The Bluejay Underground: A Creighton Sports Message Board

Tonight was season opening baseball dinner at Cascio's. Was a great turnout. Ed was very gracious and excited it seems for the season and to have this last season and talked about how proud he is of how far the program has come. Lots of former players were there. Kingston spoke as well and told a story of how he and Ed got into a shouting match in 2010 when Illinois St. played at Creighton and Kingston coached Illinois St. He said if you would have told him at that time that they'd be coaching together in 2025, he would have said "I don't think there's a chance of that happening." But he said all is going well, and they are on the same page about making this season as successful as possible. And he was clear... he said he wants it on the record that their goal for this season is the NCAA tournament. Which was nice to hear, especially considering I took some flack on this board last season for saying our goal should be the tournament but at minimum the conference tournament! In any case, pumped for the season. Don't shoot the messenger, but word is that Dom is close to being back and able to pitch, which would be a huge help this season to have him back. And I believe Sailors and McLean are healthy as well. Hopefully Nissen and Wendt take another step and pitch even better in their second seasons. Ed did say that this team is deep and is a veteran team, so he sounded pretty confident as well while noting that we play a challenging schedule the first few weeks on the road. We do start a week earlier than most years at home, but Ed said they've been practicing outside for most of the last week, and the team is anxious to get the season started. Also sat next to the parents of a transfer pitcher from South Carolina who had committed before Kingston got released there and took the associate coach job here. Met their son... he's pretty big. Hopefully a big arm. Also have a freshman pitcher from Toronto that is 6'4, 220. Hopefully he's got some arm speed as well, because he looks very strong for a freshman. Greg Olson was the keynote speaker. He didn't play for Creighton but won 4 straight Nebraska high school state titles in the 80s. Won rookie of the year in the MLB and played with a bunch of hall of famers. He's famous for not only being a great closer and having a 14 year career but for being told by Buck Showalter to intentionally walk Barry Bonds with the bases loaded one year. He gave a great recount of that memory and of his time playing with Bo Jackson, Cal Ripken Jr., Frank Thomas, and being managed by Frank Robinson. Fascinating stuff. He also gave some great life lessons and baseball metaphors for life to the players and the crowd... on letting fear of failure motivate you but at the same time remaining focused on doing your job for your team and on looking in the mirror and recognizing what you need to improve on each day. With his theme of focusing on improving even a little thing each day and Kingston's and Ed's theme of playing for each other and being a team of integrity and strong character, I think this team can do some damage. Hopefully finally make the conference tourney again but do some damage in the regionals. Less than 2 weeks to go. Go Jays.

Great info. Thanks for sharing. Good to have some optimism going into the season.

They need to advertise the steak fry better, I missed it. Thanks for the review, I hope you are right about this year, would help make the transition smooth and give Ed a the farewell he deserves.

They definitely need to advertise it better. It was a good crowd and fun to see all the former players too but nowhere near the crowd they get for the basketball luncheons also at Casio's. I only heard about it through my brother. I hadn't seen it advertised or received any email about it even as a baseball season ticket holder, which is odd.

But yes, sure hope Ed has an awesome season that he deserves and that finishes in the NCAA tournament as Kingston said the goal was. I definitely feel there is optimism going into the season by both the players and coaches. Also optimism around the program in general. Word is that the baseball stadium is being built and will be finished in 2027. It'll be a practice facility for the CWS, with the exact same outfield fence dimensions/layout overall and will even face the same direction. People at the dinner were saying that they think we will play some home games there but not all, and we will still play some bigger games such as the military night, Nebraska games, other big non-conference games perhaps or even conference games on a nice/warm Friday evening at Charles Schwab. But we'll play some at the new stadium, which will hold 3 or 4k. So exciting times around the program for sure. I think that definitely shows Blossom's commitment to bringing baseball to the level of success that the other sports have had - as was evident in that great article about the athletic department in the OWH over the weekend. Go Jays. 4 days til opening day!

Jays now share co-hosting status of CWS with UNO. Yay?

https://x.com/teampillen/status/1889787 ... CO0EbW4gxw

Realhoops wrote:Jays now share co-hosting status of CWS with UNO. Yay?

https://x.com/teampillen/status/1889787 ... CO0EbW4gxw

My guess is that this has to do with the practice field situation at Creighton. It's not much of a secret that the baseball practice field / intramural fields are terrible.

WyoJays wrote:

Realhoops wrote:Jays now share co-hosting status of CWS with UNO. Yay?

https://x.com/teampillen/status/1889787 ... CO0EbW4gxw

My guess is that this has to do with the practice field situation at Creighton. It's not much of a secret that the baseball practice field / intramural fields are terrible.

But they are building new ones

The season’s 7 hours old, and we’re 0-2.

Does not look like we have the offense to make the CWS. On the bright side, games will not take long to play.

We had a good offense last year and have most of the best hitters from last year back. We will be fine. The biggest sign of encouragement from the first two games is our pitching. We pitched 17 scoreless innings in a row after giving up the first runs in the first game, before giving up the winning runs in the second game. Also, it appears that that 6-4, 220 lb freshman pitcher from Toronto might be our closer. He pitched at the end of the game the other day and looked great. Also, Shane Wendt pitched well in his start, just came out after three innings because it's early in the season, and I'm sure Ed is building up the staff's endurance. In any case, I hope we get the game in tomorrow. It's been moved three times so far already because of bad weather. We need every change to get a quality win that we can get, and last season, we had so many dang cancelations especially home games due to all of the spring storms we had here. We can win this next one, and we'll be fine. It's a long season. UNCG is a quality opponent - had a good record last year - so this series shouldn't hurt our rpi down the road and may even help it, especially if we can salvage a win here tomorrow. Even with a loss, it won't be the end of the world, as road losses against solid teams don't hurt the rpi much. The main focus should be improving every week and getting some quality non-conference wins but also building for the conference so that we can actually make the conference tournament this year.