The Saint Louis University baseball team lost a pair of road games to Creighton last weekend and saw their series finale cancelled for the second week in a row due to inclement weather.
Suspect pitching and inopportune errors were too much for the Billikens to overcome in their series-opening 13-12 loss last Friday.
The Billikens trailed 1-0 in the fourth inning, when senior shortstop Pat Steinhoff laced an RBI single to right field to tie the game at 1-1.
SLU scored two runs the following inning off a bases-loaded double by sophomore catcher Bill Musselman. The Billikens took a 4-1 lead when sophomore third baseman Casey Moore scored on a double play ball.
Creighton got one run back in the fifth inning before exploding for a five-run sixth to take a 7-4 lead. The Bluejays hit four consecutive two-out singles off sophomore Ryan Bird that plated two runs. Junior Etienne Ratte-Delorme relieved Bird and allowed two more runs after walking a batter and hitting another. Freshman Eric Brewer recorded the final out and got SLU out of the inning.
The Billikens responded to the Bluejays with a five-run inning of their own to take a 9-7 lead.
Two-out singles by junior outfielders Jon Guyre and Matt Gerst and a double by senior first baseman Drew Eder were responsible for the Billikens' offensive explosion in the seventh.
The Billikens, however, could not hold the lead. Two walks and an error loaded the bases for the Bluejays in the bottom half of the seventh, and a bases-loaded triple by Zach Daeges put Creighton back on top 10-9.
After the Billikens opened the bottom of the eighth with an error, the Bluejays scored two more runs on three singles to take a 12-9 lead going into the ninth.
The Billikens refused to quit, scoring three runs in the inning. Senior leftfielder Johnny Sweeney's double brought the Billikens within a run, and they eventually tied the game on a single by senior second baseman Patrick Valdez.
Sophomore Eric Rohr had the Billikens one strike away from a victory, but Creighton third baseman Gabe Lapito doubled in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.
"We swung the bats well. We had over 10 hits and scored 12 runs," Musselman said. "But we gave Creighton extra outs by committing errors, and we could have gotten the win if we hadn't done that."
"We came back to overcome three different deficits, but defensively we were unable to hold our leads," Eders said.
The second game of the series, a tough day at the plate and in the field for the Billikens, resulted in an 11-1 loss.
Two five-run innings in the second and the fourth put Creighton up 10-0. The Billikens mustered just four hits, and their only run came in the ninth inning off an error and a wild pitch.
Starting pitcher Tim Landy gave up nine hits and nine runs in 3.1 innings of work.
"I didn't have my good stuff and the bats were silent," Landy said. "Pitching and defense are the two biggest parts of the game. If you don't have those two things, then you have no chance of winning, and I definitely didn't have that today."
"I think at times we tried to do too much offensively rather than doing the little things," Valdez said. "We have a young staff and we need some key pitchers to get healthy before we can really judge the depth of our rotation."
Of the 24 runs allowed by the Billikens over the two games, 15 came in a span of three innings.
"If we can avoid the big innings by the opposing team, we will be successful," Musselman said.
The Billikens (1-3) will look to rebound this weekend when they travel to Alabama for a three-game set against Troy.
"We just need to find a way to put it all together, and it's early, so we have time to do so," Landy said. "I have a good feeling about this team's resilience."
