Nebraska Baseball Falls Short Of B1G Throne; Garners Honors
Indiana (42-13) and Nebraska baseball (40-19) were meant to meet in the Big Ten baseball tournament championship. They did, and the Hoosiers emerged victorious by a score of 8-4. There are no moral victories here. A record crowd saw the scarlet and cream fall. However, they didn’t see intimidation in Darin Erstad’s club. This is progress.
The Huskers could’ve shrugged their shoulders following an early 3-0 Hoosier lead, but they didn’t. Eventually tying the game at 3 runs per club, Indiana’s Kyle Schwarber took the wind out of the Big Red’s sails with a single home run shot in the bottom of the fifth. Worse, Nebraska did what it absolutely could not do against Indiana: give up unearned runs.
With two coming across in the bottom of the sixth, the Huskers’ fate was all but sealed.
Some unfortunate, yet not completely unexpected news came across the wire later in the day.
Something that wouldn’t be a surprise at all would be Nebraska put up against Creighton in the same regional. In fact, I almost expect it after the Bluejays’ loss to Xavier in the Big East tournament.
It’s essentially guaranteed quality baseball. Back to the Big Ten tournament, a final round of applause for all the fans in attendance who helped shatter a number of records.
Big Ten announces that attendance is 19,965 which is an NCAA record for a conference title game.
— Dustin Dopirak (@DustinDopirak) May 25, 2014
The final total for the entire tournament was 62,020 (roughly 2/3 of what you could jam into Memorial Stadium).
Nebraska baseball was well represented on the All-Tournament team. Two out of three pitchers were Huskers (Aaron Bummer and Kyle Kubat). Pat Kelly and Ryan Boldt were also commended.
What’s next for the Big Red? The Huskers have already played in front of the biggest home crowd since 2008 and put up the most wins since that year. Perhaps an appropriate measuring stick was set by the ladies.
Super regional, anyone?
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