Servais believes red-hot Creighton team will be ready for electric Arkansas atmosphere

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

When Creighton head baseball coach Ed Servais announced before the season that the 2025 campaign would be this last, going out in a blaze of glory was just a dream.

But as his third-seeded Bluejays (42-14) prepare to play top-seeded Arkansas (43-13) Saturday night at 7 p.m. in an NCAA Tournament Fayetteville Regional winners bracket game, the dream is still alive.

The winner advances to a Sunday night championship game while the loser will play in a 2 p.m. elimination game against North Dakota State, the fourth seed that ousted Kansas 4-3 in Saturday’s first game.

“Obviously you have to go through Arkansas if you want to advance,” Servais said. “There are no ifs, ands or buts about that.

“I think these players have earned the right to be in that atmosphere tomorrow night. We have got 42 wins, they have won a lot of games obviously on the road.”

Servais, who will turn things over to former South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston at season’s end, watched his team down second-seeded Kansas 11-4 on Friday night.

The Bluejays , who have won 4 of their past 15 games, exploded with seven runs in the sixth inning to blow open the game with the Jayhawks.

That game was played with much fewer fans in the stands than the 10,000-plus expected at Baum-Walker Stadium on Saturday night.

“We haven’t see the quite the kind of environment we are going to be in tomorrow yet, but they are ready,” Servais said. “That’s what I told them after the game – ‘you have earned the right to be in that situation tomorrow night.

“So I don’t want you to think about it too much tonight. I want you to not what you did today, but tomorrow when you wake up, you’ll be excited about this opportunity.

“All you want as a player is an opportunity. And we have an opportunity tomorrow night.’”

Servais’ club got a big lift from only having to use three pitchers on Friday night.

“If we had burned a lot of our bullpen tonight, it would have been advantage Arkansas,” Servais said. “But we have all our guys there that we want available tomorrow night.

“Not only do we get a chance to play a quality team like Arkansas, but we get a chance to play them with some guys.

“Sometime you play these games and you don’t have you bullpen rested, you don’t have you starting pitcher that you got out there, but we have everything lined up for it to be an interesting game.”

Servais is familiar with Arkansa and long-time head coach Dave Van Horn.

“I have seen them on TV a couple of different times. They are on TV quite often with their Thursday night games in the SEC,” Servais said. “And I’ve known Coach Van Horn. Coach was at Nebraska when I started at Creighton. So we go way back.

“Obviously it is a very offensive club. I know we are going to see a really good left hander (Zach Root) tomorrow or I would assume that is who they are going to throw. So we are going to see a little different pitching tomorrow night than we did tonight.

“Probably a little more athleticism on the base paths than what we saw tonight. So we are going to have to do a better job of focusing on the running game. W didn’t have to focus so much on that tonight.

“So they are a well-rounded team. Some think he most rounded team in the country. I can’t say that because I don’t have enough to compare with, but I can tell you this much, we are anxious to get to that environment tomorrow.

“I think with the veteran team what we have, the environment won’t phase us. The competition is going to be outstanding, but the environment won’t effect these guys at all.”

Photo by John D. James