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baseball Edit

Huskers take series with 9-7 win over Illinois

Scott Schreiber knocked in four runs, two of which came on a towering home run.
Scott Schreiber knocked in four runs, two of which came on a towering home run.

Nebraska's most reliable reliever last season, Jeff Chesnut hasn't been himself this year. The senior already 14 walks - five more than he had in all of 2015 - and was a mess in Friday's loss to Illinois, offering free passes to the first three batters he faced.

So when he entered with one out in the sixth inning Sunday and plunked his first hitter to load the bases, things had a chance to get ugly in a hurry. Chesnut went in a different direction.

"I was like, 'At this point I can go one of two ways. I can keep battling or just go all out again,'" Chesnut said. "I just emptied the tank, found the zone and kept dealing with it."

Chesnut rebounded to retire the next two batters, the Huskers (19-9, 5-1 in Big Ten play) scored two runs in the bottom half of the frame and beat the Illini 9-7 to take the series.

"They've got some guys that haven't gotten going yet," Darin Erstad said of Illinois. "They've got a lot of guys with experience at a super regional level over there. I know they lost a lot, but they've got a lot of guys that had some big-time postseason playing experience. They've got a lot of pride and they're not going to quit.

"It was just a back-and-forth battle in a conference game and you have to earn everything you get. We found a way to get it done."

Chesnut's appearance was a microcosm of Nebraska's success. Turning to his two-seam fastball, the senior threw 2.1 scoreless frames after a rocky start by Matt Waldron. The Illini did have 12 hits and continually put pressure on the NU hurlers.

But the duo, along with Chad Luensmann, combined to walk just one hitter, and that didn't come until the ninth inning. This came after the Huskers walked 20 men in the first two games of the series, including 12 Friday night.

"They just competed," Erstad said of his pitchers. "I don't care if they get hits. They swung the bat well. That's fine. We'll take our chances with a round ball and a round bat, but giving free passes over time is really going to hurt you."

The offense certainly did its part as well. Scott Schreiber hit a two-run blast in the fifth to tie the game 6-6, then the Huskers scored twice more in the sixth and once in the eighth to pull away.

Nebraska had 14 hits, bringing its total to 29 in the series' final two games. Schreiber (four hits), Ben Miller (three hits) and Jake Schleppenbach (two RBIs) helped bludgeon Illinois' pitchers.

But ultimately it was the pitchers' newfound control that saved the series. Had the Huskers walked hitters at the rate they did in the first two games, a win would have been extremely unlikely.

"I was proud of the pitchers today," Erstad said. "The demons are real, and they're going to have to continue to fight through it every single day and continue to lean on each other."

Sunday standout

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Designated hitter Scott Schreiber: The sophomore just continues to mash. Schreiber had a career-high four hits, including his team-leading seventh home run of the year. He also doubled, knocked in four runs and scored twice.

Around the horn

***Jake Placzek walked two times Sunday, giving him 31 on the season. No one else on the team has more than Miller's 11.

***Schleppenbach committed two errors. He had just three coming into the game.

***Waldron has thrown at least 100 pitches in each of his last three starts.

***The attendance was 6,413.

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