Lack of early offense dooms Huskers in 12-9 loss
Despite the rain, the Creighton (24-11, 3-5) bats stayed hot while the Huskers (17-22, 4-9) couldn’t spark any early offense as they fell 12-9 on Tuesday night.
Creighton came out swinging right out of the gates as junior Clark Brinkman led the game off with a double. After a Luke Roskam fielding error, the Bluejays were able to record back-to-back singles to make it a 2-0 lead after one.
Nebraska was able to battle back in the bottom of the second and score off of a sac-grounder by senior Zac Repinski to make it a 2-1. Hagge would strike out to end the opportunity.
Sophomore right fielder Will Robertson got the run back in the top of the third as he hit a solo homerun to make it a 3-1 Creighton lead. The Bluejays would hold the Huskers at bay in the bottom of the third and would score one more run in the top of the fourth.
However, in the top of the fifth, the Bluejays begin to take advantage of Nebraska’s Nate Fisher. Creighton unleashed a barrage of hits and weren’t missing any chances. They would go on to have six hits and six runs to make it a 10-1 Creighton lead.
When asked about becoming a “second half team”, head coach Darin Erstad responded with “We have a lot of practice being down runs. We are getting good at doing that, so when you have more experience doing that you’ll get better at doing that.”
Fisher would end up pitching 4.0 innings and his final line was 10 H, 9 ER, 3 K’s and no walks.
When things appeared to be in for a blowout, the Huskers fought back and were able to make a run. Nebraska would rip off back-to-back singles and junior DH Jesse Wilkening would smash a three-run shot to make it a 10-4 game. That was Wilkening’s sixth home run of the year.
The Bluejays would end up putting up one run in the top of the sixth, but the Huskers would respond. After Repinski and sophomore Mojo Hagge reached base, senior Scott Schreiber would hit a single to right center to make it a 11-6 deficit. Freshman catcher Gunner Hellstrom would hit a RBI-single of his own to make it 11-7.
Schreiber was drafted in the 26th round during the 2017 MLB Draft, but decided to come back to school to prove that he has more power than he has shown and he wanted to be consistent.
So, in the bottom of the eighth, Schreiber stepped to the plate with freshman Mike Addante on third and walloped his 14th homer of the season. That’s good for being tied for sixth most in the nation. His .391 batting average is good for the fourth best in the Big Ten. He also has the most hits in the Big Ten (63).
“I feel good and I’ve put a lot of work in this offseason,” Schreiber said. “I never really thought that I could step up my preparation and things, but there’s always room for improvement. I work my butt off and it’s good to be able to see those results.”
One of the weirdest things that happened tonight was when sophomore Ben Klenke made his first career appearance pitching during the eighth inning. Klenke delivered as he got the batters down in order and proved his worth as a pitcher.
“I thought he pounded the zone and it was great to see that,” Erstad said. “A couple times we’ve thought about using him before, but we knew he would get some action sometime this week.”
The Huskers rally would fall short and Creighton would score an insurance run in the ninth to make it 12-9 after a NU passed ball.
Nebraska returns to action on Thursday as they begin a weekend series against the Nevada Wolfpack (21-15, 14-6). The games can be heard on the Husker IMG Sports Network.
“I’ve hugged them, I’ve yelled at them and I’ve done mental stuff. It is crazy how we have gotten off to bad starts especially defensively. We make a mistake early and it just hurts us,” Erstad said.