Baseball Opens Three-Game Series at Pacific on Friday
3/9/2012 2:02:00 PM | Baseball
Spring Break Trip - California
Creighton (5-5) at Pacific (2-11)
March 9 (8:00 pm) March 10 (4:00 pm) March 11 (3:00 pm) CST
Pacific Tigers
www.pacifictigers.com
Record: 2-11 • Location: Stockton, Calif. • Enrollment: 6,235
Head Coach: Ed Sprague
Career Record: 191-274 • School Record: Same
Assistant Coaches: Don Barbara, Mike McCormick, Keith Komeji
2011 Record: 17-37 • Starters returning/lost: 5/4
Creighton is set to take on the Pacific Tigers in a three game series this weekend, looking to close out the 11 day California Spring Break trip on a strong note. The Bluejays opened the trip taking two-of-three from UC Davis, but then hit a two game skid, falling at California and at Sacramento State.
Friday Night
The Bluejays are slated to start LHP Ty Blach in Friday night's game. The southpaw holds a 1.86 ERA, making three starts on the mound this season. Blach leads the staff with 19.1 innings pitched, and sits second on the team with nine strikeouts. Pacific is slated to send freshman Michael Benson to the mound for the series opener. He holds a 2.08 overall ERA and is 1-1 on the season.
Saturday Afternoon
Creighton will adjust its weekend rotation a bit, moving Andrew Urban into the Saturday starter role. The right hander has made a pair of starts on the season, holding a 1.29 ERA in 7.0 innings of work. He has allowed just one earned run and is holding opponents to a .150 average against. The Tigers will throw junior left-handed pitcher John Haberman, who has thrown 15.2 innings this season, holding a 5.74 ERA with 15 strikeouts on the season.
Sunday Afternoon
Look for Nick Musec to make his second start of the season on Sunday. The junior has made three appearances this season, pitching 7.1 innings. Pacific's Sunday starter is TBA.
* Friday marks the first night game the Bluejays have played during the whole California trip, as Pacific's Klein Field is the only field with lights thus far (out of UC Davis, California and Sacramento State).
* Creighton is hitting .244 as a team, led by senior first baseman Nick Judkins (.366) and freshman Jake Peter (.360).
* Jake Peter also leads the Bluejays in doubles (4), slugging percentage (.520), and on-base percentage (.485).
* Peter had a .700 slugging percentage last weekend at UC Davis, with two of his five hits on the weekend being doubles.
* Nick Judkins has had a pair of hits in four of the last five games, driving in at least one run in each of those four games as well. The first baseman is hitting .366, starting all nine games at first base. Judkins was one of four players to start every game last season.
* Judkins finished Tuesday at California 3-5 from the plate with three runs driven in.
* Judkins led the team with six hits at UC Davis, but also led the Bluejays in the field, going perfect in 39 chances.
* The senior has reached base safely in every game this season, the only Bluejay with such a streak this season.
* The Bluejays have had a different starting lineup in each game this season, with five different batters hitting in the No. 2 spot in the lineup and eight players in the eight hole.
* While the second spot has been different nearly every game, Chance Ross has started all 10 games in the leadoff position, hitting .316 on the season and holding a team leading 10 walks on the season.
* Ross holds a .480 on-base percentage, tied for second on the team.
* Chance Ross led off the game at Cal with a triple, scoring the first run of the game in the top of the first inning. He added a single in the second inning as well, scoring both times he was on base.
* Erik Mattingly has made his case for a true utility player; the senior has made starts as the left fielder, designated hitter and appearances as a pinch hitter and on the hill.
* Brennan Murphy leads the team with four stolen bases, a perfect 4-4 on the season. Murphy safely stole a pair of bases against UC Davis. Chance Ross also has stolen a pair of bases successfully this season, making Murphy and Ross the only two players with multiple stolen bases this season.
* The Creighton bullpen has earned four of the five wins on the season, led by Reese McGraw with two, and holds a 3.71 earned run average, compared to the 1-2 record of the Bluejay starters.
* Ty Blach leads all pitchers with 19.1 innings on the mound. In his three starts this season, Blach has thrown at least 5.0 innings in each of his starts, holding a 1.86 earned run average with nine strikeouts on the season.
* Mark Winkelman threw 2.1 innings of scoreless relief at Cal on Tuesday. The southpaw allowed just one hit and struck out two batters.
* Winkelman came back to throw another scoreless inning at Sacramento State on Wednesday.
* Winkelman has now gone four straight outings without allowing a run and surrendering just three hits while striking out five batters. He is 1-0 through the last four games.
* Creighton has committed just five errors on the season, holding a .988 fielding percentage. That number sits in second place in the NCAA .
Meet Creighton
The Bluejays are coming off one of the most successful seasons in school history, finishing 2011 with a 45-16 overall record. Creighton won the Missouri Valley Conference both regular-season and tournament titles in 2011, marking the first time in program history the Jays have claimed both in a single season.
Creighton returns seven starting position players from the squad last season, led by centerfielder Mike Gerber and senior catcher Anthony Bemboom, both which have been tabbed preseason All-MVC. Gerber finished with a .280 average last season, playing flawless defense in center, while Bemboom shot down seven runners attempting to steal and finished 2011 with a .233 average.
Highlighting a deep pitching staff will be junior Ty Blach, who has already picked up preseason All-America nods. The southpaw held a 10-3 record last season, fanning 100 batters in 102.0 innings of work. Out of the pen, which lost just one pitcher from last season (Jack VanLeur), look for Kurt Spomer (13 saves in 2011), Mark Winkelman (35 appearances) and Reese McGraw (35 appearances, 5 saves) to headline one of the deepest staff's in Ed Servais' tenure.
In 2012, the Jays are led offensively by senior Nick Judkins, who has at least two hits in four of the last five games, and has reached base safely in every game this season. Judkins is hitting .366 this season, leading the team with 15 hits and nine runs driven in. Freshman Jake Peter has started the last eight games at second base and is hitting .360 with a team leading four doubles. Erik Mattingly (.333), Scott Thornburg (.321) and Chance Ross (.316) are all hitting above .300 early in the season, helping Creighton to a .244 overall batting average.
On the mound, Ty Blach has remained as good as promised, holding a 1.86 ERA in 19.1 innings of work, tied for the team lead with nine strikeouts on the season. The bullpen, which had surrendered 13 of the 15 runs heading into the weekend series at UC Davis, helped propel the Jays to a pair of wins over UC Davis. Reese McGraw picked up a win and a save on the weekend, throwing 4.1 innings of scoreless relief. The senior leads the team with six appearances and two wins
Meet Pacific
The Pacific Tigers are coming off an eighth place finish in the Big West Conference in 2011, an overall 17-37 record. Head Coach Ed Sprague is in his ninth year, and returns five position starters and 16 letterwinners from his 2011 team.
After opening the season with eight straight losses, the Tigers picked up their first win when they defeated Sacramento State, blasting a season high 18 hits in the process. They won back-to-back games, taking the first game from Kansas State last weekend. The Tigers then dropped the last two of the series and fell at San Francisco on Tuesday.
Offensively, the Tigers are led by Dustin Torchio, who is hitting .300 through the first 13 games. The junior leads the team with 15 hits. Pacific is hitting .268 as a team but holds a .359 combined slugging percentage. The Tigers have 28 extra base hits (out of 118 total hits), with 21 doubles and five home runs. Look for Allen Riley and Brett Christopher to hold the power, as they have hit three and two home runs, respectively. Christopher also holds three stolen bases on the season, the only three safely swiped for the Tigers.
The Tigers have had six different players make starts this season, led by John Haberman. The junior lefty has tossed 15.2 innings, holding an 0-1 record with a 5.74 ERA. He has also fanned a team-high 15 batters. John Prato Matthews holds the only save on the season for the Tigers, making a team-high six appearances in 14.2 innings of work.
Pacific holds a .953 fielding percentage, committing 23 errors in their first 13 games.
Against the Tigers
Creighton and Pacific have met up one time previously, a 14-5 Bluejay win on March 14, 1996. The Bluejays defeated the Tigers as part of the Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic at Fresno State. Creighton is 3-4 all-time against the Big West Conference, with the most recent game being the win over Pacific in 1996.
Meet the Coaches
Creighton: Ed Servais (9th Season): Ed Servais enters his ninth season leading the Creighton baseball program in 2012. He is the winningest coach in program history, surpassing Jack Dahm (283) and Jim Hendry (289) in 2011, when he led his team to a 45-16 overall record, Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles and a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007. Servais was named the MVC Coach of the Year following the 2011 season, the fourth time he has earned the award in his eight years at Creighton.
Servais currently holds a .644 winning percentage at the helm of the Jays, the top number in school history. He has taken the Bluejys to three NCAA Tournaments, including 2011. He has also led the Bluejays to an average of 37 wins in each of the last eight seasons.
Servais' tenure has ranked among the best as a Creighton head coach, as he has guided the team to a 304-170 record, placing him second in the Missouri Valley Conference, fifth in the Midwest, and in the top 20 in the nation in winning percentage during that time. The Bluejays are one of just 10 schools in the Midwest to earn five or more NCAA Regional berths in the last 13 years, and one of two in the MVC along with Wichita State. Servais also has led the Jays to the MVC Tournament title in 2007 and regular-season crown in 2005, and both in the 2011 season.
His teams have finished among the nation's best in fielding percentage and sacrifice bunts every season, including 2011, when the Bluejays finished fourth in fielding percentage (.980) and fourth in sacrifice bunts, with 84. Since coming to Creighton, Servais' teams have committed the fewest errors in the nation, while holding a .977 fielding percentage in the last eight seasons, which also leads the country.
Pacific: Ed Sprague (9th Season): After an 11-year Major League baseball career, Sprague enters his ninth season as the coach of the Pacific baseball team. He has a combined 180-267 record in his first eight seasons, coaching 13 players that have been drafted into professional baseball. His 179 career victories have him in third place in Tiger history for most coaching victories.
Sprague was the leader in the campaign to build an on-campus home field, as Klein Family Field became the home of Tigers baseball on April 18, 2006.
Sprague was the starting third baseman on the 1987 and 1988 NCAA Championship teams at Stanford, finishing his career among the all-time leaders in home runs and RBI. He was named All-American in 1988, inducted into the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002. HE helped the USA Baseball team win a Gold Medal in the Summer Olympics in 1988, and won back-to-back MLB World Series Championships in 1992 and 1993 with Toronto.
He is the only player ever to win a College World Series, Olympic Gold Medal and a Major League Baseball World Series.
Klein Family Field (Pacific): The first on-campus baseball field for the Pacific Tigers since 1951, Klein Field opened in 2006 with a seating capacity of 2,500. The all natural field features bull-pens just beyond the outfield fences and newly added fan-friendly seating down the right field line, featuring a fire place and outdoor seating patio. The field measurements are 317 down left field, 380 in the left field power alley, 395 to center, 367 to the right field power alley and 325 down the right field line.
It's Good to be Back
A Creighton baseball team hasn't made a trip to California since 2000, when the Bluejays took part in the Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic held at Fresno State. In the final year of participation, the Bluejays went 5-1, with wins over Bowling Green (4-1), Temple (15-0), Fresno State (12-3), Gonzaga (11-2), and UNC-Asheville (5-3), before dropping the final game to host Fresno State 5-1.
2x2x2
Nick Judkins put together four games straight with at least a pair of hits and at least one RBI in each. In the three games at UC Davis over the weekend, Judkins had six hits and three runs driven in, while he went 3-5 at Cal and had three RBI. The senior has had multiple hits in six of the 10 games this season and has reached base safely in every game thus far.
Does it All
Erik Mattingly has started in five different games this season, and has made appearances in games in four different positions. Mattingly has seen time as the starting left fielder (three games), a pinch hitter (one game), the designated hitter (two games) and has made a pair of appearances on the mound.
Through the first eight games of the season, he is hitting .375 with a .476 on-base percentage, while holding a 3.86 ERA in 2.1 innings of work.
Lights Out
Creighton's bullpen has been dominant on the mound so far this season, holding a 4-2 record and three saves in 46.0 innings of work. Leading the way is Reese McGraw, who has a 1.74 ERA and a 2-2 overall record in 10.1 innings of work. The senior picked up both a win and a save in the three game series at UC Davis. Shane Liska has also put his name onto the scene, making three appearances on the year, holding a 1.69 ERA in 5.1 innings of work.
And You Get to Pitch
The Bluejays used seven different pitchers in the game at Sacramento State on Wednesday, highlighted by first appearances by Mark Lukowski and Ryan Knott. Lukowski (1.0), Erik Mattingly (1.0), Mark Winkelman (1.0) and Kurt Spomer (1.0) each threw scoreless baseball, while Shane Liska (3.0) led the staff by tossing three complete innings and allowing just one earned run.
McGraw Named MVC Pitcher of the Week
Reese McGraw is the second Bluejay pitcher to be named the MVC Pitcher of the week, as Ty Blach earned the honor following the opening weekend of play. The right-handed McGraw picked up his first save of the season in the 7-6 win on Friday, tossing 2.0 scoreless, hitless innings in relief. He struck out a pair of batters and faced just the minimum in his two innings. In the win on Sunday, McGraw threw another 2.1 innings of scoreless baseball, surrendering just two hits and striking out one to pick up his second win of the season (2-1). Overall, McGraw leads the Bluejay pitching staff in wins (2) and appearances (6), and is tied for the lead with nine strikeouts. He is holding opponents to a .194 batting average.
