Advertisement
baseball Edit

Huskers sweep Indiana to secure the 2 seed at Big Ten tournament

By sweeping Indiana this weekend, the Nebraska baseball team secured the No. 2 seed for next week's Big Ten Tournament in Omaha.
By sweeping Indiana this weekend, the Nebraska baseball team secured the No. 2 seed for next week's Big Ten Tournament in Omaha.
Associated Press

Darin Erstad's team couldn't have picked a better time to be playing their best baseball.

Nebraska (37-18, 16-8) capped off the regular season on Saturday by sweeping a red hot Indiana team (31-22, 15-9) that came into Lincoln in contention to win the Big Ten Conference title.

Saturday's 3-0 win over the Hoosiers in front of 5,558 fans also gives the Huskers the No. 2 seed in next week's Big Ten Tournament in Omaha where they will play at 1 pm on Wednesday against Michigan State at TD Ameritrade Park.

"I'm just happy for the seniors," Erstad said. "They've been with us through all of our time here. It's exciting for a young kid to experience this atmosphere with great fans and great weather and a great opponent with the games meaning something, for them to win, I'm just happy they got to go out like that."

Since losing 5 games in a row in mid-April, Nebraska has gone 15-4 to close the regular season.

When Erstad puts this stretch in perspective, it's started and ended with one thing.

"It starts on the mound," Erstad said. "We are pounding the zone and playing good defense. Those numbers are pretty consistent. We've hit OK, but we would be nowhere if we weren't doing it on the mound. We've thrown strikes and we've played good defense and that gives you a fighting chance."

The trend once against continued on Saturday. Sophomore pitcher Jake Meyers had another impressive day on the mound, improving his record to 6-1 after tossing 7 scoreless innings. Meyers threw just 88 pitches and allowed only one walk on Saturday.

His start completes a stretch where NU's weekend rotation allowed 0 earned runs over 22.1 innings.

“It’s awesome,” Meyers said of Nebraska’s starting pitching this past month. “(Derek) Burkamper and Matt Waldron are coming out and competing. We are just getting behind our pitcher just setting the tone from the first inning even. The bats have followed the pitching. You can’t really rely on either one. You just have to go out there and go pitch to pitch and do what you can.”

What was even more impressive about Meyers outing is he didn't have his best stuff, as he recorded only one strikeout on the afternoon.

“Jake had nothing,” Erstad said. “He did not have anything. That ball was all over the place, his mechanics were bad, you could tell he was fighting it, but that’s what grinders do. He just found a way to get it done. He did not have very good command, let’s just say what it was. He just willed himself to get it done, and this time of year that works.”

The Husker offense was crafty on Saturday as well, manufacturing 3 runs off two infield ground outs and a third off an error. The Hoosiers finished Saturday's game with five errors overall.

Heading into Omaha it appears this Husker team is clicking on all cylinders and finding ways to win. Will playing in front of a pro Husker crowd in Omaha help that continue?

“It’s tournament time and anything can happen,” Erstad said. “I’m sure we’ll have some great crowds there, but the other teams get just as excited to play there. The other coaches wouldn’t have voted unanimously to play there if it wasn’t good for their guys too.

"It amps everything up and again, another fun experience for the guys. We just need to continue to play good baseball.”

Around the horn

***With the win on Saturday, the Nebraska baseball team is 15-4 since being swept at Michigan and extended their winning streak to 6 games heading into the Big Ten Tournament.

***Infielder Scott Schreiber was out of the line-up for the second day in a row after injuring his groin in warm-ups on Friday. Erstad said he remains "day-to-day."

"It's day-to-day," Erstad said following Saturday's game. "I don't have much information on it. It's day-to-day I guess."

***This weekend marked the first time Indiana had been swept in conference play all season, and just the second time all year. The other sweep came at the hands of national power Cal State Fullerton.

***Erstad hasn't given any thought on how he'll set up his pitching rotation for the Big Ten tournament. As it stands now, Friday night starter Derek Burkamper would be operating on one less day rest if they chose to start him on Wednesday against Michigan State.

***There was a chance NU could've drawn a 9 am or 9 pm game on Wednesday if they lost to Indiana on Saturday. As it stands, Nebraska drew a much more optimal start time for fans at 1 pm.

"I'll play at 7 in the morning, at midnight, I don't care," Erstad joked. "Let's just go play. What day do we play? Wednesday? Everybody go skip work. It should be fun."

***Saturday's attendance of 5,558 was the second largest crowd of the year. The biggest crowd of the season was 6,413 against Illinois. However, the 7,016 tickets distributed on Saturday were the most for any Husker game all season.

Advertisement