San Jose, Calif. — The Creighton Baseball dropped the series to San Jose State as the Bluejays fell 9-8 on Sunday, Feb. 23rd.
The loss evened Creightons record at 3-3 on the season, while San Jose State moved to 2-4.
The Bluejays opened the scoring with a pair of home runs in the second as both junior Garrett Gilbert as well as freshman Jack Grace blasted solo home runs to left field to put the Bluejays up 2-0. San Jose State, however, answered with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the second.
Creighton reclaimed the lead with three runs in the third as junior Parker Upton laced an RBI single to left-center, then junior David Vilches lifted a two-run double to left-center.
Creighton added a run in the fourth as Grace led off the frame with a double, then came home via a sacrifice fly from junior Will Hanafan.
The Spartans offense chipped away with a run in the third and two more in the fourth as the Bluejays clung to a 6-5 lead as the contest moved to the bottom of the eighth.
Bluejay closer senior John Sawoski entered the game in the seventh and was called for a questionable balk in the eighth. The balk call negated a Creighton strikeout that would have ended the inning and resulted in the ejection of head coach Ed Servais. Later in the at-bat, Spartan lead off hitter James Shimashita connected on a three-run home run to give San Jose State an 8-6 lead.
Creighton rallied to tie the game in the ninth on solo blasts from Upton and Vilches, but the Spartans plated the decisive run in the bottom half of the inning.
Sakowski was the tough luck loser in the game, falling to 1-1 on the season. Sakowski allowed four runs on four hits in 2.2 innings.
Spartan reliever Nicholas Morales moved to 1-1 on the season, allowing two runs on three hits in two innings of work.
Creighton returns to the diamond on Friday, Feb. 28th as the Bluejays begin a three game series with UNLV at 8:00 pm.
