Nebraska Baseball Team’s One Bad Inning Sinks Huskers In Big Ten Tournament Opening Game

The Nebraska baseball team has been winning its games over the last few weeks thanks to exceptional pitching and timely hitting, but the Huskers didn’t get enough of either on Wednesday afternoon.

The Nebraska baseball team came into the Big Ten tournament as its hottest team by a wide margin. The Huskers had won six in a row and had dominated their opponents during those six games. The pitching staff especially was otherworldly allowing an ERA of just 0.67 over that stretch.

On Wednesday afternoon, Derek Burkamper looked like he was poised for more of the same dominance on the mound as he cruised through the first five innings. In those frames, he allowed just one run and one walk and used the double play ball to wipe out base runners in the rare instance they got on.

The problem, for Nebraska baseball fans and players alike, was the Husker offense wasn’t able to scratch and claw out runs the way they had in the last few games. The Huskers’ best hitter, Scott Schreiber missed Wednesday’s game, marking it the third straight contest he’s had to sit out with a strained lower abdominal muscle.

The Cornhuskers had managed to shrug off the hole in the lineup in last Friday and Saturday’s games against the Indiana Hoosiers, but they couldn’t do the same against the Spartans’ ace, Cam Vieaux. Vieaux allowed just three hits and surrendered two walks and a run in 8.2 innings pitched.

In the top of the sixth, everything fell apart for Derek Burkamper and his Nebraska baseball teammates. Michigan State led off the inning with a double and then followed that up with a bunt single. A Huskers’ error allowed a run to score, and that seemed to break open the floodgates.

Six hits, two walks and another error later and the Spartans had an insurmountable 5-0 lead. The Huskers did manage to score one more run in the bottom of the 6th thanks to a one-out walk that was followed two batters later with an RBI double. Unfortunately, that was all she wrote for the Huskers for the game.

The team did manage what the home state Omaha crowd hoped was going to be a rally when Vieaux walked a batter with two out and then allowed the runner to reach second on a wild pitch. Michigan State brought in Dakota Mekkes to close it out and close it out he did with a strikeout.

Next: Nebraska Baseball Big Ten’s Hottest Team Heading Into The Tournament

Now a Nebraska baseball team that looked as though it might be the team to beat in the entire tournament has to go back to the drawing board. Darin Erstad and company suddenly find themselves in danger of going 0-2 in the tournament as they will have to face an Indiana Hoosiers team looking for revenge at 9 am on Thursday.