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Huskers give up 5 runs in the 6th, drop opener to Michigan State

A big crowd was on hand to watch Wednesday's Michigan State vs. Nebraska game in Omaha.
A big crowd was on hand to watch Wednesday's Michigan State vs. Nebraska game in Omaha.

OMAHA, Neb. - You got the sense whoever made the first big mistake was going to lose between Michigan State and Nebraska in Wednesday's Big Ten tournament.

Both Husker starter Derek Burkamper and MSU starter Cam Vieaux began the game pitching flawless baseball through the first 5 innings. Hits and base runners came at a premium.

That all changed in the top of the 6th inning when the Spartans started with a leadoff double from eight-hole hitter Justin Hovis. Then nine-hole hitter Kory Young reached base on a bunt single and a throwing error to first by Burkamper allowed Hovis to score and make the game 1-0. It was one of 3 hits for Young on the day, which tied a career-high for him.

The Huskers never rebounded after that point, as they didn't record the first out of the inning until the sixth Spartan hitter took the plate, paving the way for a 5-1 Michigan State victory.

“It was a gook looking baseball game and we had a bad half inning,” Nebraska head coach Darin Erstad said. “In that type of game you know if you are in that kind of situation you have to minimize. We just couldn’t minimize and they did a good job of tacking on some runs.”

11 different Spartans hit in the 6th, as the Huskers gave up 5 runs, large in part to 2 fielding errors and a walk.

Erstad said that early throwing error to start the inning was a play NU easily could've avoided.

“That’s not Derek (Burkamper’s) ball,” Erstad said of the bunt single that set the table for the big 6th inning for Michigan State. “Jake (Placzek) needs to take that. He’s standing right there, and he just needs to be aggressive on it. He didn’t take it and made a bad read, and then at that point Derek needs to have a little understanding of the pace of the game right there to eat that ball. There was no play. He was off-balance trying to make a play. He tried to do too much. We talked about that a lot yesterday, and he tried to do too much there and they took advantage of it.”

Burkamper was pulled after failing to record an out after facing four batters in the 6th inning. Before that inning, MSU had just 1 hit off Burkamper through 5.

Burkamper (6-3) was charged with 4 earned runs off 3 hits in that 6th inning, meanwhile Vieaux cruised for the Spartans.

“We got timid and we don’t usually play timid,” Erstad said. “It’s just a nice reminder that we are still capable of doing that.”

The left-handed Vieaux (7-4) looked like the Spartans ace, after struggling at times this season with shoulder soreness. He lowered his ERA to 2.28 after pitching a near perfect 8.2 innings, successfully shutting down a Husker line-up that had been tearing the cover off the baseball the last month.

“Cam Vieaux was just lights out today,” Michigan State head coach Jake Boss said. “He was really in command the whole way.”

Boss also liked the way his team handled the 10,000+ Nebraska fans in attendance on Wednesday.

There was never once a moment where the Spartans let the big crowd have an impact on the game.

“It was huge,” Boss said when asked how important it was to take the crowd out of the game. “We talked about the importance of taking the momentum away and taking the crowd out of the ball game. In order to do that we needed to execute. We couldn’t give them free opportunities.”

Nebraska must bounce back fast, as they will take on Indiana for the fourth time in a week at 9 am on Thursday morning in an elimination game.

“It’s an early game tomorrow,” junior Husker first basemen Ben Miller said. “We just have to flush it as fast as possible. It stings, but we have to move on and the players have to get their mind right and bring it tomorrow. Every day is a new day in baseball. That’s the good thing about baseball. There’s always going to be a new game and you can go one way or the other. I feel like the guys are pretty confident and we’ve been playing good baseball and we can turn it around.”

Nebraska must bounce back in the loser's bracket tomorrow at 9 am vs. Indiana.
Nebraska must bounce back in the loser's bracket tomorrow at 9 am vs. Indiana.
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Around the horn

***The 5 run inning by Michigan State in the 6th was the first inning of 4 runs or more the Spartans had since April 30.

***The bottom of the Spartan order is who gave Burkamper the most problems on Wednesday. They made him work hard in the 3rd inning by throwing 24 pitches, then set the stage for the big 5-run outburst in the 6th inning.

***MSU is 18-6 on the season when scoring the first run and 16-1 on neutral fields.

***Nebraska outfielder Jake Meyers continued his hot hitting in Omaha. On the season Meyers is 8-of-14 in games at TD Ameritrade Park.

***NU All Big Ten first basemen Scott Schreiber missed his third straight game on Wednesday with an abdominal injury.

***Erstad said freshman pitcher Matt Waldron (7-2) will get the start for Nebraska on Thursday.

***Nebraska will play No. 3 seed Indiana at 9 am on Thursday in the losers bracket game, while Michigan State will take on No. 6 seed Maryland at 5 pm in the winner's bracket.

“You know them well, they know us well, it’s going to boil down to who gets the two out hit and who doesn’t make the mistakes,” Erstad said of playing Indiana on Thursday. “There’s really no secret. Obviously they are going to be very excited to get after us. It’s one of those things like Ben (Miller) said, we just have to flush it and go out and play tomorrow. Outside of one inning, we were in pretty good shape. They obviously hurt us. This time of year those things can cost you, and it obviously did.”

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