Late-inning surge fuels Huskers' comeback win

Nebraska looked mostly lifeless for the first 14 innings of its series with Illinois. After walking 12 batters in Friday's 6-4 loss, the Huskers trailed 7-1 entering the sixth inning Saturday and didn't appear to have much hope for a comeback.

But Nebraska simply refused to go away. The Huskers clawed back with a run in the sixth and two in the seventh before finally kicking down the door in the eighth, putting up five runs to surge to a 9-8 victory.

The comeback was Nebraska's largest since it overcame a six-run deficit against Ohio State in the conference tournament two years ago.

"We are a great team and we like to fight," sophomore Luis Alvarado said. "We never quit. We just kept grinding until the last out. We're a good team when it comes to fighting. We're never going to quit."

Nebraska improved to 18-8 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten. Nebraska has won 15 of its last 17 games.

The Huskers looked relatively lifeless through the first five frames. Jake McSteen gave up four runs on six hits and three walks in his 4.2 innings before giving way to Colton Howell. The senior was a mess in his first action since March 11, surrendering three runs in an inning of work.

But then Garett King stabilized the situation by tossing 2.1 scoreless frames, allowing the Huskers to make their charge.

Jake Meyers got things started with a two-out RBI in the sixth, then Nebraska added two in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Jake Placzek and an RBI single by Ben Miller.

The dam truly burst in the eighth. Alvarado kicked off the frame with a towering no-doubt home run to left. Five of the next six hitters singled, driving in four runs and giving the Huskers their first lead of the game.

"That's why we play a whole game," Darin Erstad said. "We just kept grinding and grinding."

Chad Luensmann didn't make things easy in the ninth. He walked the first two batters, and a sacrifice bunt moved both into scoring position with one out. A sacrifice fly brought in one run, but Luensmann left the tying score on second by inducing a ground out to end the game.

Nebraska walked eight batters, giving them 20 free passes so far this weekend. Erstad knows those results are unacceptable and he and pitching coach Ted Silva are fighting to find solutions.

"We're fighting demons on the mound and that's obvious," Erstad said. "We've got to get that better. It's not a physical thing. We have very talented players. It's a mental issue. I've challenged them and as a group we have to fight through this.

"We're timid on the mound. We're dropping elbows, we're up in the zone and we're guiding balls to the plate. That's not what we do here."

The Huskers have gotten into a habit of submitting sloppy starts to series on Friday nights but have proven adept at bouncing back with strong performances the rest of the weekend.

"We have some very good seniors that want to play some extra baseball this year and they say a lot," Erstad said. "For me, we're past that point of having to tell them. They understand how much we want to protect this place and play well at home."

The Huskers will try to to take the series in the finale Sunday at 12:05 p.m.

Reliever Garett King: Nebraska's comeback never happens if King doesn't stop the bleeding in the late innings. Illinois took advantage of McSteen and Howell's erratic control, but King allowed just two base runners in 2.1 innings to give the offense a chance to wake up.

***Jake Placzek has walked eight times in his last 14 at-bats. The senior entered the game with a team-leading .495 on-base percentage.

***Shortstop Steven Reveles committed his team-leading eighth error by mishandling a grounder in the third.

***The attendance was 4,166.