. A Ben Ferrell single started the rally, and Ryan Strausborger brought him home with a triple to bump the INS lead to 3-1.
That's when things started to collapse for the Jays, as Jack VanLeur was summoned from the pen. Kyle Burnam squeezed in Strausborger with a bunt for the second Sycamore run of the frame, and Tyler Graham followed by getting hit by a VanLeur breaking ball.
Another call to the pen for Creighton didn't improve things, as Matt Patterson walked Luke Fieser. After a Robby Ort RBI single off the right field wall, Grgurich sent the Sycamore bench into a frenzy with a scorching, three-run triple to right for an 8-1 lead.
Jonas Dufek matched Petricka until the seventh, but ran out of steam. He finished with seven strikeouts in 7.1 innings, while giving up four earned runs.
The Sycamores put the first tally on the scoreboard with a first inning run. Strausborger doubled on the first pitch from Dufek, and moved up on a Burnam fly out to deep center. Graham then laced another liner to right, bringing Strausborger in for the first run.
It was all zeroes after that until the seventh, when State made it a 2-0 cushion. A two-out rally was started by Ort, as he doubled to left. Grgurich then lined a ball to center that Robbie Knight took two steps in on, before retreating back. His diving attempt came just short, as Ort scored the tying run.
Creighton cut the deficit to 2-1 the very next inning. After a Trever Adams single, a wild pitch and errant throw from behind the dish gave Creighton a runner on third. Roemmich then brought him home with a line drive to left center.
The Jays ran themselves out of a scoring opportunity later in the inning, as Roemmich was gunned down from shallow center after trying to advance on an errant pickoff attempt from the catcher Graham.
After the big Sycamore rally, the Jays tried to make a game of it by pushing across three runs in their half of the eighth, courtesy of Dike. The first baseman blasted his third home run of the year, a three-run blast off Scott Harlan that brought the Jays within one swing of the bat at 8-4.
Creighton and Indiana State will be back at it again tomorrow, as they will play their second straight game in Rosenblatt Stadium. First pitch will be at 6:00 p.m.
NOTES: The
Indiana State win was the first opening-game win in a series against Creighton
since 2003 ... The Sycamore win snapped a 12-game losing streak in Omaha ... The
game at Rosenblatt was the first-ever Creighton home opener in the stadium ...
The last time Creighton gave up two triples in a game was against Evansville on
April 21, 2006. The last time the Jays allowed three in a game was against Rick
Heller's Northern Iowa club on April 20, 2003 and the last time an opponent had
two triples in one inning was March 31, 2001 against Illinois State ... Roemmich
has now posted two hits in six of his last seven games.
