Advertisement
baseball Edit

McSteen injured; Huskers can’t stem early tide in loss to No. 2 Beavers

Nebraska left-hander Jake McSteen left the game in the fifth inning of the Huskers' 10-3 loss.
Nebraska left-hander Jake McSteen left the game in the fifth inning of the Huskers' 10-3 loss.

FINAL STATS

The Nebraska baseball team has faced mostly left-handed pitchers in this young season and has subsequently struggled in early innings.

Saturday afternoon in Surprise, the Huskers battled a right-hander and had a frustratingly similar result.

The NU bats couldn’t get going and No. 2 Oregon State racked up five runs in the first two innings before pulling away for a 10-3 win at Surprise Stadium on Saturday.

Overshadowing a rocky outing was a worrisome occurrence with Nebraska’s own left-hander in the fifth inning. Immediately after whipping in a pitch on Oregon State’s Trevor Larnach, Nebraska starter Jake McSteen pulled back in pain and called over to the dugout, pointing to his left throwing elbow.

McSteen immediately left the game. The junior was granted a medical redshirt after shoulder surgery cost him the 2015 season and the Huskers are fearing the worst after Saturday.

Nebraska has already lost three pitchers for the season after it was announced Monday that Robbie Palkert will undergo Tommy John surgery.

“I was speechless before and now I don’t know what the word is for it,” head coach Darin Erstad said in a postgame radio interview with the Husker Sports Network. “We’ll hope for the best and keep him in our thoughts and prayers and go from there.”

McSteen got off to a rough start, surrendering six hits in the first two innings. Larnach, the reigning national player of the week, was the first to make the Husker southpaw pay with a deep two-run homer to straight away center in the first.

The Beavers tacked on three more runs in the second for a 5-0 lead out of the gates. With the bases loaded and nobody out, OSU plated one on a double play ball and another on a first pitch single by leadoff hitter Steven Kwan.


The third run of the frame came on a head-scratching play when catcher Jesse Wilkening dropped strikeout ball in the dirt and hit Cadyn Grenier on the throw to first. The ball ricocheted away as Kwan went first to home to score the only unearned run.

Meanwhile, the Huskers couldn’t even muster a hit on starter Bryce Fehmel in the first three innings.

“That’s not how we want to come out and set the tone,” Erstad said. “Overall, a good learning experience for some of our guys, but I did like the way they responded.”

The Huskers would close the gap to 5-1 in the fourth on a sacrifice line out to right field that nearly dropped for true freshman Jaxon Hallmark. NU could have perhaps tacked on two additional runs in the inning, but a pair of web gems robbed the Huskers of a crooked number.

In the fifth, McSteen let go of a double before working ahead of the count of Larnach, but junior Byron Hood came in to replace the injured southpaw and finished the walk of Larnach. In the following at bats, Hood hit two batters and let go of a sacrifice fly before getting the hook in favor of Zack Engelken.

Engelken was a bright spot for the Huskers in his first action since 2016 after sitting out the entirety of last season. Outside of some control issues that plated a pair of runs, he was able to wiggle out of the fifth and put together a 1-2-3 sixth to finish his 1.2-inning appearance.

Nebraska would cut Oregon State’s 8-1 lead to 8-3 before the Beavers added two in the bottom of the seventh. In the eighth, Husker lefty Mitch Steinhoff walked the bases loaded before responding with an infield fly, a strikeout and a ground ball.

In all, the Huskers were outhit 29-13 in two games against the second-ranked Beavers this weekend.

“The biggest concern for me, from a team standpoint, is how we came out from a position player standpoint,” Erstad said. “I did not like that at all. Now they did respond, but it was just not where it needed to be.

“Like I told the guys after the game, this is big boy stuff. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for you; you have to find a way.”

Nebraska, sitting at 4-3 on the year, will look to respond against Utah to finish with an even 2-2 record in the Big Ten-Pac-12 challenge.

Sunday’s matchup will feature Nebraska senior right-hander Matt Warren and Utah freshman right-hander Brett Brocoff. First pitch is set for 2:00 p.m. central time from Royals Practice Field No. 6 in Surprise, Arizona.

Advertisement