Creighton Faces St. John's in the BIG EAST Baseball Championship
5/24/2015 1:33:00 AM | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. - It will take two victories for the Bluejays, but Creighton Baseball will via for the BIG EAST Baseball Championship on Sunday against St. John's at 12:00 pm.
If the Bluejays pull off a win in the noon contest, Creighton and the Red Storm would play a winner take all game at approximately 3:30 pm!
Creighton is 2-1 this weekend as it hosts the BIG EAST Baseball Championship for the first time. The Bluejays defeated Seton Hall 7-4 on Thursday, fell 8-1 to St. John's on Friday, and advanced to Sunday's title game with a 12-1 victory over Seton Hall yesterday.
- Sunday marks the seventh trip to the conference championship game in 12 seasons as Creighton head coach for Ed Servais. Servais won MVC Tournament crowns in 2007 and 2011 (both vs. Wichita State), and in 2012 (vs. Southern Illinois). In his only prior trip to the BIG EAST Championship finals, Servais' squad was shut out 5-0 by Xavier last May in Brooklyn.
- The Bluejays have a bit of history to rely on Sunday. In 2011, Creighton worked its way out of the losers bracket to claim the MVC Title. In both years Creighton won the opening game by three runs, lost the second game by seven runs, and got a standout pitching effort in game three. In 2011, Creighton topped twice Missouri State 6-5 and 4-3 (12 inn.) before celebrating with the first dogpile in park history following a 3-1 winner-take-all victory vs. Wichita State.
- In two seasons as a member of the BIG EAST, Creighton is 17-3 against league competition at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, losing only to Seton Hall (in 2014), St. John's (last month and on Friday).
- With two victories on Sunday, the Creighton Baseball team would join the Creighton Volleyball team (Fall 2014) as the school's only BIG EAST Tournament champions, and first men's squad.
- Sunday pits two of the most successful coaches in BIG EAST history, and both are named Ed.
- St. John's skipper Ed Blankmeyer owns a league-record 311 career wins in BIG EAST (regular-season) play. His counterpart on the diamond on Sunday, Creighton's Ed Servais, owns the league record .771 winning percentage (27-8) in regular-season BIG EAST play.
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Probable Creighton starter Jack Rogalla will be making his eighth appearance of the year, and fifth start, on Sunday. The older brother of Saturday's winning pitcher Keith Rogalla, Jack began the season as Creighton's No. 1 starter and allowed just one run in a combined 11 innings during starts vs. CSU Bakersfield and Northwestern State.
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Jack, however, missed the next two months with an arm injury before returning on April 21st vs. Omaha with a nine-pitch relief outing. He made one-inning midweek starts (both scoreless) vs. both Nebraska (April 28) and Arkansas (May 12), and most recently threw a scoreless frame vs. Villanova last Saturday. Since his return, Rogalla has not thrown more than 18 pitches or one inning, but has picked up the second and third saves of his collegiate career in a testament to the faith that Ed Servais has in his newcomer.
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On the season, Rogalla has thrown 15.1 innings and allowed nine hits and four walks, owning a 1.17 ERA. In four seasons at Binghamton, he made 38 starts and won 13 games for the two-time America East Conference champs.
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Despite the proximity of Binghamton to St. John's, Jack Rogalla never faced St. John's.
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Harrison Crawford leads Creighton with a .400 batting average, four hits and four runs scored this week, while fellow newcomer Matt Gandy paces the club with six RBI in the three games, including a TD Ameritrade Park Omaha record five RBI on Saturday vs. SHU. Creighton is hitting .255 through three games, with six extra-base hits (4 doubles, 1 triple, 1 homer), has stolen 3-of-3 bases, and owns a .972 fielding percentage.
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Matt Gandy drove in a career-high five RBI in Saturday's 12-1 win over Seton Hall, including a bases-loaded double that helped the Bluejays take a commanding 12-run lead. Gandy's five RBI tied a TD Ameritrade Park Omaha single-game record, and the most since Mike Gerber had six RBI in a game at St. John's last May in a game started by Chris Kalica.
- With two wins on Sunday, Creighton can guarantee itself the program's 11th all-time NCAA Tournament bid in history. It would be the fifth in 12 seasons under Ed Servais (2005, 2007, 2011, 2012), and third in the last five seasons. Creighton's most successful team in history was the 1991 team skippered by Jim Hendry, which went 4-0 in the West I Regional to reach the College World Series, where the Jays tied for third with a 2-2 mark. Scott Stahoviak, Dax Jones, Mike Heathcott and Alan Benes were among the future Major Leaguers on the 1991 club.
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Creighton had 15 hits in yesterday's 12-1 victory over Seton Hall. Creighton is now 5-0 this season, and 65-0 under Ed Servais when collecting 15 hits or more in a game. The Bluejays have won 71 straight as a program dating to Feb. 23, 2002 when owning 15 or more hits.
