Huskers use dominating defense in 6-2 win over Cougars
The temperature outside wasn’t the only thing heating up on Sunday, as Nebraska won its fourth straight games following a 6-2 victory over College of Charleston at Haymarket Park.
While no one really stuck out offensively, second baseman Jake Schleppenbach played as well as you could have asked. The Husker defense had three double-plays and made a couple highlight grabs, led by Schleppenbach.
“He’s just amazing,” head coach Darin Erstad said. “He makes so many plays look so easy... (Schleppenbach’s jumping line-drive catch) is up there for one of the best ones I’ve ever seen.
"That’s a huge play, if that tips off his glove, that’s two runs for sure and who knows how this game plays out.”
The Huskers' offense has been hitting its strides lately, as they scored a combined 26 runs through this weekend’s series.
“We’ve picked it up well,” Schleppenbach said. “Everyone is buying into the approach. We are starting to barrel some balls up and they are finding holes, and that’s huge going on the road this week.”
Junior pitcher Jake Meyers extended his streak to 21 straight shutout innings to 21 while recording three strikeouts and only allowing four hits. He is now 3-1 on the year with a 1.54 ERA and has won his last three Sunday starts.
Even though Meyers didn’t give up a run, he wasn’t satisfied with the way he played on Sunday.
“I was up in the zone a lot today,” Meyers said. “I would give myself a C maybe a B. It wasn’t great, but it was good enough to get the job done.”
Erstad made note on Friday about how hard the team had been working, and he said it was nice to see a full weekend come together.
“They have been working hard, but it just hadn’t translated on a consistent basis,” Erstad said. “To put a weekend together like that, we played error-free baseball.”
NU (9-8) will have no time to rest before its next game, as it will travel for its first true road game of the season at CSU Bakersfield (9-5) on Tuesday for an 8 p.m. first pitch.
The Huskers are now 4-0 on Sundays this year with wins over Arizona, Utah, Western Carolina and now College of Charleston.
“Our offense showed up this weekend,” Meyers said. “That was a confidence booster for a lot of us. We are going to just keep doing what we are doing.”
Following one game against CSU Bakersfield, Nebraska will travel to Cal Poly (7-11) for a four-game weekend series, which includes a doubleheader on Saturday, Mar. 25.
