Creighton Softball Advances to Third Straight BIG EAST Finals

ROSEMONT, Ill. – Freshman Keegan Mayhue launched a three-run walk-off home run and freshman Audrey Gilman fired a complete-game shutout to guide the Creighton Softball team to a 9-0 run-rule victory over fourth-seeded Butler on Friday afternoon in its second elimination game of the 2026 BIG EAST Softball Championships, Presented by Jeep.

Creighton (31-26) advances to the BIG EAST Title game for the third consecutive season, where they will face second-seeded UConn at 1 p.m. Central in a game that will be aired on ESPN+. Creighton will need to take down the Huskies twice on Saturday to advance to the program’s 13th NCAA Tournament in program history.  

For the third game in a row, the Jays struck first with a pair of runs in the first inning as Mayhue and freshman Zoey Greenwood delivered back-to-back RBI doubles to give Creighton a 2-0 lead. 

After two scoreless frames, Creighton got back to work, plating three on four hits in the bottom of the fourth inning to extend their lead to 5-0. Junior Avery Barnard got the Jays going with an RBI single to left center and came around to score two batters later on an RBI single from classmate Kaelan Schultz. Sophomore Tara Vandewater would then follow with an RBI double into the right centerfield gap to move the Bluejays advantage to 5-0. 

CU pushed the lead to 6-0 in the home half of the sixth using a safety squeeze from Vandewater before Mayhue, the BIG EAST Freshman of the Year, unleashed on her team-leading 13th home run of the season to cap off the 9-0 run-rule victory. 

The Bluejays finished the contest with 10 combined hits, led by Mayhue with three hits and four RBI, with both Schultz and Barnard each contributing two hits apiece.
Gilman (16-9) picked up the victory in the circle, firing her third complete-game shutout of the season.

Butler, which upset top-seed Providence in the first round on Thursday, lost both games on Friday and ended its season with a 25-21 overall record.