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EVANSVILLE, Ind.—The Creighton University baseball team used a balanced attack Friday night to take the opener of a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series over the University of Evansville Purple Aces, as eight of the nine Bluejays collected hits in a 7-4 victory at UE’s Charles H. Braun Stadium in Evansville.
Creighton jumped to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning, as a high-hop RBI double by senior first baseman Darin Ruf and an RBI ground out by senior second baseman Vicente Cafaro plated the first two runs of the contest off of UE starter Wade Kapteyn (2-4).
The Bluejays would tack on another run in the second inning to push the lead to 3-0. Evansville threatened in the bottom of the third inning to answer back, as the Purple Aces loaded the bases on hits by junior outfielder Alex Acheson and senior shortstop Andy Smith and a walk, but Creighton starter Greg Hellhake (2-1) induced an inning-ending fly out to deep center field to end the threat.
Creighton would move the lead to 4-0 in the fourth inning on a run-scoring double-play ball by shortstop Elliot Soto, before the Jays grabbed a 6-0 lead in the seventh inning on a two-out, two-run double by sophomore third baseman Jimmy Swift.
Evansville would answer right back though, as senior catcher Andrew Gher worked a lead-off walk in the bottom of the seventh inning, and Acheson launched his second home run of the year, a two-run blast to left field, to get UE back to within four runs at 6-2. The Purple Aces would then continue the seventh inning rally by loading the bases against the Bluejay bullpen and coaxing a bases-loaded walk to get within 6-3, but sophomore Jack VanLeur was able to get out of the jam with an infield ground out.
Creighton would add an unearned run in the top of the ninth inning to push the lead to 7-3, before UE sophomore third baseman Cody Fick launched his team-leading sixth home run of the year to left field to lead off the bottom of the ninth to provide the final score of 7-4. VanLeur worked around the Fick home run to toss 2.1 innings of one-run, two-hit relief to record his first career save for Creighton. Hellhake earned the victory by tossing 5.0 shutout innings of three-hit baseball, while walking four.
Creighton catcher Carson Vitale led all hitters in the contest with a 3-for-5 night at the plate. Soto and Cafaro also had two-hit efforts in Creighton’s 12-hit attack. Acheson, Fick, and Smith all had two-hit efforts for UE, with Acheson driving in two runs and Fick scoring two runs, as he extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
With the victory, Creighton improves to 13-14 overall and 6-1 in the MVC. Evansville, meanwhile, sees its two-game winning streak snapped, as the Purple Aces fall to 10-15 overall and 2-5 in the Valley. The series will continue on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. in a game that can be heard live in the Tri-State area on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.
