Jays fall 2-1 to Winthrop as the offense disappears into the void.

When you wake up in the wee hours of the morning and head to the ball diamond only to see it covered with a large white tarp, you begin to perspire. The fear of a rain out begins rattling through your blood, causing your eyes to burst from their sockets, for a day without baseball is a day that truly isn’t worth living.

The tarp came off and it was glorious, the temperature stayed in the 50’s and the sun never came out because Nebraska is a wasteland from November to mid-April, with no end of the torturous climate in sight until you’re forced to sit through a 4-hour dongfest with the humidity creeping up to 90% while the thermometer reads upwards of 95. Feast or famine.

Feast or famine. A phrase that perfectly encapsulates the pitching performance that Keith Rogalla exudes from every pore in his body. Dripping with an unsteady emotion, his fastball can blow hitters away — if it’s located properly. That’s the one fall back of Chief Keith’s pitching abilities, as his stuff can overpower but when he’s off - like he was in the second inning of this ballgame - he can give ballgames away.

In that aformentioned second inning he got the first two batters he faced into full counts and then walked them. One scored on a fielder’s choice after Chief Keith recorded a strikeout, the other scored when he walked two more batters.

That was all Winthrop could do offensively. Chief Keith summoned his spiritual advisers - Jimi Hendrix and an angry Irish drunk from 1922 - and cooled off for the remainder of his game. His final line was 5.2 innings pitched, 2K’s, 5BB, 2ER, on 107 pitches with just 60 strikes thrown. He’s had better days, but at least he performed - unlike the offense.

The Bluejays, after pouring on 7 runs on Friday, became a bit timid at the plate. There were more batters watching third strike in the past two games than I’d ever seen before. The aggression was lacking, the drive to swing the bat and the lust to score runs faded on Friday’s eve, and suddenly this ballclub that’s hung dong more times in a month than any Jays squad from the past 5 years, went silently into the grey Sunday sky.

That run they scored was by the dong hanging maestro Michael Emodi, who doubled to start the 6th, got to third on a sac fly, then proceeded home on another sac fly. The Jays threatened to score runs in the 8th, when Tommy Luevano acquired first after a goof up by the Winthrop right fielder, then proceeded to second after Michael Emodi pounded a grounder between the shortstop and third baseman. With two on and one out, Riley Landuyt proceeded to strike out and Bryce Only lasered one right to the waiting left fielder.

Rally over.

Game over.

Some highlights featured freshman hurler Jackson Vescelus, who threw just 3 pitches and acquired the third out after Rogalla exited in the 6th, and Grant Spranger, who came in and got two quick outs before being pulled for allowing a basehit. Ethan DeCaster was dynamite, as was David Gerber, which is a damn shame considering how poor the offense was.

Creighton dropped to 8-14 on the year and will head to Lincoln to play the Cornchuckers of Nebraska.

Stats!!!

CREIGHTON

WINTHROP