Nebraska shutout by the Wildcats at home

For the first time all season, the Nebraska Cornhuskers (20-11) found themselves posting a goose egg on the scoreboard as they dropped Game 2 to the Wildcats (17-21) by a score of 5-0 on Tuesday. The Huskers didn't have much of a problem getting runners on base but an inability to find the gaps in the field left a total of ten runners stranded in the game.

The Wildcats got off to a hot start in the first inning when right-fielder Zach Kokoska singled up the middle, scoring Will Brennan from third. Kansas State would add another run in the first off an RBI double from Chris Ceballos, giving the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead.

In the third inning, LHP Tyler Martin came on in relief of Husker starter Chad Luensmann, where the first batter he faced took a ball to deep right field for a solo home run, extending the Wildcat lead to 3-0. Kansas State was able to add two insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings on a pair of RBI singles to extend their lead 5-0 and put the game away.

Head coach Darin Erstad felt his team prepared well but the bottom line was they couldn't capitalize on opportunities throughout the game. "After last week, on Tuesday kinda being flat, I expected us to come out and be ready to play no matter what the situation was and they did that," Erstad explained. "They had a great BP, great in-and-out, they were ready to play and had great energy. But, like I said, we hit some balls hard and they were right at them and we can't control that."

It was difficult for Nebraska to get any sort of run production on Tuesday night as a total of ten runners were left stranded on the basepaths, leaving runners on in every inning except the fifth and seventh.

What really hurt the offensive production was not getting the bats rolling until there were two outs. In the first three innings, where the bulk of the runners were left stranded, the first two Husker batters were retired. It wasn't until the sixth inning did Nebraska get a runner in scoring position with less than two outs.

Erstad thought his team took some good hacks at the ball but ultimately couldn't find the holes in the field to string some runs together. "We took some good swings early and the ball didn't go in the right spot and that's what it boiled down to," Erstad recalled. "Ty [Roseberry] smokes a ball there with bases loaded in the first, that's a couple feet either way and it didn't do that."

RHP Chad Leunsmann returned to start tonight for this first time since a late February matchup against Oregon State. The junior starting pitcher was happy to make it back out on the field again and felt this was big for him personally moving forward. "It was great to be back out there, just trying to find that rhythm and get back in the strike zone," Leunsmann said. "It's been tough just finding that feel and control again. It hasn't been easy but I'm taking a little step in the right direction every day."

Leunsmann was disappointed he gave up two runs early on but felt that it was a ball that could've gone either way and ended up in favor of Kansas State. "I didn't want to give up two runs," Leunsmann explained. "But, we got the groundball with two outs and it could've gone either way. It could've been a zero or it could've been a two. Today was a step in the right direction I think."

Nebraska returns to action tomorrow against in-state opponent Omaha Mavericks at Werner Park. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. and will feature Kyle Perry (2-1, 4.82 ERA) facing off against Jackson Gordon (0-1, 4.35 ERA).

There is no video stream for the game but it can be heard on the Husker Sports Network.