Huskers lose late pitching gamble as Spartans sweep
On a weekend governed by constant monitoring of the weather temperatures, Nebraska’s troubling season turned into a snowball of mistakes and losses.
The Huskers left six runners on base in the final two innings and lost an eighth-inning gamble on their bullpen in a series sweep at the hands of 9-19 Michigan State.
In a 3-3 ball game with a one-out runner on second, the Huskers called upon two pitchers coming back from injury to close out the eighth inning. Junior southpaw Jake McSteen, in his first action since a February 24th elbow injury, let go of a single into center field before notching the second out.
Nebraska then turned to Reece Eddins in his second appearance since returning from Tommy John surgery last March. Eddins threw two wild pitches in the dirt as the winning runs crossed home plate to make it 5-3. Michigan State scored four of its five runs in the game on wild pitches or errors.
The Spartans were the last place team in the Big Ten coming into the weekend but now find themselves with a more favorable path to the Big Ten tournament than the conference’s reigning champions. Nebraska fell to 14-16 and 2-6 with the loss, its fourth straight and sixth in the last seven games.
“When a team’s struggling, you find ways to lose,” head coach Darin Erstad said in a postgame interview on the Husker Sports Network. “We’re rewriting the book on finding ways to lose.”
Determined not to fall into the same hole as Saturday’s 5-0 first-inning deficit, Nebraska came swinging out of the gate. After a leadoff walk, senior slugger Scott Schreiber roped his first hit of the day down the left field line and landed on third after a fielding error. Schreiber trotted home on the next at bat thanks to a Jesse Wilkening sacrifice fly.
Husker pitcher Matt Waldron started off strong in the bottom of the first, but a two-out rally plated the Spartans’ first run on an error in left field.
Michigan State would add one in the bottom of the second to tie it before Schreiber stepped up to the plate again and continued his torrid pace. His 11th home run of the year would give the Huskers a 3-2 lead in the third, a margin that would hold until the seventh as Waldron and Matt Warren stemmed the Spartan tide.
Michigan State erased Nebraska’s lead in the seventh with a leadoff triple and an RBI single. Paul Tillotson closed out the frame and started the eighth before the pitching shuffle, holding a tie game in check.
Nebraska had ample chances to seize the win in the final two innings. Schreiber, who was intentionally walked twice in his 3-for-3 performance, took first to give the Huskers two on with nobody out in the eighth. NU executed a sac bunt to move the runners, but Luke Roskam squandered a 3-0 count lead on the next at bat to strike out swinging.
Zac Repinski walked to load the bases, but another strikeout ended the frame without a speck of damage.
“They’re showing they’re going to keep going,” Erstad said. “But it’s one thing to keep going, it’s another thing to break through and do it. We had a chance (in the ninth) to tie the game, it just wasn’t in the cards.”
The Huskers’ opportunity in the ninth came courtesy of a two-out rally with a runner aboard. Mojo Hagge and Schreiber singled to load the bases for Wilkening, but a fly out straight to the center fielder ended it.
Nebraska has now lost three straight Sunday games after going undefeated on the sabbath for nearly two years.
The Huskers return to action with a midweek non-conference game at Kansas State Tuesday before playing host to Iowa next weekend. The Hawkeyes will be the only conference foe to visit Haymarket Park in the month of April before Maryland and Indiana come to Lincoln in May.