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Stagnant bats can’t overcome untimely error as Sunday streak ends

FINAL STATS

LINCOLN, Neb. - May 8, 2016.

In the midst of a rare Saturday-Sunday-Monday series, the Nebraska baseball team dropped a 4-2 second-game decision at No. 24 Michigan State before rebounding for victories on the final two Sunday contests, eventually securing an NCAA Regional berth.

March 25, 2018.

686 days later, the Huskers lost their first Sunday game in nearly two years, ending an incredible 16-game streak on a cold and wet afternoon at Haymarket Park.

Nebraska mustered just four hits on a star freshman pitcher and a fielding error scored the only two runs of the game as the Huskers dropped the series to Minnesota with a 2-0 loss.

NU put just three runners on base not named Scott Schreiber and pressed all day against the Gophers. The Husker bats looked four strikeout pitches into the catcher’s glove as 6-foot-6 freshman right-hander Patrick Fredrickson painted all corners of the zone for 66 strikes on 105 pitches.

“Mixing three pitches, he pitched fantastic,” Nebraska head coach Darin Erstad said. “Wind blowing in, a cold day, we kind of anticipated this type of game and whoever cracks first. We cracked and they took advantage of it.”

In his 7.0 scoreless innings of work, Fredrickson outdueled a dialed-in Nebraska pitching staff seeing its best results of the weekend. The Huskers allowed just one earned run and threw 101 strikes on 168 pitches, keeping pitches down and holding off a Minnesota batting lineup with a .306 team average.

In a tight game, the lone difference came on two tough errors in the fifth.

A leadoff single by eight-hole hitter Jack Wassel caused confusion in center field, as the second gap-area miscommunication of the day resulted in a Jaxon Hallmark error that put Wassel on second. The gaffe was essentially nullified by a walk of the next batter, but a sacrifice bunt put Husker starter Matt Warren in a bind.

With one out on the board and runners on second and third, Minnesota’s Ben Mezzenga rolled Warren’s 2-1 pitch down the first base line. A possible double play ball took a hop away from Luke Roskam’s glove off the first base bag, rolling into shallow right as Wassel and nine-hole hitter Eli Wilson came in to score.

“I think it was the ground ball we wanted - preferably, you want it to go to the corners there,” Warren said of the play. “It was an ideal result, but this time it just didn’t work out for us.”

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Warren and Nate Fisher combined to close out the fifth, but the bottom of the Husker order couldn’t put the pressure on in the bottom frame, conceding to Fredrickson in order on just nine pitches.

Outside of a near-home run from Jesse Wilkening in the fourth, Nebraska’s best chance to get on the board came in the sixth, when a two-out gapper put Schreiber on second with Wilkening at the plate. The junior gave one a ride to the opposite gap, but center fielder Alex Boxwell tracked it down to rob a run.

Even while the Huskers sputtered on offense, the bullpen continued a statement weekend. After Fisher and Zack Engelken cleaned up the fifth and sixth innings, Andrew Abrahamowicz came in for the seventh and settled in for his best outing as a Husker.

Against a usually-consistent Gopher batting lineup, the Husker freshman scattered a pair of hits and a walk over 3.0 innings of work, throwing 27 strikes on 39 pitches to give the Big Red a fighting chance.

“I was just trying to pound the zone, trying to get ahead of guys with off-speed and then just go with a fastball,” Abrahamowicz said. “I felt like everything was going pretty well, so it felt good. Wish we could have got the ‘W’ though.”

Nebraska had one more chance in the ninth inning after a Schreiber leadoff walk got the Husker dugout chirping, but a pair of fielder’s choice ground balls notched the first two outs and NU went down with Wilkening on second.

The loss was Nebraska’s first regular-season shutout defeat since a 1-0 decision against Oklahoma State in the 2017 Frisco Classic. The Huskers amassed a season-low hit total and lost the error battle for just the seventh time in 24 games this season.

“This game will find your inexperience,” Erstad said. “When you move guys around to different positions, you probably don’t get as many reps at each place as you want, so you run the risk there a little bit.

“But we as coaches can do a better job of getting them ready to play in games, and that’s on us to get them ready to play.”

The defending Big Ten champions will now face an uphill battle to reclaim their conference crown after dropping a series to a contender. NU will look to even its record in conference play in a series at Ohio State next weekend.

The Huskers return to action against in-state rival Creighton Tuesday at Haymarket Park. Junior left-hander Nate Fisher is expected to start on the mound in the 6:30 p.m. contest.

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