Huskers BEAT Texas in game 1!

They may have been chanting Roeder-Roeder-Roeder in the 9th inning, but it was more about Chance Sinclair in the Husker victory against Texas on a CHILLY Friday night at Hawks field, 3-1. (Yeah that feels really good to put down on paper)

Nebraska’s Chance Sinclair had a fantastic night with 6 Ks in 7.2 innings, facing 27 batters and only allowing 1 hit. He ran into some trouble in the 8th and Colton Howell came in and shut it all down with a K, but a very important one with a man in scoring position for Texas and having scored a run already in the inning.

Feb 15, 2014; Goodyear, AZ, USA; Detailed view as Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto catches a baseball during team workouts on the practice fields of Goodyear Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The top 5 in the order for the ugly burnt orange only recorded 1 hit out of 19 at bats. BOOM! I’m thinking this is Sinclair’s best performance of the season. It’s not often that C J Hinojosa goes 0 for 4. (He was the BOMB at the CWS last year in case you missed it.) Way to GO BIG RED!

Big Red Beard, Josh Roeder came in to close it out in the 9th, but did allow a double before the defense ate up the other 2 ground outs to end the game. I’m wondering, well hoping, this was due to the cold temps rather than any change in Roeder’s ability to just strike them all out. He just doesn’t seem as shut down automatic as earlier in the season.

The other story of the night is Husker freshman Elijah Dilday who played an incredible left field and batted last in the order tonight. He basically owned the 7th inning defensively making all of the 3 catches his direction (left field) for all three outs in the inning. Offensively he was 1 for 2 at bats, with a single.

Husker Baseball (photo NU Media Relations)

Not a whole lot of hits for the Huskers but against their ace, I’ll be ok with that. In the first, Nebraska tried to do things in a small ball kind of way (not a fan of that in the 1st). Later in the 5th, Darby, Christensen (double), Dilday, Placzek and Schleppenbach combined for the only 3 runs for the Big Red. Otherwise, Texas ace French did a good job to keep players off balance.

Husker batters did a good job going deep into the counts and getting to French in the second time into the lineup. This means that there were 2 other pitchers for Texas that came into the game (Culbreth & Duke).

This win is NICE! Like burgers on the grill, feet in the pool, cool beverage in your hand kind of nice and all on a night when you could see the breath of the pitchers on the mound.

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Huskers won’t get that much warmer of a game tomorrow at 2:05 but they will have the sun. At least Sunday will be warmer. It’s not easy on the arms for these guys and there are a LOT of games left in the season.

I have to admit I wasn’t sure how the first night would go against a solid program and yeah, they are ranked 16th in D1baseball poll. This one is BIG…as BIG as that state where they wear that ugly color. See you tomorrow at the ballpark where Kyle Kubat is going to be awesome. GO BIG RED!!!