Creighton University
Southern Illinois
Hellhake Tosses Two-Hit Shutout in 5-0 Baseball Victory
5/26/2011 3:46:00 PM | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. - Greg Hellhake pitched a dominating two-hit shutout against Southern Illinois, retiring the final 16 batters he faced to help the Creighton baseball team stay alive in the State Farm MVC Tournament Thursday afternoon. The fifth-year senior left-handed hurler allowed just two base hits in hurling the first shutout in TD Ameritrade Park Omaha history, as the Bluejays defeated the Salukis 5-0 in an elimination contest.
Hellhake, making his 46th career start, hurled his first career complete game when his team needed it most. The left-hander had not thrown more than 6.2 innings in a game this year and had never thrown more than seven innings in a game, before throwing his 94-pitch gem to improve to 4-4 on the season. The complete game helped preserve the Bluejay bullpen, as Creighton will now return to the diamond in a rematch against Missouri State tonight at 7:30 pm. MSU topped Creighton 10-3 in the fifth game played on Wednesday at the tournament.
Creighton put runners on base in three of the first four innings, but did so with two outs each time, and failed to capitalize on its early chances. The Bluejays stranded two in the first inning following a hit batter and walk, left two on in the third after two-out singles from Nick Judkins and Jimmy Swift, and left one more on base in the fourth before pushing a run across in the fifth.
Chance Ross led off the top of the fifth inning with a single and moved to second when Alex Staehely followed with a walk. Judkins then dropped down his MVC-leading 21st sacrifice bunt of the season to put both runners in scoring position. After Swift flied out to center field for the second out, SIU opted to pitch around Trever Adams to load the bases. But on the second pitch of the intentional walk to Adams, SIU starter Andrew Bever threw wildly and the ball caromed off of SIU catcher Brian Bajer's glove, allowing Ross to score on the wild pitch.
Ross then drove in Creighton's second run of the game with an RBI single in the top of the sixth inning. The two-out hit from Ross scored Clay Cuno after Cuno had reached and advanced to second base when SIU shortstop Jake Welch committed a fielding error and throwing error on the same play.
Cuno, making his first start of the season in just his 10th game played, singled with one in the eighth inning to get a two-run rally started. Cuno was lifted for pinch-runner Michael Blatchford after his 2-for-4 day with a double, an RBI and a run scored. Blatchford moved to third on a single by Mike Gerber and both runners scored when Staehely ripped his team-leading 21st double into the left field corner and the Bluejays owned a 4-0 lead.
Creighton tacked on another run in the ninth inning, as Swift led off the frame with his second triple of the season, over a diving Nick Johnson in right field. Adams was then hit by a pitch and the duo of Swift and Adams executed a double steal, with Swift sliding around the tag of Bajer to score the Jays' fifth run.
After Brock Harding's two-out single in the fourth inning, SIU would not again reach base against Hellhake. The southpaw retired the side in order in the fifth through ninth innings, fittingly getting the final out of the game on a come-backer off the bat of Wes Neece.
Bever (5-6) took the loss for SIU, throwing six innings and allowing the first two SIU runs. He walked four and struck out three in SIU's final game of the season. The Salukis end the season with a 23-34 record.
The Bluejays collected nine hits in the game, with Swift, Cuno and Ross each going 2-for-4 with a run scored in the game. Ross also added an RBI from the ninth slot in the order.
Creighton (41-14) will return to action at the tournament tonight when it faces Missouri State (33-21) in the 7:30 pm game. A win would keep the Bluejays alive in the tournament, while a loss would advance the Bears to Saturday night's championship game. Should the Jays top MSU tonight, they will be back on the field against the Bears on Friday at 4 pm. The 4 pm Thursday game at the tournament pits Wichita State and Indiana State.
NOTES: Trever Adams has now reached base in 39 straight games, the longest streak by a Bluejay since at least 2000 ... Clay Cuno made his first start of the season, playing left field. It was the 20th start of his career at Creighton, and first since starting the final game last season vs. Indiana State in the MVC Tournament. Cuno, who entered the game with three hits on the season, had two hits and reached on an error ... Cuno, who doubled in a pinch-hitting role last night against Missouri State, roped his second double of the year into the left field corner in the fourth inning today ... Jimmy Swift moved into a tie with Michael Mutcheson for the team hit-by-pitch lead, when he was plunked for the 11th time this year in the first inning ... This is the fourth straight year that Greg Hellhake has started an elimination game at the MVC Tournament. Creighton lost the first three contests, but Hellhake only earned the loss in the 2008 game ... Hellhake made his 52nd appearance, and 46th start today. His 46 starts on the mound are tied for the most by any Bluejay under Ed Servais. Marc Lewis (2004-07) also made 46 starts ... Hellhake's 9.0 innings of work were a season and career-best. His previous long this year was 6.2 innings vs. Southern Illinois on April 24th and previous career-best was 7.0 innings ... Creighton has still not allowed a run in the first inning of its first 15 games at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha ... Creighton played as the "visiting" team on the scoreboard for the second time at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha (also May 10 vs. Nebraska). However, this was the first the Jays occupied the first-base dugout ... Creighton entered Thursday having attracted 109,521 fans in its first 14 home dates at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, an average of 7,822 fans per game. By comparison, from 2007-10 while playing at Rosenblatt Stadium and the CU Sports Complex, Creighton attracted a total of 120,520 fans in 91 home games, an average of 1,324 ... Nick Judkins laid down his league-leading 21st sacrifice bunt of the season in the fifth inning. That's one shy of the 2011 national lead and one away from Vince Pietro's school- and MVC-record total of 22 in 2000 ... Adams' intentional walk in the fifth inning was his fifth intentional walk of the year, and second in as many days. Today it scored Chance Ross for third base on a wild pitch, while yesterday a rare "catchers balk" by Bradley during an intentional walk of Adams plated Michael Mutcheson in the first inning ... Trever Adams stole two bases in the game, to move his team-lead to 13 on the year. The pair of steals were his first two since he swiped two bases at Illinois State on April 10th ... SIU outfielder Jordan Sivertsen, who entered the day leading the Salukis with a .302 batting average, continued his career struggles vs. Creighton. He entered the game 0-for-23 in his career against the Bluejays and went 0-for-3 at the plate ... Hellhake has not allowed a home run in 65 innings of work this year. In his last 27 appearances, which includes 24 starts, he's allowed a home run in just one of those games ... Creighton has not allowed a home run in the last 13 games, a span of 118.2 innings, 434 at-bats, and 509 plate appearances, since Wichita State's Tyler Grimes went yard on May 6, 2011, in the eighth inning ... Creighton is now 8-0 at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha when scoring four or more runs ... Creighton is now 6-6 record in elimination games under Ed Servais ... Swift stole home in the ninth, the first time a Bluejay has stolen home since Ryan Urzendowski against Nebraska on April 3, 2007.
