Jays spoil Mavs opener, 10-3
Dax Roper’s dong went into the history books.
What a strange sensation it was to be at the ballpark Friday night.
Strange in the sense that we’re still in a pandemic. Strange in the sense that Creighton’s men’s basketball program is in a state of uncertain flux. Strange in the sense that the mayor of Omaha’s husband was found deceased in his home.
Yet with all of the tumult and turmoil, here it was; a 65 degree night, not a cloud in the sky, as two intra-city college baseball rivals played a delightful game of base. Between those white lines exist errors and successes, failures and sacrifices, wins and losses. It’s in those white lines where your gaze becomes transfixed, if you allow it to. It’s in those white lines that allows for ample conversation with folks you haven’t seen since the pandemic forced people into their homes. It’s in those white lines where the only thing more important than the last pitch is the next one, and Tal Anderson field hosted a getaway that was desperately needed.
The facility itself is remarkable. There wasn’t the iconic stale smell of hotdogs and Budweiser yet, but it’s coming. Besides the striking artificial turf, there wasn’t a lot of greenery around the area, but it’s coming. The Mavs themselves got shelled in the latter innings of the game, but with their own home field that isn’t attached to a city park more known for marijuana and frisbee golf, or a high school field across town that butts up against lush cornfields, this Omaha program is coming along as well.
Trev Alberts built it. Omahans came.
It was a spirited crowd, the cheers bounding off the press box glass I sat behind while contemplating the game and life. There were countless interactions with people who hadn’t met in a while, quick catch-ups, and blow-by fist bumps, regaining a familiarity with one another while gaining a familiarity with a stadium and a program. Those same people clapped when appropriate and groaned when it was time to do it. It was baseball. It was beautiful.
Amidst the turmoil, here we were, as a collective, likely participating in a super-spreader event, and watching some fucking baseball. I loved it. If I’m going to die because of anything, I hope it’s because of baseball.
Chris Esposito - the Mavs mad mashing right fielder - demolished a baseball, getting pure barrel on a Dylan Tebrake offering, and raced around the bags for a triple. He’d get driven in just a few pitches later, giving Omaha a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
Tebrake settled in after that, and despite some struggles with command, he pitched a pretty excellent game. His breaking ball worked wonders setting up his fastball in deep counts, and his performance climaxed in his final inning. After beaning the first batter, he proceeded to strike out the next, then gave up a rocket double into the left center gap, allowing one to score. With just one out and a runner in scoring position, Ed Servais left in his Friday night ace to face Esposito again.
“To his credit he found himself,” Ed Servais said of Tebrake, “he found a little rhythm and he got us 15 outs.”
Tebrake induced a flyball into right, a fluttering, sputtering, doinker that looked sure to settle to the turf. It was madness watching this ball tail downward, yet right fielder Jared Wegner was in hot pursuit. Folks who know baseball know this collision course well, and Wegner had a bead on it and with perfect timing - as it always seems to be - he left his feet and dove for the ball, securing it for the second out of the inning. It was a masterful defensive play, one that would typically run ad nauseum on SportsCenter, if the program still ran highlights.
With two outs, Servais intentionally walked designated hitter Ryan Doran, and set-up a potentially cataclysmic showdown with veteran shortstop Keil Krumwiede.
Tebrake’s fastball was absolutely living, and Krumwiede tried to catch up to it, falling victim to it, and becoming Tebrake’s seventh strikeout on the evening. As the three-year sophomore pitcher turned to the dugout, he pulled his black gaiter over his mouth, yelling into the black void.
Creighton’s offense made it a point to get runners on base and fail to score in the first three innings of action. I refer to this as “March Baseball.” It’s amazing in its consistency.
Andrew Meggs walked, took second on a passed ball, and was joined on the basepaths by Ryan Mantle in the first inning. Neither scored.
Sterling Hayes singled and Dax Roper hit into a double play in the second inning.
Parker Upton deposited a liner into the right center gap to lead-off the third inning, was joined by Meggs on the basepaths after a walk, but neither came around to score.
Then all hell broke loose in the fourth.
Wegner opened it up with a double down the left field line, a scorcher, and was soon moved to third on a base hit to right by Hayes. With runners on the corners and no one out, it was a surety that someone would score this inning, and when Dax Roper got beaned, the bases were loaded with no one out. The chances of no one scoring were pretty slim at this point. Just put the ball in play. Easy, right?
Well, back-to-back strikeouts put that surety into jeopardy. This left lead-off hitter David Webel in a precarious situation. If he failed to drive in at least one run, would the offense be able to recover? Is the momentum swing proving to be too much to handle? Can my brittle bones and my weak heart handle this sort of disappointment?
Webel smashed a grounder to Krumwiede. It looked to be a routine defensive play, the ball bouncing sharply in a straight line, right to the veteran shortstop. His glove open, his body moving left, it looked to be a disappointing end to an inning that showed so much promise.
Except… the ball took one hot hop and under Krumwiede’s glove it went, into center, free from its leather trappings. With the ball escaping, with two outs, the Jays runners wheeled their way around as Wegner and Hayes crossed home safely. After Webel swiped second without a throw, Meggs lifted a ball to deep center, only for it to be caught for the third out.
After four it was a 2-2 ballgame.
This was all the momentum the Creighton offense needed. Break the seal, then proceed to pour it on. Alan Roden, the magnificent designated hitter for the Jays, continued his supernova hotstreak and, well, drew a walk to start the fifth. Mantle sac bunted him to second, and he scored on a Wegner single to left. The Jays loaded the bases again, and the Mavs walked in a run, making it a 4-2 ballgame.
After the aforementioned bottom of the fifth, it was 4-3, the scoreboard just begging for more runs, so the Jays obliged in the sixth.
Meggs led it off with a double to right, then was driven home on a single by Roden.
Paul Bergstrom took over pitching duties for the 6th, 7th, and 8th. He was electric, getting himself in and out of jam after jam, and keeping the Mavs off the board completely. The lefty from Mount Prospect, Illinois made it a point to toy with the Omaha faithful yo-yoing baserunners and starting fires, then letting his defense turn double-plays and extinguish the flames, then turning to his arsenal to accrue strikeouts.
“I can’t say enough about Paul giving us three innings,” Servais said of his lefty slinger, “That’s a long stint for a bullpen guy. He’s more geared for about three outs, and for him to give us nine outs was huge.”
His offense took care of the rest.
In the seventh inning, the Mavericks sent out Zach Munson to pitch to Dax Roper. The first pitch went high and tight. The second pitch went behind Roper, and as if he was trying to send some sort of agro-message, he beaned Roper in the shoulder with the third pitch. Roper, who’d already been hit once in the game, took a few aggressive steps towards Munson before tossing his bat aside and taking first. It’s unknown to me what words he exchanged with Munson, but it clearly didn’t help the pitcher’s confidence. David Vilches popped out, then Munson walked Upton, delivering the final blow to the pitcher’s outing.
What happened next is hard to explain.
In the next at-bat, David Webel slapped a single into right field. Roper went from second to third, getting the stopsign from Servais. Upton blitzed through second base and got halfway to third before seeing the stopsign. The Mavs got the ball into the infield and chaos began to ensue.
Upton, caught in a pickle, began retreating back to second base, trying to bait the Maverick catcher, who held the ball, into throwing him into a rundown, and potentially getting Roper home. The catcher stood steadfast, keeping both Roper and Upton at bay.
All the while, Webel sprinted and took second base, becoming the fail-safe in case Upton was tagged out. The Maverick catcher followed Upton back to second from third, and Webel baited the catcher into following him back to first.
So, there’s Roper safely at third, off the bag like he’s ready to take home at any moment, Upton now safely at second, and Webel begging the catcher to get into a throwdown to, at the very least, become enough of a distraction to get Roper home.
Instead, the catcher played it safe, toeing the green artificial turf with the brown faux-dirt of the infield, tenuously following Webel back to first base. Eventually, Webel got the throw to first, which was off-line, and the first baseman had to strain to get it. Webel slid safely back into first.
Bases loaded. When it should’ve been runners on the corners, one out.
Magnificent baserunning. The pinnacle of college baseball. Straight-up outsmarted them.
Meggs followed this circus with an absolutely laced liner back up the middle to score Roper and Upton, pushing the lead to 7-3. Roden stayed hot, mashing a double to the right-center wall, falling just short of a dongshot, making it an 8-3 ballgame.
That’s all the Jays needed, really. Anything more would just be a show of force; theatrics in proving who the fuck runs this town.
So, naturally, Dax Roper blasted one of the longest home runs these eyes have ever seen, an absolute monster two-run shot, the ball careening off the sloping hill off of Center street.
“Dax had a rough weekend last weekend,” Servais said of the slugger, “We dropped him in the order… to hopefully get the pressure off of [him]. We need him. He has the ability to do that - not only hit homeruns and doubles but every lineup needs a guy with the physicality of a guy like Dax to set your lineup.”
Ben Dotzler polished off the ninth inning.
It was everything that the city needed, a distraction from everything going on around us, and a reminder to who runs college baseball in this city. The ballpark was properly christened with a Bluejay win. For those two and a half hours on a brisk and beautiful Friday night, a moment of normalcy echoed into the zeitgeist. Fleeting, perhaps, but relieving nonetheless.
The Jays will take on Omaha again at 3pm on Saturday afternoon, a day that calls for highs around 69, cloudless skies, accompanied with a nice 10mph breeze out of the southeast.
Or, as they say, baseball weather.
