BAKERSFIELD, Calif.—Creighton took advantage of four CSU Bakersfield errors to score four unearned runs as the Bluejays took game two of the opening weekend series 5-1.       

Luke Horanski's sacrifice fly in the top of the second plated Ryan Fitzgerald for the first run of the game. Garrett Pierce's (Sr., Bakersfield, Calif., Centennial HS) infield single in the bottom of the second scored Chance Gusbeth (Jr., Lancaster, Calif., Desert Christian HS) to tie the game at one.

Harrison Crawford singled to open the sixth and moved to second on a Steven Gee (So., Taft, Calif., Taft Union HS) wild pitch. Horanski flew out to right as Crawford advanced to second. James Barragan (Sr., Bakersfield, Calif., Stockdale HS) came on in relief to face Matt Gandy. Gandy's grounder to Ryan Grotjohn (So., Cave Creek, Ariz., Brophy College Prep) at third, but Crawford was ruled to have interfered with Grotjohn and was called out.  

Kevin Connolly singled to left which moved Gandy to second. Barragan struck out Daniel Woodrow to keep the game tied. CSUB stranded runners on first and second in the bottom of the sixth.

Nicky Lopez reached on an error for Creighton to open the seventh. With one out Brett Murray recorded his third hit of the night, a single to right to push Lopez to third. Fitzgerald's attempt at a safety squeeze was thrown away by Grotjohn. Both runners scored with Fitzgerald advancing to third. Fitzgerald scored on a Barragan wild pitch for the 4-1 advantage.  Barragan got the final two outs to get the Roadrunners out of the inning.

“It was rough night defensively for us tonight,” said CSUB assistant coach Bob Macaluso. “We got a couple of guys out of position and that came back and bit us a little bit. It's early, and we have some work to do.”

A fourth unearned Bluejays' (2-0) run came across in the top of the eighth.  CSUB had the tying run on deck in the eighth, but Creighton's fourth pitcher of the game, Mark Lukowski struck out Gusbeth and got Pierce to ground out for the final two outs of the inning.

With one out in the ninth, Jordie Hein (Sr., Scottsdale, Ariz., Chapparal HS chased Lukowski with a single up the middle. Max Ising headed to the bump and he struck out David Metzgar (So., Lancaster, Calif., Paraclete HS). Mylz Jones (Jr., Palmdale, Calif., Paraclete HS) singled to left to advance Hein to third. Joey Sanchez (So., Pico Rivera, Calif., El Rancho HS) hit a ball back to Ising who threw to first to end the game.

Gusbeth and Grotjohn both had two hits for CSUB (0-2). Connolly was the only other Bluejays' player with multiple hits as he had two. The Roadrunners outhit Creighton 11-8, but left 12 men on base. The Bluejays left 11 on the base paths. The Creighton pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts. Gee and Barragan had nine.

“I liked how Gee threw tonight,” Macaluso said. “He fell behind a couple of times, but he battled and gave us a chance to win. Barragan came in and did the same thing. He did not get the defensive support we would like to see. I liked the way we swung the bats tonight, we hit the ball hard. I thought we could have done a better job of hitting with runners in scoring position. We need to continue to have quality at-bats.”

The series concludes Sunday at 12 p.m. Tickets are available at Vallitix.com

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