Nebraska Baseball Takes On One Of Biggest Underdogs In Tournament In Elimination Game

The Nebraska baseball team will try to keep its season alive on Saturday morning when they take on Western Carolina.

While the Cornhuskers suffered through a 6-0 loss to Oklahoma State on Friday morning, the Catamounts looked like they were going to pull off a huge upset when they opened their game against the Clemson Tigers.

Then the bottom fell out of Western Carolina’s game as they allowed 10 runs to the Tigers in the bottom of the third inning. Once Clemson took a 10-6 lead, they never really looked back and the Regional’s top seed ended up winning the game 24-10.

The good news for Nebraska is the Catamounts, who finished the regular season and the conference tournament with a 30-29 record don’t have the kind of pitching staff the Nebraska baseball team has been getting down by over the last few weeks.

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The bad news is Western Carolina’s offense looks like it’s firing on all cylinders. That’s especially bad news for a pitching staff that has struggled shutting down the opponents almost as much as the offense has struggled to hit opposing pitching.

On Saturday at 11am, the Nebraska baseball team will send Jake Meyers to the mound and will likely go up against Brendan Nail. Nail struggled during the regular season going 4-6 with a 5.27 earned run average. On the flip side, Meyers has been stellar all year, though he did struggle a bit in the Big Ten Tournament.

Even with his stumbles, Meyers put up quite the freshman season for the Nebraska baseball team, going 6-1 with a 1.38 earned run average. If he’s going to lead the Huskers to a victory there is at least one Catamount he’s going to have to shut down for certain.

Bryson Bowman leads his team with 19 home runs this season, which happens to be close to the national lead as well. He’s hitting .336 and also has 58 RBI. Against Clemson he was kept in the park, going 2 for 5.

Bowman is hardly the only batter for Western Carolina who looks to be a tough out. Matt Smith is second on the team in home runs and he’s leading the team in average with a .387 mark. In all, the Catamounts have five players who have posted averages over .300.

In other words, despite taking on the fourth-seeded team in the Clemson regionals, the Nebraska baseball team is still going to have to be on its “A” game. Should they manage to win the 11am contest on Saturday, they have to sit and watch Oklahoma State take on the Clemson Tigers.

The Huskers will then play the loser of that contest on Sunday morning and should they manage to pull off that win, they’ll take the winner of the Clemson-Oklahoma State on Sunday afternoon. If the Nebraska baseball team manages to win that game, they play again on Monday to close out the regionals.

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