[Husker] Wild finish comes up short: Huskers drop 4 of 5 with poor fielding

[Skylar Dodds]

Hello Husker Fans,

  For the first time all year, NU drops their 4th out of 5 games.
  They've yet to have a 3 game losing streak, but this is the worst
  stretch of losses we've seen all year, and at the worst possible
  time.

  On the night, Joba pitched very well, IMHO.  It was his first good
  outing in a while, but uncharacteristically NU beat themselves.  3
  of the first 4 Baylor runs were unearned off of NU errors.  Joba
  pitched 7.1, gave up 8 hits, walked 2, but struck out 12 in the
  loss.  His control wasn't great tonight, but his performance
  certainly merited a win.

  From an offensive side, Opitz continued to hit well, going 2 of 5
  with 2 big RBIs in the ninth (I'll get to that in a sec), but the
  real story is Andrew Brown.  He's now 12 of his last 25 with 5
  homeruns with 2 solo shots today.  He should stick in the lineup as
  Jaros sits with sore wrists.

  The Huskers got themselves down 4-2 after Brown's second solo shot
  in the 4th, and cut it to 1 in the 5th after Opitz doubled with a
  runner on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs, but Gorsett was thrown out at
  home to end the inning.

  It was a sign of things to come when NU left the bases loaded with 1
  out in the first. NU was unable to capitalize on quite a few scoring
  chances, leaving runners in scoring position in the 1st, 5th, 6th,
  7th, 8th and 9th.  (Not good... 66% of the innings left runners in
  scoring position)

  After Baylor added 2 more in the 8th to make it 6-3, too little too
  late NU came alive in the 9th. With 1 out, Wehrle singled up the
  middle, with 2 outs Gerch walked and Gorsett singled to load the
  bases for Opitz. He singles up the middle to score Gerch and Wehrle
  to make it 6-5. With runners at second and third after an Opitz
  steal to second, Nick Jaros swung at a bad inside 2-2 pitch to end
  the game. I'm a little surprised Anderson didn't pinch hit for Jaros
  with this sore wrists, but then again, he'd already used Sullivan
  and Edlefsen, so he didn't have much left.

  Good comeback, but the Huskers are playing sloppy right now.  I hope
  they're starting to realize that in good competition, mistakes are
  going to cost you a lot.  Again, I have to stick with my guns here
  and say that we may look back at this as a blessing in disguise.
  HOPEFULLY, this wakes them up and makes them realize they're going
  to have to work their ______ off to get to the CWS.

  As far as the Big XII is concerned, the loss puts NU 2 games behind
  UT (who only has a series at MU to finish the season) and makes it
  extremely unlikely that NU will win the Big XII.

  OU lost to OSU (told you they were hot) 4-2 tonight to put them out
  of the race for first.   Your standings after tonight:

  Texas 19-4-0 36-15-0
  Nebraska 16-6-0 37-10-0
  Oklahoma 15-7-0 37-14-0

  Barring UT losing 2 of 3 @ MU and NU winning out, UT wins the Big
  XII. If NU loses again this season (vs @Baylor or OU), UT would have
  to be swept for NU to win (since we have the series tie breaker).

  We go again Saturday at 7:00 pm and finish on Sunday at 2:00 pm.

-- 
Go Skers,
 Skylar                            mailto:Sklarbodds at cox.net