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Baseball Continues Road Trip at Metrodome Tournament
Release: March 11, 2010
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Creighton Baseball Game Notes
Games #10-12

Creighton (6-3) at Metrodome Tournament

March 12-14, 2010

vs. South Dakota State / at Minnesota / vs. Harvard
Mall of America Field at HHH Metrodome (63,699)

Media Information

Fans can access live stats by going to the baseball schedule page at www.gocreighton.com, and clicking on the link on the right side of the game's listing. Saturday's game against Minnesota can be seen live, courtesy of www.gophersports.com.

Series History

South Dakota State - Creighton leads 10-4

  • First Meeting: 1969 - SDSU 3, Creighton 2
  • Last Meeting: April 28, 2009 - Creighton 5, SDSU 2

Minnesota - Minnesota leads 19-17

  • First Meeting: 1970 - Minnesota 7, Creighton 4
  • Last Meeting: March 19, 2000 - Creighton 7, Minnesota 5

Harvard - First Meeting

Creighton's Probable Starters

Friday

RHP Jonas Dufek, Jr. (2-0, 6.59 ERA - 3 BB, 11 K, 13.2 IP)

Saturday

RHP Brandon Koenigstein, So. (0-0, 3.86 ERA - 3 BB, 7 K, 16.1 IP)

Sunday

LHP Ty Blach, Fr. (0-0, 2.45 ERA - 2 BB, 8 K, 7.1 IP)

Recent Results

March 10 -        Creighton 11, UT-Arlington 5

March 7 -          Sam Houston State 11, Creighton 10

March 6 -          Northern Colorado 10, Creighton 3

March 5 -          Creighton 6, Sam Houston State (10)

March 5 -          Creighton 15, Northern Colorado 8

Head Coach Ed Servais

Ed Servais (UW La Crosse, 1981) is in his seventh season at the helm of the Bluejay program. His .647 win percentage is the best in school history, as he has averaged nearly 40 wins per season during his time as head coach. Servais has taken the Jays to two NCAA Tournaments (2005, 2007) and has won Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year honors three times. His career record stands at 415-209-1 with his Creighton mark sitting at 233-127.

Servais is assisted by associate head coach Rob Smith, Brent Alwine and Brandon Tormoehlen

Road Is Where Home Is

The Jays are currently on a 20-game, 40-day (from game 1 to first home game) season-opening road trip. Only two other trips compare in Bluejay history. Those were in 2003 (20 games-40 days) and 1999 (29 games-58 days). The Jays have currently logged 4774 miles of travel in just under three weeks of play

19 Is Fine

Creighton snapped a brief, two-game skid with an 11-5 victory at UT-Arlington on Wednesday. The Jays posted a season-high 19 hits in the effort with five players going for multiple hit games.

Stat-Padder

Creighton's game on Wednesday featured several fine individual efforts. Five Jays posted multiple hits, as freshman Alex Staehely posted his first career multi-hit game. Other notable individual performances included:

  • Trever Adams - 4-for-5, four RBI, two doubles
  • Carson Vitale - 4-for-4, three runs
  • Staehely - 3-for-4, two runs, RBI
  • Elliot Soto - 3-for-5, run, RBI

Along with those offensive performances, Mark Winkelman posted his first career win with 1.1 perfect innings, striking out two.

Adams Amassing Hits

Trever Adams' hits have come in bunches this season. Of the six games he has hits in, five have been of the multiple hit variety. The junior transfer from Hutchinson CC (Kan.) had three, three-hit games in his short Bluejay career before posting a 4-for-5 night at UT-Arlington on Wednesday.

He's Pretty Fly

Elliot Soto came into the season with five career sacrifice flies. The junior has already posted four this season, and is halfway to Creighton's single season record of eight, sent by Dan Norquist in 2005.

Knight Rider

Robbie Knight extended several impressive streaks on Wednesday. Those included:

  • Consecutive starts: 104
  • Games played: 151
  • Hit streak: 11 games
  • Reached base: 18

On a more impressive note, Knight has reached base in 51 of his last 52 games.

Hit Man

Knight also continued his quest up the NCAA Division I hit by pitch list. Knight was plunked for the second time this season on Wednesday, placing him in a tie for sixth on the all-time list with 74. Here's how that list currently looks:

Player              School - Years, Total

Brett Lilley         Notre Dame - 2005-08, 109

Tony Hurtado     San Francisco - 1997-00, 92

Cody Rizzo       Notre Dame - 2003-06, 84

Gabe Somariba  Florida Atlantic - 1999-02, 81

Mark Muscenti   Cincinnati - 2003-06, 76

Robbie Knight  Creighton - 2007-pr., 74

Logan Johnson  Louisville - 2004-07, 74

Jeff Ontiveros     Texas - 1999-02, 74

9+ Finally Not Enough

Creighton's loss at Sam Houston State on Sunday snapped a Bluejay streak of 28 straight wins when scoring 9+ runs. The last setback was a 12-10 defeat at the hands of Nebraska on April 3, 2007.

The Stopper

Junior Jack VanLeur has been nearly perfect out of the bullpen this season. VanLeur has yet to allow a run or walk in four appearances, while striking out five in 11.1 innings. VanLeur had a career-long outing on Sunday at Sam Houston State, going 4.2 innings, whiffing two.

Night Birds

Saturday's game with Minnesota will be Creighton's third night game of the year. The Jays have posted .500 or better records in all but one year of Ed Servais' tenure

Year                 Record             Pct.

2010                 2-0                    1.000

2009                 10-6                  .625

2008                 4-4                    .500

2007                 10-3                  .769

2006                 4-5                    .444

2005                 11-7                  .611

2004                 5-3                    .625

Turn Out The Lights, The Party's Over

Despite losing a ninth-inning lead on Saturday, the Jays have been a near-sure thing in that situation. Since 2002, The Jays are 210-10 (.955) when holding a lead heading into the ninth. Under Servais, the Jays are 156-8 (.951).

Bouncing Back

Since 2004, Creighton is 76-45 in games following a loss and have not been below .500 in such games. Here is a quick glance at those games:

Year                 Record             Pct.

2010                 2-1                    .667

2009                 12-12                .500

2008                 13-7                  .650

2007                 11-4                  .733

2006                 10-10                .500

2005                 12-4                  .667

2004                 16-7                  .696