The Creighton baseball team begins its 2017 campaign with several new faces.
Creighton returns six key players including the entire weekend rotation for the 2017 season. The Bluejays return just one starter from last season, catcher Michael Emodi.
The Bluejays are entering the 2017 season with one of the most experience pitching staffs in the BIG EAST. The weekend rotation returners include All-BIG EAST Preseason honoree Rollie Lacy, Jeff Albrecht and Keith Rogalla along with setup man Ethan DeCaster and closer David Gerber.
"I believe that those pitchers who are returning will give us an opportunity for the new players to kind of get caught up a little bit in some of these earlier season games here in the middle of February," head coach Ed Servais said.
Creighton's schedule includes 31 home games along with the BIG EAST Tournament May 25th-28th. They will start the season with 11 games on the road starting in Birmingham, Alabama. Creighton battles UAB Feb. 17-19 for its first weekend series. The following weekend the Bluejays travel to California for the Santa Clara tournament.
"We're all trying to build confidence and momentum into that first game," Gerber said.
Creighton faces CSU Bakersfield for its home opener March 10-12. The Bluejays go against Nebraska in Lincoln Tuesday, April 4th and again at home April 18th and May 10th.
The top four teams in the BIG EAST will play for the BIG EAST Championship in Omaha May 25-28.
