Bluejay Baseball Battles Weather Delay To Defeat Georgetown, 8-6
Tysons, Va. -- Creighton Baseball moved within a win on Saturday of clinching a share of the BIG EAST regular season championship as well as the overall top seed in the BIG EAST Championship with an 8-6 win over Georgetown on Friday, May 16.
The victory moved the Bluejays to 37-14 on the season and 16-4 in BIG EAST action, while Georgetown fell to 16-39 overall and 3-17 in conference contests.
Creighton got on the scoreboard early with three runs in the opening frame. Junior Tate Gillen got things rolling right away with a single through the right side. He promptly stole second and went to third on a throwing error. Moments later Matt Scherrman lifted a sacrifice fly to give Creighton a 1-0 edge. The Bluejays followed that path with a single by Nolan Sailors, taking second on a wild pitch, then scoring via an RBI single from Connor Capece. The Bluejay catcher went to second on a balk, then scampered home on an RBI single from Ben North.
Scoring came quickly in the early innings as Georgetown responded with one in the bottom of the first and two runs in both the second and the third.
Creighton countered with a single run in the second on an RBI grounder by Scherrman.
Entering the top of the fourth the Bluejays trailed for the first time in the series, 5-4. The response was quick as Will MacLean laced a leadoff double down the right field line and then a fielding error put two Bluejays on base. One out later Gillen knotted the contest with an RBI double down the left field line, then Scherrman collected his third RBI of the contest with a grounder to second to reclaim the lead at 6-5.
The Bluejays tacked on single runs in the sixth on a sacrifice fly from Capece and in the eighth courtesy of a solo home run from Scherrman.
Georgetown closed within a run in the seventh with an RBI ground out from Jeremy Sheffield, but the Hoyas missed a chance with one down and the bases loaded as the frame finished on an inning-ending double play.
Creighton reliever Ian Koosman came on after a 97-minute weather delay to pick up the win (7-4), limiting Georgetown to one run on three hits over four innings. Bluejay Matt Aukerman picked up his first save of the season, holding the Hoyas off the scoreboard for the last two frames.
Georgetown starter Griffin O'Connor suffered the loss (3-4), allowing six runs on seven hits in 3.1 innings.
Scherrman guided the Creighton offense with four RBI, despite going just 1-for-3. Three Jays finished with multiple hits as Gillen, Sailors and MacLean each posted a pair.
The Bluejays and Hoyas wrap up the series and the regular season on Saturday, May 17 with first pitch set for 10:30 am (CT).