Huskers ride Meyers to take series over Michigan State
Sophomore pitcher Jake Meyers did it all for Nebraska (30-17, 11-7) in their 7-4 win over Michigan State (30-13, 11-7) in East Lansing on Monday.
The Omaha Westside product was in control on the mound, going 8 innings allowing just 3 run, while striking out 4 and allowing no walks. Meyers has only allowed 2 runs over his last 24.2 innings of starting work for the Big Red - good for an ERA of 1.49.
However, Meyers was equally as impressive from the plate, reaching base four of five times, scoring three runs and delivering an RBI double that make the game 4-1 and set the table for a 3-run 5th inning that gave the Huskers a commanding 6-1 lead.
“It was a great job by Coach (Ted) Silva of calling pitches and a great job of Jake (Meyers) executing it,” head coach Darin Erstad said on his post game radio show. “Just having them off-balance, he’s just fun to watch and compete – not only on the mound, but at the plate too. He’s a heck of a ball player.”
The win gives Nebraska their fifth Big Ten series win of the year, with their lone series loss coming at Michigan.
Besides Meyers, first basemen Ben Miller also had 3 hits to lead the Husker offensive attack, along with scoring 3 runs.
What Erstad liked about Monday's performance was how the Huskers went after the Spartan right away, jumping up 1-0 in 2nd, 3-0 in the third and 6-1 in the fifth.
“It’s important,” Erstad said to strike first. “We want to set the tone and I think we did a good job of that. Yeah, yesterday maybe we could’ve added a couple more runs to sneak that, but when you face a quality opponent on the road with an opportunity to win the series, especially when they have their Friday night guy going on Game 3; I wasn’t happy with the approach we had (Sunday) going against a lefty, but today they stepped it up. Just a fantastic job. They deserved it today.”
NU has now won 8 of their last 11 games and have put themselves in a position to be on the bubble for the NCAA tournament and in the discussion for the Big Ten title with two weekends of games remaining.
“We are super excited,” Erstad said to return home. “We are not going to leave Nebraska for a couple weeks, which is exciting. We obviously love to play in front of our fans and we love our fans. The boys are going to be ready to get home and keep playing good baseball.”
Around the Horn
***By entering Monday's game, relief pitcher Jeff Chesnut played in his 88th game as a Husker pitcher, which set a new Nebraska school record. He passes up former NU pitcher Steve Hale. Unfortunately Chesnut was unable to record an out for the Huskers in the 9th facing two batters.
***The win over the Spartans puts the Huskers in No. 4 spot in the Big Ten standings. They are tied with Michigan State, but they now own the tie-breaker over the Spartans. They are 2 games behind league leader Indiana and 1.5 games back of Michigan and Minnesota.
***Nebraska is now 5-1 all-time at Michigan State.
***Monday's attendance in East Lansing was 541.
***The Huskers return home Wednesday to take on Omaha, then they will be home this weekend for a big conference series against Penn State. NU will not leave the state of the Nebraska for the rest of the month of May.