[Husker] Husker Baseball Wins Two on Saturday

[NUStLNorris at aol.com]

In case you missed it, Nebraska somehow (threatening weather all weekend in  
Lincoln) got two games in yesterday against Texas Tech.  NU won the first  
game, 4-3 in dramatic fashion, and responded to an early four-run deficit to  
unload on Tech, 14-4, in a run-rule-shortened game, in the nightcap.  The  first 
game ended up starting at 4 p.m., with the second going off at  about 7:30 
p.m.  Between 4,500 and 5,000 showed up to see it.   Nebraska now improves to an 
unreal 35-6 on the regular season and a league  leading 14 and 3 in 
conference.  I believe that Texas and Oklahoma, the  only real threats to the Huskers 
re: regular season championship, both won the  first games of their series' this 
weekend.  Not sure about the second games  for each team.
 
Nebraska led early in the first game yesterday, but didn't offer up much  
offense against the Tech starter.  They (Tech) chased Joba Chamberlain in  the 
seventh with a two-out, two-run single to take a 3-2 lead.  Nothing  much 
happened until the ninth ... it was one of the wildest, most unforseen  finishes 
I've ever seen at Haymarket Park.  In the 9th (I'm going by  memory, but I'm 
close on this stuff), Nebraska pinch-hit for designated hitter  Nick Sullivan.  In 
doing so, they gave up use of the designated hitter for  the remainder of the 
game.  With two outs, nobody on,  nothin'-doin'-and-nothin' brewin', NU 
looked destined to go down to defeat in  the first game.  Pinch-hitter Andy Gerch 
drew a walk ... Steve Edelsen  pinch-ran for him and made a terrific heads-up 
play when he took off for  second as a pitch in the dirt bounced away just a 
few feet from the  Tech catcher (who didn't persue the ball with any sense of 
urgency).   Edelsen is now at second, and our fast-rising, up-and-coming third 
baseman Jake  Mort shoots a groundball past the diving third baseman for a base 
hit.   Edelsen, a swift base runner, rolls around third base with the  
sure-to-be-scoring tying run ... I'll be darned if he doesn't take a header  
rounding third ... he swiftly (desperately) gets to his feet and continues  home, 
ahead of the left fielder's throw that was, thankfully, off line.   Tying run 
scores.  
 
NU brings in Brett Jensen to keep it tied.  He gets out of the 10th  and 
11th, but because we pinch hit for the DH, Jensen now had to hit in the  bottom of 
the 11th.  If it wasn't his first collegiate at bat, it had to be  among the 
few.  All-everything Luke Gorsett strikes out for the first out,  then Jensen 
fights off a pitch and hits a four-hopper just past a diving second  baseman 
for a basehit ... crowd goes nuts.  I'm not sure if there was one  or two outs 
when Nick Jaros, recently honored as a conference player of the  week, shoots 
a seed to left-center that gets between the outfielders and to the  wall.  
Jensen's haulin' around the bases and scores, touching off a wild  scene up 
against the back stop behind home plate where his teammates just mobbed  him.  Some 
ran toward Jaros, but the scene that engulfed Jensen was  something to see.
 
NU wasn't on top of their game, but great teams do the kind of things that  I 
witnessed yesterday.  Unreal finish to game one.  Tech gets up 4-0  off of 
Tony Watson in the first inning of the second game, but NU cuts the lead  in 
half on a two-run hit by the heavy-hearted Gerch, then a solo shot by  Brandon 
Buckman to cut the lead to 4-3.  NU tied it in the fifth, I  believe, then 
scored 4 and 6 runs in consecutive innings to put the Red Raiders  out of their 
misery.
 
Today's game?  There's still going to be a threat of rain all day, but  
they'll probably get it in if they managed to do it yesterday.  Johnny Dorn  on the 
mound going for the sweep.  Game one Saturday had to rank among my  most 
memorable ever.  We were done and going nowhere then ... Victory from  the jaws of 
defeat!  Unreal.  
 
Dave Norris