Church sucks life out of Husker offense in 3-1 loss
Creighton (13-6) graduate transfer Preston Church was able to put together his best start in a Creighton uniform as the Nebraska offense (13-12) couldn’t get anything going during Tuesday night’s 3-1 loss.
Nebraska’s offense showed signs of life in the top of the first. Senior Zac Repinski and sophomore Mojo Hagge recorded back-to-back singles, but as has been the case this season, Nebraska couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity.
The Bluejays struck first in the bottom of the first inning when sophomore Will Robertson hit a RBI double down the right field line to make it a 1-0 lead.
Both offenses would go stagnant throughout the next six innings of the game. The Huskers had four innings where the batters went down in the order.
“We didn’t do anything,” head coach Darin Erstad said. “We are having a really hard time hitting the ball right now.”
Nebraska starting pitcher Nate Fisher (1-4) pitched a solid game and limited the overall damage. His final line was 4.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R and two strikeouts.
“I was just trying to get ahead of batters early,” Fisher said. “I mixed my fastball changeup just trying to keep them off balance and let the defense work.”
Church (2-2) said he was able to command his fastball better than he had all year and that was a big reason for his success. His final line was 6.2 IP (season high), 4 H and three strikeouts.
“He threw strikes and didn’t give us anything,” Erstad said. “He didn’t walk anybody and they didn’t give anything and we have to create our own offense and we didn’t do that.”
Creighton was able to pick their offense back up in the eighth inning. NU pitcher Mike Waldron was solid for his first two innings of relief pitching, but junior third baseman Michael Luevano was able to smack a two-RBI single to left field that put the game out of reach.
Waldron finished with 2.2 IP, 3 H and five strikeouts.
Those insurance runs for Creighton proved to be big as NU sophomore Luke Roskam was able to hit a single to center-field to score Schreiber from second, but the offense came too late.
One of the biggest surprises this season has been the disappearance of NU junior shortstop Angelo Altavilla. Altavilla is 1 for his last 18 at-bat including going 0-3 on Tuesday night. He’s last among starters in batting average (.214). Last season, Altavilla was second on the team in batting average (.316) and was a constant leader in the clubhouse.
After losing leaders like Jake Meyers, Ben Miller and Derek Burkamper, many people looked toward Altavilla to step up and it’s been a big-loss for Nebraska that he hasn’t had the type of on-field impact that people were expecting.
NU has lost four out of their last six games and the stretch doesn’t get easier as they will be on the road for their next eight games.
Nebraska returns to action on Friday night when they travel to Columbus to take on Ohio State (16-7). Senior pitcher Luis Alvarado is projected to be the starter for Friday. You can catch all the action on the Husker IMG Sports Network.
“We’ll have a psychological analysis probably tomorrow and see where everyone is at mentally. You can see a few guys are just trying too hard and when you do that bad things happen.”