Creighton baseball had not won a game against Nebraska in nearly three years. That all changed Tuesday night as senior outfielder Brett Murray hit a walk-off single to propel the Bluejays to a 4-3 victory against the Huskers.
“I’m real proud of our guys and how they responded,” Creighton head coach Ed Servais said. “They heard a lot of noise the last couple of days about ‘seven straight, can you beat this team, and do you put too much pressure on yourself?’ I think they got tired of it. I certainly did.”
Nebraska started off the game with a 1-0 lead in the top of the second after sophomore Luis Alvarado hit a single that brought in Jake Meyers to score. Servais said he was proud of the way his team bounced back.
“They jumped out to a 1-0 lead and a lot of folks might have said ‘well here they go again’,” Servais said. “Our guys hung in there and responded.”
The Bluejays tied things up 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth when senior Ryan Fitzgerald hit a sacrifice fly that scored junior Daniel Woodrow.
Creighton found themselves knotted 3-3 with Nebraska in the bottom of the ninth, when senior Reagan Fowler doubled to left on the first pitch and advanced to third on a ground out the following play. Murray stepped up to the plate and hit a line-drive single over the heads of Nebraska’s infield and the celebration ensued.
“I was trying to get a good pitch to hit out into the outfield,” Murray said. “He came in with a fastball. I was obviously looking offspeed there, but I was just able to get my hands to it.”
Murray said it was a relief to finally take down the Cornhuskers, something he hadn’t done since he got to Creighton.
“I mean it feels good,” Murray said. “We try to just approach it like any other game, but ever since I’ve been here we haven’t beaten Nebraska and a lot of the other guys are in the same boat. I knew that we just wanted to get this one today and we were able to play a great game.”
Looking ahead, Creighton takes on South Dakota State tonight at 6:30 at TD Ameritrade Park. Nebraska will head to Ann Arbor for a weekend series with Michigan starting Friday at 5:02.
