Huskers end home stand with listless 4-2 loss

The spunk that Nebraska showed in winning the final two games of last weekend's Illinois series was nowhere to be found Tuesday night.

The Huskers had a chance to finish their mini-home stand at 4-1, needing only to hold off hapless Kansas State (13-17), which entered the game having lost 10 of its last 11 games. But Nebraska seemed listless from the get-go, falling behind early and never showing much fight in a 4-2 loss.

The Huskers dropped to 19-9 on the season, including 11-3 at home.

"We've been getting a lot of hits," Darin Erstad said. "How many times was there a little hopper that they made a nice play on? Those were bouncing our way and they didn't (tonight).

"When you're not swinging it, those things get exposed. It's not an approach thing or anything like that. It was just an uninspiring effort. We had opportunities and didn't make the most of them."

Nebraska manufactured a great chance to at least tie the game in the eighth game, loading the bases with no outs. But Luis Alvarado grounded back to the pitcher, who threw home for a force out. Cole Klemke struck out and pinch hitter Taylor Fish grounded out to second to spoil the threat.

The offense never found its footing. NU had eight hits and put its leadoff man on in five innings. But the Huskers hit just 4-for-18 with runners on base and 2-for-12 with men in scoring position.

"When you don't execute in situations on the days when you're not swinging it well and don't have those opportunities, you better take advantage," Erstad said. "And we didn't."

The pitching wasn't much better. Jake Meyers was OK through his 3.1 innings, allowing two runs on five hits. Reece Eddins came on and allowed just three base runners in 2.2 innings, but his error in the fourth allowed the Wildcats to score.

"We still had five walks and we had a situation with a ball back to the mound that should have turned two and we didn't," Erstad said. "Those things have to be constants and they're still happening at far too regular of an event. We've shown that we can play well defensively and for whatever reason we've been in a holding pattern.

"It's not terrible, but it's not to the standard we have around here."

Kansas State added runs in the seventh and eighth innings, expanding its lead to 4-1. Jake Placzek came in on a wild pitch in the bottom of the eighth, but the Huskers failed to do any more damage and went quietly in the ninth.

Placzek reached in four of his five at-bats, singling and walking twice and getting hit by a pitch, and freshman Jesse Wilkening went 3-for-4 with an RBI. The rest of the lineup offered little resistance.

The Huskers will take on Nebraska-Omaha Wednesday night at 6:35 p.m. at Werner Park in Omaha. Zack Engelken (0-1, 8.71 ERA) will make the start.

***Wilkening threw out a runner trying to steal third in the first inning. Opponents are just 2-for-7 trying to steal off of him.

***Eddins made his 13th appearance of the year, second only to Jeff Chesnut's 15.

***The attendance was 2,926.