The Bears baseball team came out on top of a close game last Wednesday with an 8-7 victory over the Creighton University Blue Jays.
The Bears outnumbered the Blue Jays in hits 13-7 and in strikeouts 10-7.
Bears’ senior designated hitter Jonathan Houston got three hits at five bats, junior third baseman Bryan Willson got two hits at four bats and senior second baseman Zack Dickson got two at three bats.
Junior pitcher Dustin Ward got four strikeouts, while freshman pitcher Jackson Lowery, sophomore pitcher John Kordsmeier and junior pitcher Andy Steinmetz all had two.
The bears made six pitcher changes throughout the game.
“We got conference coming up this weekend,” coach Allen Gum said. “It was a good chance to get some guys an inning here, inning there and get some work without overusing them so they can still throw this weekend.”
The Bears went neck and neck with the Blue Jays for the first four innings. Then both teams went four innings without scoring a run.
The first hit of the game came from the Blue Jays’ junior designated hitter Michael Mutcheson. It was a grounder past first base as he got the single.
Mutcheson stole second base before Blue Jays’ junior first baseman Nick Judkins dropped a sacrifice bunt for Mutcheson to advance to third.
After the Blue Jays’ first run, another run shortly after was given up due to the Bears’ sophomore pitcher Jim Youngblood overthrow to first base in an attempt to pick off the runner.
“He went to pick and he turned, he didn’t have the handle on the ball right and he just let it go,” Gum said. “Those things happen sometimes so you just have to overcome it and keep moving forward.”
Senior right fielder Trever Adams hit past third scoring an RBI.
Sophomore right fielder Ethan Harris got the Bears started in their half of the first inning with a fly ball between center field right field and second base. The ball was missed by the Blue Jays’ defenders.
Houston belted a two-run homer on a full count with Harris on second from stealing.
“I felt like I haven’t seen the ball pretty well lately and I was looking off to see if I got it,” Houston said.
The game tied at two at the end of the first inning.
The Bears took the lead in the second inning as they scored two more runs and held the Blue Jays.
After getting on base from a hit to center field, Dickson advanced to second as senior short stop Kyle Prevett dropped a sacrifice bunt.
Harris managed to make it to first with his grounder to second base as the defender fumbled with the ball.
Harris stole second again.
Harris and Dickson were batted in to end the inning with the Bears’ 4-2 lead.
Not many runs came in for either team. The Blue Jays outscored the Bears 1-0 in the third inning. They were still trailing 4-3.
In the fourth inning, Blue Jays’ junior third baseman Chance Ross dropped a bunt to load the bases after the previous batters got on base from walks. The rally started Mutcheson’s hit to right field for a double, driving in two runs in the process.
With two runners still on base, senior short stop Jimmy Swift hit to center field to score two more runs.
Dickson got the Bears’ half of the inning started a line drive past second.
After Dickson’s second-base advancement from Prevett’s sacrifice bunt, Harris got a hit and placed runners on first and third.
The Blue Jays made a pitcher change after that as Houston stepped to the plate.
Houston managed to get a hit and drive in Dickson.
Junior third baseman Bryan Wilson followed up and got a hit for two runs that tied the game at the end of this inning at seven.
From the fifth inning through the eighth inning, the game remained tied as neither team scored a run.
In that period, there were only two hits and they both came from the Bears.
It the fifth and sixth innings, the teams had back to back three-up-three-downs.
On the Bears’ defense in the eighth inning, junior pitcher Dustin Ward got three back to back strike out.
“We just kept playing,” Gum said. “They brought lefty in right there and that kind of kept us off guard a little bit. If we could just hold them right there we felt pretty confident that we would get our hits sooner or later.”
When the bottom of the ninth came, the Bears got the hits they needed to win the game.
With senior left fielder Michael Pair on second because of his double with a hit to center field, Houston made a hit to center field as Pair ran home for the run that ended the game for the Bears’ victory.
