Huskers open home stand with 8-2 victory
Nebraska opened up an eight-game home stand with an 8-2 victory over Northern Colorado Tuesday afternoon at Hawks Field, raising their record to 4-6 on the year.
"Oh, it's awesome," Coach Darin Erstad commented about returning home for their first time this season. "The fans are great, the field's awesome, and our guys are comfortable playing here. It's nice after traveling for a few weeks to be home."
Scott Schreiber led the way with two hits and four RBI, including the Huskers first home run of the season to spot NU to a 3-0 lead which they never relinquished.
"It's a great problem to have," Erstad said about playing with the lead. "But it brings in the complacency of do you put it on cruise control or do you bury somebody and continue to keep going? I think we have room for improvement there."
Matt Waldron earned the win going five innings, surrendering two earned runs while recording four strikeouts.
"I thought he had a decent breaking ball early on and he did a nice job of setting the tone and getting a zero," Erstad said. "Then after we scored three, he got zeroed in. In that regard, we keep the momentum.
"A couple times, at least in the bottom of the order, I thought he might have lost his focus a little bit and left the breaking ball up one or two times, but overall it's a step in the right direction."
Robbie Palkert and Jake McSteen each pitched two innings of scoreless relief, with McSteen tallying four strikeouts as well.
Center fielder Jake Meyers broke out of his slump at the plate by contributing three hits while scoring two runs. Five other Huskers contributed hits in the contest.
"I saw some more aggressive swings, but it's still going to be a grind," Erstad stated. "They put a lot of pressure on themselves, but I did see some more aggressive swings which was good to see. I thought we had a decent amount of walks and I thought we did a good job, especially against their right-handers in laying off the breaking ball down.
"Our intensity and focus wasn't as good later in the game when we have to put somebody away and we didn't do that. I thought we started chasing a little bit more, but again, we're just going to keep working and be back at it tomorrow, hit the reset and get going."
The two teams will play again Wednesday afternoon at 1:35 p.m.