Huskers miss go-ahead opportunity, fall to Buckeyes
Just when it looked like Nebraska was ready to repeat Friday’s comeback narrative, a series of close plays preserved an Ohio State lead it would never relinquish.
OSU hit a three-run homer in the fifth and outhit Nebraska 13 to 5 as the Huskers couldn’t erase a 4-0 deficit in a 7-4 loss to the Buckeyes Saturday.
The loss dropped the Huskers to 14-13 and 2-3 in the Big Ten, setting up a second straight Sunday rubber match for the Big Red. Starting pitcher Matt Waldron took his second loss of the season, surrendering 9 hits and 5 runs in 6.0 innings of work, striking out six with no walks.
Nebraska’s best opportunity came in the seventh inning with one run in and no outs with two in scoring position. The Huskers pushed the Ohio State bullpen in a one-run game, but a pair of groundouts and a shallow fly out ended the threat without a tie.
“We had a chance to win,” head coach Darin Erstad said in his postgame interview on the Husker Sports Network. “When you’ve got second and third with nobody out, you’ve got to take advantage of that situation.”
Nebraska couldn’t take advantage of a leadoff double by Mojo Hagge in the top of the first, falling victim to a strikeout and a pair of groundouts in the frame. Ohio State capitalized on a leadoff double of its own in the bottom half, scoring Dominic Canzone on a sacrifice fly to get on the board.
Waldron kept the Buckeye bats quiet until the fourth, when a two-out, three-run bomb to left field from catcher Jacob Barnwell broke the game open at 4-0.
The Huskers would start the rally immediately in the fifth, as a leadoff walk eventually made way for a Jaxon Hallmark RBI triple to score Zac Repinski. A wild pitch later plated Hallmark to make it 4-2, but the margin would persist until the seventh.
Facing a 5-3 deficit, the Huskers got a leadoff single from Angelo Altavilla to start the seventh inning. Hallmark walked to put two on with no outs before freshman Mike Addante laid down a two-strike bunt to third base.
For the second day in a row, OSU third baseman Conner Pohl threw wide of a bag in a big spot, tossing a ball out of play and away from second base. Altavilla scored on the play, Hallmark stopped at third and Addante stopped at second, keeping the Huskers in a go-ahead situation in a 5-4 game.
But Joe Acker grounded out to the mound as pitcher Griffan Smith stared down Hallmark at third. Hagge flied out to left field in a spot that was just a shade too shallow, and after an intentional walk of Scott Schreiber, Smith forced hot shot groundout off the bat of Jesse Wilkening to end the frame.
Ohio State added insurance in the next two innings as Nebraska couldn’t get a hit off closer Seth Kinker, who went a season-long 2.1 innings for the save. The top of the ninth inning lasted just 10 pitches and ended before the Husker lineup could turn back to Schreiber, who homered for the fourth time in eight days.
“You’re going to have games like that during the season where they could go either way and it boils down to who makes the pitch or who makes the play,” Erstad said. “What’d they get - five, six runs with two outs? That’s just too many.”
In a game that was perhaps not indicative of the final score, the Huskers were two or three plays away from clinching the series.
“I think this one stung a little bit,” Erstad said. “But we have an opportunity to win a series on the road in conference, and if we’re going to do anything this year, we’re going to have to win these type of things.”
Easter Sunday’s rubber match is set for 11:05 a.m. central time as Nebraska senior Matt Warren takes the mound. The Huskers will look to rebound from last week’s series-ending loss - NU’s first Sunday defeat since May of 2016.