Omaha claims season sweep over Creighton

OMAHA, Neb. -- The Omaha Mavericks are state baseball champions in a way.

The Mavericks claimed a 5-3 win over Creighton on Tuesday, giving Omaha a perfect 2-0 mark against the Bluejays. Omaha also went 2-2 against Nebraska during the season.

Nebraska and Creighton played once during the season, with the Bluejays beating the Huskers.

Omaha withstood a late rally by Creighton in Tuesday night's game at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
Omaha improved to 22-24 on the season with the victory, while Creighton dropped to 25-13.

A trio of former Bluejays helped Omaha score the first two runs of the game. In the fifth inning, Jack Lombardi doubled and came around to score the game's first run when Cam Frederick singled to left. One inning later Will Hanafan singled to plate Eddie Satisky for the second run. The Mavericks made it 3-0 after scoring on a wild pitch.

UNO added a fourth run in the top of the seventh inning as Satisky doubled home Noah Greise.

Creighton cut into the deficit after the seventh inning stretch as Andrew Meggs singled to plate Nolan Clifford, who had reached via a one-out walk.

The Bluejays continued to apply pressure against Maverick closer Joey Machado in the eighth inning. Machado struck out the first two batters of the inning before pinch-hitter Jack Peluso blooped a single over the pitcher's mound, then Kyle Hess walked on four pitches and both men moved up 90 feet on a passed ball before scoring on Clifford's double into the left field corner.

The Mavericks added their fifth run of the evening when Mike Boeve singled to open the ninth inning, moved to second on a passed ball and scored on a Greise single. Boeve, who went 2-for-5, extended his hitting streak to 22 straight games.

Alan Roden singled with one out in the ninth inning to allow CU to bring the tying run to the plate, but Machado struck out CU sluggers Jared Wegner and Jack Grace to notch his team-leading fourth save of the season. All seven outs for Machado came via the strikeout.

Roden led all players with three hits on the evening to extend his on-base streak to 26 stragiht games, but Wegner had his 33 game on-base streak snapped after an 0-for-5 night. Creighton tied a stadium record by using 10 pitchers, with Marc Lidd (2-1) picking up his first loss in three decisions after allowing the initial run of the evening.