Omaha, Neb. — The Creighton Baseball team continued its in-state and midweek dominance on Tuesday afternoon with a 2-1 victory over crosstown rival Omaha. The game was played in front of 9,785 fans on Cox Kid’s Day, which marked Creighton’s largest home crowd since 2019.
The win improved Creighton (33-16) to 12-0 in midweek match-ups this season and 6-0 against in-state teams after winning all three games this season from both Omaha and Nebraska. All three Creighton wins over Omaha this year have come by exactly one run, which helped the Jays up its nation-leading non-conference win total to 28. Omaha dropped to 16-29-1 on the year, and 2-17 in non-conference play.
The Bluejays wasted no time taking an early lead against an erratic Carter Navin. Nolan Sailors walked on five pitches and stole second, then came around to score after Matt Scherrman beat out a bunt single and Navin’s throw to first base got away. A sacrifice fly by Teddy Deters one batter later plated Scherrman and gave CU all the offense it would need.
Omaha had runners on base all day long but stranded 13 men against eight different Bluejay pitchers, hitting 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
Creighton’s Jack Pineau threw three scoreless innings in his longest start since March 17th. The freshman lowered his ERA to 3.64 while striking out four batters.. Classmate Shea Wendt worked around two walks and a hit to keep UNO off the board, and Daniel Hammond retired the Mavericks on 10 pitches as CU took a 2-0 lead into the seventh.
The Mavericks greeted Bluejay reliever Shane Curtin with a double by Trent Burkhalter and loaded the bases after a single from Matt Goetzmann and walk to Drew Lechnir. CU called on Parker Primeaux to escape the jam, and the senior allowed only Burkhalter to score on a sacrifice fly.
Primeau and Casey Trapp authored a 1-2-3 eighth inning on the mound before giving way to Tommy Lamb for the ninth. Lamb allowed a one-out double and back-to-back walks to load the bases before giving way to Jimmy Burke. Burke notched his second save of the campaign when he struck out Noah Greise and Jackson Trout consecutively.
Scherrman, Clifford and Torosian each had a hit, while Sailors walked twice. Wendt improved to 2-1 with the victory in relief.
The Mavericks had eight hits, with Goetzmann and Haiden Hunt both had two. Omaha used five pitchers on the day.
Creighton will close the season later this week when it opens a three-game series vs. Seton Hall. Thursday’s game against the Pirates will start at 6 p.m.
