The World-Herald's Gene Schinzel compiled everything you need to know about Creighton's upcoming series against Wichita State.
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2 p.m. Saturday: CU RH Ryan Tapani (3-0, 1.57 ERA) vs. RH Codi Heuer (3-0, 4.09)
Noon Sunday: CU RH Mitch Ragan (1-1, 4.64) vs. LH Liam Eddy (4-0, 1.05)
Scouting Creighton: The Bluejays (9-5) play their home opener against their former Missouri Valley Conference rival. The series was shortened to two games as Friday’s contest was canceled because of rain. … CU’s offense has been clicking so far, averaging 7.7 runs per game. In Tuesday’s win over Kansas State, the Jays hit three homers, giving them 11 for the season. They hit 28 homers last season and 18 in 2016. … CU swept the Big East weekly honors as Ryan Tapani was pitcher of the week after he struck out 10 in a career-best seven innings, while catcher Michael Emodi was the player of the week after hitting three home runs. Emodi has six homers this season.
Scouting Wichita State: The Shockers, 28-30 last season, were picked to finish sixth in the American Athletic preseason poll, but they are off to a 12-3 start. Ranked 20th in the Collegiate Baseball poll, WSU swept a three-game series against UNO and took two of three from Nebraska. … The Shockers are showing pop at the plate as well with 19 home runs. They’ve been at their best with the bases loaded, going 6 of 9 with five grand slams. Omaha Roncalli graduate Alec Bohm has a three of those slams, leading the nation in that category. For the season, Bohm is hitting .340 with 18 RBIs and a .736 slugging percentage. … WSU is coming off a 9-4 loss at No. 24 Missouri on Tuesday.
Dugout chatter: Tapani has been a steadying force for CU pitching staff as he hasn’t allowed more than one earned run and worked at least five innings in each of his four starts. But as a whole, the Bluejays have a team ERA of 5.27 and opponents are batting .301. ... Eddy, who is slated to start Sunday, is the second freshman pitcher in WSU history to win his first four starts. ... Creighton won the last meeting with the Shockers, 4-3 last April. WSU leads the overall series 113-48-1.