Creighton University
Missouri State
Baseball Drops Second Straight at Missouri State; 7-0
3/24/2012 4:51:00 PM | Baseball
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - For the second straight game, the Creighton baseball team struggled to get its offense going, falling 7-0 at Missouri State on Saturday afternoon. The Bluejays drop to 11-9 on the season, 0-2 in Missouri Valley Conference play, while the Bears are now 18-6, 2-0 in conference play.
Anthony Bemboom had two of Creighton's four hits on the day, with Brad McKewon and Jake Peter combining for the other two.
The pair of losses to open MVC play marks the first time since the 1998 season the Bluejays have opened conference play dropping two straight. That also marks the last season the Jays have opened conference play on the losing side of a series sweep, which they will look to avoid in game three tomorrow afternoon.
Erik Mattingly held the Bears offense at bay in the first four innings, putting together a career day on the mound with a single-game high 4.0 innings. In his sixth appearance on the mound this season, his first start of the year, Mattingly allowed one run on four hits, while facing a career-high 19 batters.
Much like the Friday night game, today's game was a pitching/defensive battle, as neither team could turn early baserunners into runs across the plate. The Bears again struck first, pushing across a single run in the fifth inning and squeezing in a run in the sixth.
A three-run home run off the bat of Brent Seifert in the seventh inning padded the Bears lead, as they extended it to the final tally with two runs in the eighth.
The two teams meet in the rubber match tomorrow afternoon, with the first pitch set for 1:00 pm from Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo.
NOTES: Creighton and Missouri State are now 40-40 in school history against one another ... Erik Mattingly's first start on the mound of the season is just the second of his Creighton career. The senior also started at New Mexico on Feb. 27 last season ... Creighton got out of a pair of bases-loaded jams in the game, first in the bottom of the third inning, and then after the Bears had pushed one across in the bottom of the fifth ... After needing just a pair of pitchers in the Friday night game (Ty Blach and Chase Webb), Creighton used five in the game Saturday (Mattingly, Winkelman, Shane Liska, Kurt Spomer, and Reese McGraw) ... Creighton has been shutout in both games of the MVC opening series, the first time they have been held scoreless in back-to-back games since 2003 ... Brad McKewon has now picked up at least a hit in the last four straight games. He had two each in the last two games against North Dakota last weekend, three last night and one this afternoon.
