Quick Hits For Wednesday's Baseball Game With Bradley
5/25/2010 5:00:00 PM | Baseball
Creighton Baseball Quick Hits
2010 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament
#6 Creighton (26-24) vs. #7 Bradley (20-31)
May 26, 2010 • 9 a.m. • Wichita, Kan • Eck Stadium
KOIL 1180 AM • Free Live Video Link at www.gocreighton.com
The Series
Creighton leads the all-time series over Bradley with a
record of 68-30. Creighton took two of three from the Braves in Peoria earlier this
season. A Creighton win on Wednesday will mark the 69th win over BU
all-time for the Jays; marking the most wins for Creighton over any other MVC
opponent.
Playoff Nemesis
This match-up will be mark the fifth time in the last six
years the two teams will meet in the MVC Tournament, with the Jays going 5-1 in
six games. Bradley ended Creighton's season in 2006, while the Bluejays
returned the favor in 2007. Overall, the Jays are 9-3 vs. the Braves in the
tournament.
Error-Free No Longer ....But Still At The Top Opener Win Streak Snapped Blach's a Lock Other Tidbits
The 2010 Series Game One Rob Elliot made
a throwing error to start the second, and the Jays scored four runs with two
out. RBI-singles from Alex Staehely
and Elliot Soto, set up a Trever Adams two-run double down the
left field line to make it a 5-1 game. With Creighton holding a 7-2 lead
into the ninth, the Braves made a charge against Jack VanLeur. A walk and a single to start the ninth set up a
three-run homer by David Compitello to
make it a 7-5 ball game. After VanLeur got the next two outs,
Matt Fritz singled and Elliot walked
to bring the winning run to the plate in the form of three-hole hitter Brian Martin. VanLeur came out on top,
however, getting Martin to foul out to first to preserve the win. Game Two Three, two-out hits in the eighth
gave the Braves breathing room. Mike
McMillan and Jason Leblebijian
recorded back-to-back, RBI-doubles to make it a 7-4 Brave lead. After a hit
batsman, Rob Elliott singled home
Leblebijian with a single for the final 8-4 margin. Carson Vitale
came within feet in the top of the inning of making it a completely different
game. With two out and Bluejay runners on first and second, his shot down the
right field line sliced just in front of the foul pole, before he struck out on
the next pitch to end the inning. The Braves overcame their second
straight three-error game, and scored all their runs from the sixth inning on. Game Three Elliot Soto,
Scott Thornburg and Alex Staehely all had two hits and two
RBI with Thornburg blasting a home run. Trever Adams also had three RBI for the
Jays. The five runs in the first were all
CU would need, as an error and two walks by Bradley loaded the bases. Adams immediately emptied them with a double to the
right-center gap for a 3-0 CU lead. Thornburg followed with his third home run
of the season on the 10th pitch of his at-bat for the fourth and fifth
Creighton runs. Bradley finished with eight errors
in the three game series.
The error by Jonas Dufek in the
fourth was also the first by a Creighton pitcher this year. It snapped a streak
of 103 chances, marking the first error by a pitcher since Greg Hellhake threw
away a pick-off attempt against Missouri
State on May 10 of last
year.
Even with Creighton's two errors, the
Jays have just 39 this year. Creighton's 39 errors (in 50 games) are tied for
the fewest nationally with Ivy League champ Dartmouth, which has 39 errors in 43 games
headed into NCAA Tournament play.
Creighton's six-game winning streak
in MVC tourney openers had been the longest streak since Wichita State won 10
tournament openers in a row from 1980-89.
Ty Blach's 2.80 ERA ranks 45th-best
nationally, and fourth-best among the nation's freshmen.
Robbie Knight's HBP to lead off the game gave him 80 on his career; one away for a tie
for fourth all-time ... Mark Winkelman
made his 26th appearance of the season; good for fourth most among freshman in
CU history ... The Jays fell to 12-3 in the Valley tournament since 2004 when scoring
first ... The error by Jonas Dufek
in the fourth was the first CU error at Eck Stadium since April 8, 2007; a
streak spanning 414 chances ... The loss was CU's fifth of the season via the
walk-off hit.
Creighton took advantage of a costly
Bradley error early in the game, and held on for dear life at the end to take a
7-5 victory in Peoria.
Three Bradley runs in the eighth
inning blew open a one-run game, as the Braves evened the series with Creighton
by posting an 8-4 win on Saturday.
The Bluejays scored five runs in the
first, and Ty Blach went eight
strong innings for his first collegiate win, in a 12-3 romp over Bradley, to
clinch a series victory.
