Advertisement
baseball Edit

Huskers miss opportunities, move to brink of elimination

Nebraska dropped the series opener to Illinois in a must-win situation.
Nebraska dropped the series opener to Illinois in a must-win situation.

Knowing it was a weekend of must-win games, the Nebraska baseball team came out swinging in the first inning like its season depended on the early momentum.

The problem, as it has been all season, was the inability to sustain it.

After two runs on three separate bases-loaded situations in the top of the first inning, the Huskers left nine runners in scoring position in a crippling 5-2 loss at the hands of Illinois. Nebraska (23-27, 7-13 Big Ten) is now all but eliminated from conference tournament contention, needing to win out and get a whole lot of help to make it to Omaha.

After Indiana’s comeback win over Maryland following a lightning delay, Nebraska now needs two wins over the Illini, an Indiana sweep over Maryland and an Ohio State sweep of Michigan State to have any chance at the conference tourney.

Nebraska’s Thursday night in Champaign saw a solid offensive effort and a good start from Matt Waldron, but a 4-for-18 clip with runners on base held the Huskers scoreless after the first inning.

“It’s so important, especially in the first game of the series, to get the lead so you can set your stuff up,” head coach Darin Erstad said in his postgame interview on the Husker Sports Network. “We just had a couple opportunities (missed) … it wasn’t our night.”

Nebraska got a sizable contribution from its batting lineup the first time through the order, with five of the first six Huskers reaching base to grab a 2-0 lead in the top of the first.

NU missed its first chance with a bases loaded double play to end the first frame, and two batters into the Illini lineup, shortstop Ben Troike blasted a game-tying two-run homer over the left field wall.

Nebraska would put at least one runner on base in every inning, but the two in the first were the last Huskers to cross home plate. Illinois used five hurlers and threw 32 more pitches than NU, but two home runs gave the Illini the game-deciding 3-2 lead by the fourth inning.

The Huskers had a golden opportunity to tie the game in the fifth inning in response to the second Illinois blast. With one out and runners on the corners, Angelo Altavilla blasted a ball to the warning track, sending Jesse Wilkening home after tagging up at third.

However, Luke Roskam tagged up at first on the play as well, looking to advance to second after getting a late jump. Second baseman Michael Massey swiped Roskam just steps before Wilkening crossed home plate, nullifying the run and preserving the Illini lead.

As Waldron worked into the bottom of the sixth, the third and fourth hits of the game for Illinois put a runner on first with two outs in the frame. Erstad and pitching coach Ted Silva chose to grab Mike Waldron from the bullpen, but the move proved disastrous as the reliever let go of back-to-back RBI doubles to make it a 5-2 game.

“I thought that last inning, I just didn’t like (Matt’s) body language out there,” Erstad said. “I thought he looked a little tired, his arm was dropping a little bit, so we wanted to get him out of there and unfortunately Mike couldn’t get that last out.”

From then on, it seemed as if the winds of a long season had finally torn through the Huskers’ sails.

Four strikeouts in the final three frames, one double play and three more runners left on base wrote what may be the final script for Nebraska’s season. According to Erstad, the Huskers have been in “playoff mode” for three weeks, but that didn’t change their approach.

“You can’t start picking and choosing which games are more important - I believe so firmly in that,” Erstad said. “The game of baseball is a game of routines … you can’t let those types of things change the way you go about your business.

“We’ll just keep going and getting ready to play baseball, respect the game and go out there and play with a lot of pride. If things aren’t going our way, that doesn’t change the fact of how we go about our business.”

If the Huskers are eliminated by either Illinois, Maryland or Michigan State tomorrow, Nebraska will have just this weekend remaining in the 2018 season. The Huskers will look to come back and pull off a series win against the fourth-place Illini, trying to clinch their second Big Ten series of the season.

First pitch for Friday’s game from Champaign, Ill., is set for 6:00 p.m.

Advertisement