Creighton University
St. John's
Softball Seeks To Strengthen BIG EAST Record At Home Against St. John's
4/8/2021 3:50:00 PM | Softball
Bluejays sit in third place in the league standings at 6-3
Game Schedule
Games #1 & 2 • Saturday, April 10 • St. John's (7-11, 4-7 BIG EAST) at Creighton (10-7, 6-3 BIG EAST) • 12 p.m. (DH)
Game #3 • Sunday, April 11 • St. John's at Creighton • 11 a.m.
*All times listed are Central Standard Time
Up Next
Creighton continues league play with a three-game home series against St. John's
Follow The Game
Live video and live stats will be available for the weekend series.
Video will be provided on YouTube.com/GoCreighton and stats will be provided by StatBroadcast.
Links to the video and live stats will be available on the Creighton softball schedule page.
Scoring updates and infographics will be provided via Twitter at @BluejaySoftball.
Scouting Creighton (10-7, 6-3 BE)
The Bluejays swept Seton Hall this past weekend to jump into third place in the BIG EAST standings.
Creighton leads the BIG EAST with a .295 team batting average, led by sophomore Kailey Wilson. Wilson ranks third in the conference with a .436 average and paces the league with a .818 slugging percentage.
Wilson leads the Bluejays and is tied for fourth in the conference with six home runs and 18 RBIs.
Wilson and fellow fifth-year senior Ashley Cantu are tied for fifth in the BIG EAST with 24 hits. Cantu ranks fourth in the league with a .421 batting average.
Mikayla Santa Cruz owns a team-low 3.69 ERA during 36 innings pitched.
Parker Boyd leads the Creighton pitching staff with 58 1/3 innings of work and owns a 4.32 ERA. The graduate transfer has 56 strikeouts (t-5th in BIG EAST) including 21 looking, which ranks second the conference.
Bluejay pitchers have combined for a 4.30 ERA and 95 strikeouts during 109 innings of work.
Creighton returned 17 letterwinners from 2020 and welcomed six newcomers, including five freshman and one graduate transfer.
Head coach Brent Vigness is in his 28th season at the helm of the Bluejays and owns 800 wins at Creighton, the most by any head coach across all of Creighton athletics.
Scouting St. John's (7-11, 4-7 BE)
The Red Storm head to Omaha after being swept during a three-game series last weekend against Butler.
St. John's scored only four runs during 21 innings of action against the Bulldogs.
Marissa Rizzi leads St. John's offensively with a .438 batting average, .556 on-base percentage and .813 slugging mark.
She is tied for the league lead in batting average, is a top the BIG EAST charts for on-base percentage and is second in slugging percentage. She also leads the conference with 23 runs scored.
Gretchen Bowie is tied for the team lead with 21 hits, while Peyton Cody paces the Red Storm with 17 RBIs.
Rizzi, Bowie (.356) and Cody (.333) are the only three St. John's hitters with a batting average above .259, as the Red Storm rank sixth in the BIG EAST with a .258 team batting average.
Rizzi, Bowie and Cody have combined for 28 of the Red Storm's 35 extra-base hits this season.
St. John's ranks second in the conference with 36 stolen bases. Both Rizzi and Bowie own 10 steals.
Erin Brown and Kayla Kmett have shared the bulk of the pitching. Brown owns a 5.36 ERA in a team-high 48 1/3 innings of work, while Kmett leads the staff with eight starts and four wins, while holding a 5.25 ERA in 46 2/3 innings.
The St. John's pitching staff ranks at the bottom of the league with a 5.64 team ERA.
Head coach Bob Guerriero is in his third season at the helm of the Red Storm.
Series History Against Red Storm
St. John's owns a 13-4 edge against Creighton all-time.
The Red Storm swept the Bluejays during a three-game series in Omaha in 2019.
Creighton's last win against St. John's came during the 2018 BIG EAST tournament semifinals.
The Bluejays are just 1-8 in Omaha against the Red Storm.
Creighton's lone home victory against St. John's came on April 25, 2015.
Last Time Out
The Bluejays resumed play after 11 days off and swept three games against Seton Hall.
Creighton ended the weekend with a .326 batting average, led by Kailey Wilson who hit .778 with seven hits, including a double and two home runs.
The Bluejays won 9-4 and 5-2 in a doubleheader on Friday before winning in walk-off fashion, 6-5, on Saturday.
Mikayla Santa Cruz and Parker Boyd combined in the circle to limit the Pirates to a .265 batting average and nine earned runs.
Wilson Named BE Player of the Week
Kailey Wilson earned BIG EAST Softball Player of the Week honors, the league announced on Monday morning. The Aurora, Colorado native hit .778 (7-of-9) with five RBIs and two home runs to help the Bluejays sweep Seton Hall.
Wilson led all BIG EAST hitters this past week in batting average, home runs, on-base percentage (.818) and total bases (14). She also ranked second in the league with a 1.556 slugging percentage.
The sophomore started all three of Creighton's games against Seton Hall as the designed player.
Wilson led the Bluejays by going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored during a 9-4 win to start the series.
She followed the opening game performance by hitting two home runs and driving in three during Creighton's 5-2 victory and ended the weekend by going 2-for-3, while walking once in Saturday's 6-5 win.
Wilson has started all 17 games this season and currently leads the Bluejays in multiple offensive categories. The Colorado native paces the team with a .436 batting average, .483 on-base percentage and .818 slugging percentage, while also leading the team with six home runs, 18 RBIs and 45 total bases. She is tied for the team-lead with 24 hits and three doubles.
She enters the week as the BIG EAST leader for slugging percentage, ranks third in batting average, is fourth in the league for home runs and RBIs, while tied for fifth in the conference in hits.
In addition to Wilson's accolade, Mikayla Santa Cruz earned a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll after posting a pair of wins and a 1.40 ERA during 10 innings of work against Seton Hall. The sophomore did not allow an earned run during a complete-game effort in the second game of Friday's doubleheader.
Vigness Reaches 800 Creighton Wins
Head coach Brent Vigness owns a 800-603-3 record at the helm of the Bluejays and is the only Creighton coach to reach the 800-win mark during a coaching tenure.
He earned his 700th win at Creighton on March 10, 2016 against South Dakota State.
Vigness is one of five active Creighton coaches with more than 350 wins as a Bluejay head coach.
A Central College (Iowa) grad, Vigness took over for the Bluejays prior to the 1994 season after spending five years as head coach at Assumption College in Worchester, Massachusetts.
Coach, Sport     Wins (as of 4/6/21)
Brent Vigness, Softball 800*
Ed Servais, Baseball 569*
Mary Higgins, Softball 564
Tom Lilly, Men's & Women's Tennis 474*
Kirsten Bernthal Booth, Volleyball 383*
Jim Flanery, Women's Basketball 356*
Ed Hubbs, Men's & Women's Tennis 347
Dana Altman, Men's Basketball 327
* still active coaching at Creighton
