Wilkening's heroics lift Huskers past Kansas State in slugfest
Junior catcher Jesse Wilkening comes up big for Nebraska (15-16, 2-6) as he helped end a shootout with the Kansas State Wildcats (15-18, 2-7) and give Nebraska an 11-9 win on Tuesday night.
In a game that went back and forth Wilkening was able to come up in the clutch, but it wasn’t just the hit that made it such a big play. He crushed the ball so hard that it felt like he took out a month’s worth of team built-up frustration. Wilkening had been hit in the ribs prior to hitting the go-ahead home run.
“That’s what grinding it out is,” head coach Darin Erstad said on his postgame radio show. “He grinded and you get rewarded for doing that and he really got rewarded with a huge hit.”
The Wildcats were the first to strike in the bottom of the first when they recorded back-to-back-to-back singles to take a quick 1-0 lead over the Huskers. They were able to tack on one more run before Nebraska came back up.
NU has been criticized this year for not taking advantages of opportunities and letting games slip away from them early, but they were able to show some fight back in the top of the second. The Huskers took advantage of an error, a walk and a wild pitch to get runners on second and third with no outs.
That’s when freshman Kennet Sorensen was able to use a groundout to plate senior Zac Repinski. Fellow freshman outfielder Carter Cross was able to sac-fly to score freshman Jaxon Hallmark to tie the game up at two.
KSU was able to plate another run in the second, but once again, Nebraska fought back and went on a tear in the top of the third. Sophomore outfielder Mojo Hagge smashed his second career home run to lead off the inning. Senior Scott Schreiber would follow that up with a single and would steal second base.
Junior Jesse Wilkening doubled down the right field line to score Schreiber and give the Huskers a 4-3 lead. Sophomore Luke Roskam stuck a RBI-single to right center to extend the lead 5-3.
After KSU tied it up in the bottom of the fourth, NU starting pitcher Nate Fisher saw his night come to an end. He finished with 3.2 IP, 8 H, 5 ER and 1 K.
Luke Roskam had one of his best offensive nights of the season that was capped off with a two-RBI home run to give the Huskers a 7-5 advantage over the Wildcats.
Nebraska have been plagued by sloppy fielding and throwing over the last couple weeks and that trend continued on Tuesday night. After KSU scored in the bottom of the sixth, NU had two errors in the bottom of the seventh that helped lead the Wildcats to a three-run inning that gave them a 9-7 lead over the Huskers.
Just as they have all game, NU stay calmed, composed and took advantage of the opportunities given to them. KSU walked freshman Gunnar Hellstrom and Cross was hit by a pitch. Freshman Zac Luckey followed that up with a single to get the bases-loaded. Hagge grounded into a double-play, but the Huskers were able to put up one.
Schreiber headed to first after he was hit by a pitch and that’s when Wilkening smashed a three-run homerun to give the Huskers an 11-9 lead over the Wildcats. It was the third homerun of the day for the Huskers.
The top four batters in the NU lineup recorded seven of the eight total hits for them, but Nebraska only left six batters on base.
NU senior relief pitcher Jake Hohensee came in and retired all six batters he faced and earned his seventh save of the season. Although, that wasn’t Erstad’s original plan.
“I didn’t want to do that, but we had Tillotson down today,” Erstad said. “You didn’t want to have Jake (Hohensee) throw 40 or 50 pitches and then he’s not as sharp for Friday. We tried to get Mitch (Steinhoff) in there, but after a lead-off walk we brought Jake in. He was very efficient.”
Nebraska returns to action on Friday at home against an Iowa (19-10, 5-3) that is coming off beating Ohio State two of three games. This ends Nebraska’s eight-game road trip.
“Today we didn’t take care of the ball,” Erstad said. “We made enough plays. Mojo made an awesome play, but that’s not clean baseball. We have to clean that up and I’m never going to change that.”
INJURY UPDATE:
*** Shortstop Angelo Altavilla still sidelined and there is no word if he will play this weekend.
***Shortstop Brison Cronenbold still has an ailing back injury.
*** Pitcher Jake McSteen is back with team and will be available this weekend.
***Outfielder Mike Addante will be out for “a while” according to the Husker IMG Sports Network with a severely sprained ankle.