Creighton Baseball Takes Two From St Johns

Omaha, Neb. -- With a victory in the game suspended on Thursday as well as another in the regularly scheduled contest, Creighton Baseball head coach Ed Servais earned his 700th victory as a Bluejay with a 12-8 win in the suspended contest followed by a 4-3 win over St. John's on Friday, April 18.

Following Friday's contests Creighton is 22-12 on the season and 5-3 in BIG EAST action, while St. John's fell to 19-16 overall and 6-2 in conference contests.
 
Creighton 12, St. John's 8 - Game 1 (Suspended Thursday evening with Creighton leading 7-3 in B7)

The Red Storm opened the series opener with two runs in the top of the first on an RBI ground out from Jared Beebe and an RBI double by Shaun McMillen, then added two more runs in the fifth the grab a 4-0 lead. The Red Storm runs in the fifth came via RBI singles from Jackson Tucker and Beebe.

Down 4-0 with two out and nobody on base in the bottom of the fifth, Kyle Hess broke a streak of 12 consecutive Bluejays being retired with a single to center. Hess moved to second on a passed ball, then raced home on an infield single by Matt Scherrman and a throwing error. Tate Gillen followed with an RBI single to left to bring Creighton within two at 4-2.

One out into the sixth Creighton chased Red Storm starter David Rodriguez with a double from Ben North and Teddy Deters getting hit by a pitch. Reliever Chad Falcon was greeted with an RBI single by Will MacLean, a two-run double from Connor Capece and back-to-back RBI triples from Kyle Hess and Scherrman as the Bluejays seized a 7-4 edge.

The bats for both teams continued to sizzle once play resumed on Friday as the Bluejays added a pair in the seventh on a two-run single from Scherrman, but St. John's answered with two runs in the top of the eighth on a two-run blast from Tucker.

Creighton responded with three runs in its turn at the plate in the eighth, getting an RBI single from North and sacrifice flies by Deters and Capece.

St. John's pushed across two runs in the ninth, but Bluejay closer Garrett Langrell shut the door for his eighth save of 2025.

Bluejay reliever Ian Koosman earned the win (4-3) with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief, while Falcon took the loss (1-2) allowing three runs on four hits in one-third of an inning.
 
Creighton 4, St. John's 3 - Game 2

St. John's jumped out to a 2-0 lead for the second straight contest, getting a pair of runs in the third inning this time. The Red Storm tallies came on an RBI grounder by Jayder Raifstanger that was mishandled, followed by an RBI single from Beebe.

A quick response came from the Bluejays in the bottom of the third as Tate Gillen's infield single was thrown away with two outs, allowing Scherrman to race home from second.

St. John's extended its advantage to 3-1 with a run in the seventh behind Raifstanger once more, this time on an RBI single. Frustrated by St. John's starter Evan Chaffee for much of the game, the Bluejays forced the Red Storm to go to the bullpen in the bottom of the seventh after an eight-pitch walk to Nate McHugh and a hit by pitch for Will MacLean.

Red Storm head coach Mike Hampton brought in Kyle Chase to face Scherrman with the game in the balance and the Bluejay third baseman blasted an 0-1 pitch into the Creighton bullpen beyond the left field wall to give the Bluejays a 4-3 lead.

Creighton turned the game over to Shea Wendt for the final six outs and the Bluejay sophomore retired six of the seven batters he faced for his first save.

Bluejay reliever Jimmy Burke earned the win (3-1) allowing one run in 1.1 innings, while Chase took the loss (0-3) as he surrendered one run on one hit in one inning of work.

Scherrman was the offensive hero for the Bluejays as he went 5-for-6 with six RBI and three runs scored over the first two games of the series.

 
The Bluejays and Red Storm wrap up the three-game series on Saturday, April 19 at 12:00 p.m.