Tech Hall of Fame pitcher is the Yellow Jackets’ all-time winningest hurler
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech baseball mourns the passing of Hall of Fame pitcher Doug Creek, the winningest hurler in program history, who died Sunday at the age of 55 following a battle with pancreatic cancer, his hometown newspaper, the Martinsburg (W.Va.) Journal, reported.
Creek won 41 games over four seasons with the Yellow Jackets from 1988 to 1991, appearing in 74 games and making 70 starts. He chalked up a 4.33 earned run average and struck out 458 batters in career 472 innings. His career totals for victories, strikeouts and innings pitched still stand as Tech records. He also threw 16 complete games, which ranks fifth all-time.
Perhaps the most consistently successful starting pitcher in Tech annals, Creek won nine games as a freshman, 10 as a sophomore, and 11 each as a junior and senior. Three of his seasons remain ranked among the Tech’s all-time top 20 for innings pitched and strikeouts.
The Yellow Jackets played in the NCAA Tournament each of his four seasons, averaging 42 wins a season, and won the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship his freshman year of 1988.
He was inducted into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.
A seventh-round draft pick by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1992, Creek spent nine seasons between 1995 and 2005 in the Major Leagues, pitching for the Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers. He also played one seasons (1998) with Japan’s Hanshin Tigers.
Prior to arriving at Tech, he was named the West Virginia state baseball player of the year by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
Following his baseball career, he became a charter boat captain, working out of Tampa Bay, Fla., and also competed as an angler the on the Redfish Circuit, according to the Martinsburg Journal.
