Bluejay Baseball Battles Omaha on NET2
4/20/2015 7:15:00 PM | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. - Another intrastate battle looms this Tuesday as Creighton takes on the Omaha Mavericks at 6:30 pm. The game will be carried throughout the State on NET2.
Omaha at Creighton
April 21 @ 6:30 pm
Creighton Leads Series, 48-30
Media Coverage
TV: Nebraska Educational Television World (NET2)
Radio: 1620 - http://player.streamtheworld.com/_players/nrgmedia/
player_gla1.php?callsign=KOZNAM
Stats: http://creighton.statbroadcast.com
About Omaha
- Located in Omaha, Nebraska
- Omaha has an enrollment of 15,000.
- Known as the Mavericks.
- Omaha finished 2014 with an 31-20 record and an 15-9 mark in the Summit League.
- Omaha is in its final season of transition to the Division I level, thus are not eligible for the NCAA Tournament.
Omaha Head Coach: Bob Herold
- With 495 career wins entering play on Tuesday, all at Omaha, Herold should surpass 500 this season.
- He has led the Mavericks to back-to-back regular season Summit League titles.
- Herold guided the Mavericks to their first NCAA Division II College World Series appearance in 2007.
Omaha vs. Creighton Series:
Creighton and Omaha have renewed a longstanding rivalry over the past few seasons as the Mavericks have been transitioning to Division I. Creighton owns a 48-30 edge in the series, Omaha took the only meeting last season 4-1 on April 22. Under Ed Servais the Bluejays are 3-3 against the Mavericks.
Meetings Under Servais (3-3):
March 27, 2012 L 2-3
May 9, 2012 W 6-1
March29, 2013 W 4-3
March30, 2013 W 11-4
March31, 2013 L 2-4
April 22, 2014 L 1-4
Scouting Omaha (17-19, 10-8 Summit)
Omaha has struggled recently, dropping six of its last eight games. The Mavericks are 10-4 at home this season, but just 3-10 on the road.
The Mavericks will send sophomore Mitch Larson to the mound on Tuesday. Larson has appeared in five games with a combined 8.2 innings this season. He has allowed six runs on 12 hits and five walks.
If the game is close into the late innings the Mavericks have gone with a closer-by-committee with three players notching at least one save. Cole Volkers leads the staff with three saves, but has a 4.98 ERA and 10 walks in 25.1 innings.
Omaha enters Tuesday's game with a .285 average, led by some impressive numbers from Cole Gruber and Alex Schultz. Gruber leads the team with a .429 average, while Schultz is hitting .344 with a team best 52 hits. The duo also raise havoc on the base paths with a combined 28 stolen bases (18 for Gruber).
Scouting the Bluejays (2015: 21-11, 6-2 BIG EAST)
Creighton split two games with St. John's over the weekend, leaving the pitching staff a bit more rested for Tuesday. Expect the Bluejays to get several pitchers a little work against the Mavericks.
Creighton's focus the remainder of the season will be its final nine games in BIG EAST play, including a critical series at Butler this weekend.
BIG EAST Review At the Turn
The first goal of Bluejays season is to reach the BIG EAST Tournament, hosted by Creighton, on May 21-25.
The top four teams will make it to Omaha. At 6-2 both St. John's and Creighton are ahead of the pack, but things got a bit muddled over the weekend.
While the Bluejays and Red Storm split two, Seton Hall dropped two of three to Butler. In
addition Villanova, took two of three from Xavier.
This weekend Creighton faces Butler, Georgetown battles Xavier and St. John's heads to Villanova.
Creighton, which won the league title last year (by one game over St. John's, thanks in part to taking 2-of-3 in New York), is attempting to become just the second school in the past 20 years to win back-to-back outright BIG EAST regular-season crowns, joining Louisville (2009 and 2010).
