Will Robertson already has experience playing on the biggest stage in high school baseball. Now he's about to get his chance to do so at the collegiate level.
Robertson and the Creighton Bluejays open the NCAA Regionals as the No. 2 seed in the Corvallis, Ore., region. They will face No. 3 seed Michigan at 3 p.m. CDT today at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.
"We're very excited for this upcoming series," Robertson said in a phone interview Tuesday. "It's been seven years since Creighton has gotten to a regional."
Robertson, a 2016 Fatima High School graduate, is the starting right fielder for the Bluejays. The junior helped Creighton to an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament by winning the Big East Tournament on Saturday in Mason, Ohio.
Creighton defeated Xavier 9-8 in the championship game, winning its first Big East Tournament title since joining the conference before the 2014 season.
"This weekend was amazing," Robertson said. "Last year, we didn't get to make the conference tournament, so it was nice to be a part of it this year."
Creighton, the Big East's No. 1 seed, opened the tournament with a 10-9 win against Seton Hall in the first round, then won a slugfest 17-13 against St. John's in the semifinals.
In the three games, Robertson batted 5-for-11 with six RBI, five runs scored and a pair of home runs.
"This was the first time playing at Prasco Park for me, and there's nothing like it," Robertson said. "The ball really flies, it was fun as a hitter. It made the games a little interesting, to say the least."
In the championship game, Robertson was 2-for-3 from the cleanup spot with a two-run home run in the fourth inning. It was his 13th homer of the season.
"That's the first one I've had in a championship game since I've been here at Creighton, which is awesome, helping the team get the win and celebrating with my team at the end," Robertson said.
"To win a Big East championship, working for it for three years, it's hard to beat that."
Prior to the 2019 season, Robertson was named the Big East co-player of the year. Last week, he was named All-Big East second team, compiling a .309 batting average (63-for-204) with 47 runs scored and 17 doubles. He enters the regional with a 16-game hitting streak.
His teammate, junior first baseman Jake Holton, was named the Big East player of the year.
"It was a great honor, but I know you have to go out and prove it," Robertson said of his preseason honor. "Early on in the year, it was different for me just to get pitching that we face in the Big East, and know that you're going to get everybody's best shot."
Robertson leads the Bluejays with 62 RBI, which is tied for 34th in all of NCAA Division I.
"It's definitely a stat that I take pride in," Robertson said. "I definitely love hitting with runners in scoring position, and you have to look at guys in front of me like Isaac (Collins), Parker (Upton) and Jake getting on base and allowing me to drive them in.
"That's the beauty about baseball, it's definitely a team sport."
Now Robertson and the Bluejays look ahead, trying to become one of the 16 regional champions. Up first are the Wolverines (41-18), who received an at-large bid from the Big 10 Conference.
"Baseball, more than any other sport, you prepare yourself to make sure you're ready," Robertson said. "Coach (Ed) Servais definitely preaches preparing for the opposition, trying to take away the thing that they do best. Michigan is a team that likes to run the bases and tries to create stuff on offense."
In the double-elimination regional, Creighton will play Saturday against either Oregon State (36-18-1) or Cincinnati (30-29), the American Athletic Conference Tournament champion. Oregon State, the No. 16 overall seed among the 16 regional hosts, is the defending College World Series champion.
"When you have the chance to play the reigning national champions, that's pretty cool, having a chance to compete with them and compete with the best," Robertson said. "Adley Rutschman, (Oregon State's) catcher, is a very highly talented player, and to get a chance to play against him is pretty awesome. We're going to go out there, compete and hopefully make Creighton proud."
The Corvallis regional championship game is scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday, with the if necessary game at 9 p.m. Monday.
The NCAA Super Regionals follow from June 7-10, narrowing the field down to eight teams for the College World Series. That takes place June 15-26 at Omaha, Neb., on Creighton's home field, TD Ameritrade Park.
Even as Robertson prepared earlier this week for the regional, he kept a close eye on Fatima, where he won a Class 3 state championship in 2013 and '15. The Comets lost 1-0 to Blair Oaks on Tuesday in the Class 3 state championship game in O'Fallon.
He compared Fatima's playoff run to that of Xavier, the team that nearly took Creighton's automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.
"It's a team that we played against that had a brutal beginning of the schedule, but down the stretch, it really set them up really well for conference play," Robertson said of Xavier. " That reminded me a lot of this year's Fatima team, to persevere and set themselves up for success in the end and make a run in state, which is awesome.
"The gym in Fatima, even though we have a ton of banners on the wall, I think they're going to find another place for another one up there. Once a Comet, always a Comet."