CU’s seesaw season sliding by

Photo by Matt Anzur

Freshman outfielder Jessica Wakasugi is tagged out against Nebraska on Tuesday.

By PETER DELLA PENNA
Assistant Sports Editor

Creighton is good at beating opposing teams this season; unfortunately, the Jays are just as good at beating themselves. Creighton lost 3-1 Tuesday night to No. 17 Nebraska 3-1 despite out-hitting the Huskers in the game. The Jays only took two of three from Evansville over the weekend despite shutting out the Purple Aces for all but one inning. The Jays now stand at 12-13 on the season.

“We gave them too many free passes,” said coach Brent Vigness. “We made just too many mistakes against a quality team.”

The Huskers scored one run each in the first and third innings courtesy of wild pitches from CU freshman starter Cassidy Nee. The Huskers’ final run came across in the fourth when Beth Ramsey misplayed a fly ball in left field.

“If we didn’t make the mistakes, we could say we played the best we could; but we didn’t, and we’re not satisfied with that,” Vigness said.

Nebraska took advantage of the miscues to escape with the victory, although players admit they were somewhat fortunate.

“I don’t really feel honestly like we beat Creighton, we just happened to have more runs than they did,” said Nebraska coach Rhonda Revelle.

Despite the blunders, the Jays had the bases loaded in the sixth inning with two outs and sophomore Mary Egan up at the plate. Revelle elected to keep freshman starter Molly Hill in the game, and it paid off when she struck out Egan to end the inning. The Jays did not threaten in the seventh and, despite having three hits to Nebraska’s one, were defeated. Nebraska moved to 21-6 with the win.

Over the weekend, the Jays lost to Evansville 3-2 in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader but bounced back to beat the Purple Aces by the mercy rule 8-0 in the late game and shut them out again 7-0 on Sunday. Evansville’s record after the weekend is 14-10.

Stephanie Cortese took a hard-luck loss in game one. After giving up a two-run homer to Evansville’s Brittany Herald and a two-out RBI double to Amanda Ockoman, Cortese pitched well for the rest of the way. The Jays’ offense was stagnant except for a Lauren Cisneros homer in the sixth inning that cut the lead to one.

The Jays came out slow in game two, but with the score tied at zero in the bottom of the fourth, a homerun by Egan had a defibrillator effect on the team. The jolt spurred the Jays toward a season-high 14 hits.

“I think that helped loosen our bats up and took some pressure off us,” Vigness said. “I think that was huge.”

The Jays were in a jam in the top of the sixth when Cassidy Nee stalled after a brilliant start. Creighton was up 4-0, but Evansville had the bases loaded and nobody out. Vigness brought on Cortese, who struck out the next two batters and forced a weak pop up to first to end the inning.

“To come in with the bases loaded and work us out of that she did a great job,” Vigness said.

On Sunday, Nee set a career high with 12 strikeouts and looked dominant in a complete game shutout.

“It’s what we know she can do,” Vigness said. “She just needs to know how good she is. If she stays aggressive she’s going to win us a ton of games.”

Lauren Cisneros hit her third home run of the series to lead the Jays over Evansville.

“I just try and go up there and swing the bat and get on every time,” Cisneros said.

The senior second baseman now has nine roundtrippers on the season and is only four short of the single season record of 13 and the career record of 37, both of which are held by former Jays softball star Stacey Rybar. Her next long ball will make her the first player in Creighton history with three seasons of double-digit home runs.

“Lauren’s having a great season,” Vigness said. “She walked a few times and I knew they were gonna pitch around her… but when she’s on the kind of roll she’s on, I want her to extend her strike zone a little bit because when she swings the bat she’s gonna put it in play and be solid for us.”

After a mid-week doubleheader at Kansas, the Jays will play a three-game series at home this weekend against Northern Iowa. The first game is at noon Saturday at the CU Sports Complex.