Power surge edges Nebraska past Cougars in Husker Classic finale
In February and in June, the biggest issues for the Nebraska baseball team have been centered on a lack of offensive production.
This February, a 22-run opening weekend left the Huskers at 3-1 for the first time in the Darin Erstad era.
Jesse Wilkening and Scott Schreiber hit Nebraska’s first two home runs of the season, senior right-hander Matt Warren turned in the Huskers’ fourth straight good start on the mound, and NU manufactured just enough to slip past a pesky Washington State team in the finale of the Husker Classic in Tempe, Ariz.
The performance was hardly perfect in a back-and-forth game, but Nebraska showed the middle-inning resiliency it has sometimes lacked in recent years, taking care of the baseball with just three walks and no errors.
“Looking at it, that could have gone a lot of different directions,” Erstad said after the game on the Husker Sports Network. “The reason that lines up is that your starters do a good job and give you an opportunity. If that gets sideways anywhere along the way, it can get out of hand.”
The Cougars worked to put the pressure on a calm-and-collected Warren early, leading off with a double and single before a grounder into a fielder’s choice brought in Andres Alvarez, who had five hits against the Huskers this weekend. Even so, Warren was able to settle in and retire six straight to keep the Huskers in it, and later retired eight straight to retain a late tie.
In his first start in nearly two seasons, the Creighton transfer finished his 5.0 innings with 4 hits, 2 runs, 4 strikeouts and no walks.
“He’s never going to show weakness out there,” Erstad said of his senior. “I’m sure he felt some nerves, but we didn’t see it.
“I think what you’re going to see out of him is, I don’t think anything’s going to ‘wow’ you, but when you look up at scoreboard, we’re going to be in the game when he leaves.”
Nebraska trailed twice in the game, but not for long at any juncture. The Huskers matched Cougar runs in the first and third innings with equalizers in the second and fourth, as Wilkening drove the first long ball of NU’s season over the left field wall and Ben Klenke notched his first career RBI with a groundout in the fourth.
Locked at 2-2 for the fifth and sixth innings, the game took a major turn in the top of the seventh when Mojo Hagge laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Angelo Altavilla. Washington State freshman relief pitcher Michael Newstrom converged to cover the bunt, but his throw to first base sailed up the right field line, scoring Altavilla and advancing Hagge to third.
Wilkening drove in his eighth run of the weekend with a deep sacrifice fly to score Hagge and stretch the lead to 4-2.
Matt Waldron worked out of a jam in the seventh before letting go of a double and an RBI single in the eighth, a string that pulled the Cougars within one.
But Schreiber finally got the payoff from a weekend of hard hit balls in the ninth. A no-doubter to left field gave the Huskers a 5-3 lead for closer Jake Hohensee before the senior worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth for his first career save.
“First weekend, you haven’t been outside … you’ve just got to grind it out,” Erstad said. “The thing I like is we took care of the baseball, we gave ourselves a chance, and at the plate I thought we came out swinging it well.”
After its best start since 2011, Nebraska will head back to the desert in just three days for a tougher weekend. No. 2 Oregon State and Utah await in Surprise, Ariz., in the Thursday-Sunday Big Ten-Pac-12 challenge.
If the Huskers can manage at least a split at the Royals’ spring training facility, it could play a big factor in the postseason conversation surrounding a schedule presumably devoid of many RPI-building opportunities.