Huskers postseason hopes vanish after suffering loss to Illinois
Nebraska’s (23-28, 7-14) season will officially end on Saturday after Illinois (31-17.15-8) beat NU 13-6 on Friday night to end what was a disappointing season.
NU came out the gates competing hard as they only allowed one run through the game’s first three innings. Senior pitcher Luis Alvarado looked as comfortable as he had all season and junior Angelo Altavilla hit a solo shot to make it a 1-1 game. Then the fourth inning came and it was all downhill from there.
The Illinois offense erupted in the fourth inning and Alvarado couldn’t regain momentum. The Illini offense used a walk and four singles to put up an additional four runs to make it a 5-1 game. That’s when Erstad and company decided that Alvarado’s pitching career would be done at Nebraska. In Alvarado’s last start of his career, he finished with h 3.2 IP, 5 K, 4 ER and 2 BB.
“His velocity just dropped,” head coach Darin Erstad said during his postgame show on the Huskers IMG Sports Network. “You can usually see it with your eyes, but this time you could see it on the board. His velocity just dropped five miles per hour. I don’t know if he got tired or what the deal was.”
The Illinois offense didn’t cool off in the fifth inning. ILL was able to use a double and a single to get men on first and third. After a sac-fly to make it 7-1, center-fielder Zac Taylor smashed a two-run shot to left field to make it a 9-1 Husker deficit.
As has been the case all year, NU went through spells of offense trouble. They only had three hits through the game’s first five innings. Nebraska showed signs of life in the sixth inning as they got bases-loaded, but couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity and came away with nothing.
“They took some good swing and really hammered the baseball,” Erstad said.
Illinois would use six hits in the sixth inning to put up another four runs to make it a 13-1 Illinois lead. Illinois wouldn’t record another hit after the sixth inning, but the game was all put away by then.
Nebraska would fight back in the late innings as they have done all season. It started with a Jesse Wilkening two-run homerun after Schreiber reached first on a wild pitch. That was Wilkening’s ninth homerun of the season. The Illinois pitching would look shaky as they walked a pair and threw two wild pitches in the inning. Nebraska would put up five runs that was capped off by a Mike Addante single down the left field line, but the deficit would be too big to overcome.
This is the first time since joining the Big Ten that Nebraska will miss the Big Ten Tournament. Illinois’ offense totaled 15 hits and was just too much to overcome. This game epitomized Husker baseball this season. A poor start that led to an early opposing lead and then the Huskers offense would wake up in the seventh inning and erupt.
It was a season of injuries, inconsistencies and throwing freshmen in the spotlight. While this could be crucial for young player’s development, it’s disappointing to fans whose expectations were relatively high coming into the season. Erstad has a clear message to the guys for tomorrow’s game.
“Play with pride,” Erstad said. “You respect the game and you play hard regardless of the circumstances.”
NU returns for their season finale tomorrow against Illinois at 3 p.m central time. The game can be seen on Big Ten Network and heard on the Husker IMG Sports Network. Nebraska senior RHP Matt Warren (4-4, 5.81 ERA, 52.2 IP, 36 K) will take on Illinois sophomore RHP Ty Weber (4-3, 3.42 ERA, 76.1 IP, 47 K).
“The game doesn’t mean anything going forward, but we have some seniors that this might be the last time they ever play baseball. It’s an eye-opener when that day comes. You have those days and then you realized how great it was and how quickly it went. It’ll be a good lesson for the young guys.”
