Nebraska baseball hits new low in Saturday loss to Michigan State

(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /
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The Nebraska baseball team’s bad 2018 season got worse on Saturday when they lost 17-5 to lowly Michigan State.

It feels like Nebraska baseball can’t figure out just how it wants to struggle in 2018. At the beginning of the year, it was the offense. Now it’s most definitely the pitching that is struggling mightily.

Yes, the Cornhuskers have had a rash of injuries, but one has to wonder if the team was 100 percent healthy, how much better they would be?

On Saturday afternoon, the Huskers hit a brand new low, losing to Michigan State 17-5. Sometimes that happens in baseball.

It generally doesn’t happen when the team that wins by 12 runs came into the day with a 7-19 record. Let that sink in.

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Michigan State came into yesterday’s contest with seven wins and 19 losses. The Huskers, for all their struggles this year, have been hovering around .500.

One has to wonder just how much worse the year is going to get. One has to wonder if changes are long overdue on this coaching staff.

It’s been a while since the Cornhuskers have had a dominant pitcher. It’s been a decent time since the Huskers have even had a consistent pitcher.

Pitching coach Ted Silva has been here since the beginning of the Darin Erstad era. It might be time for the Ted Silva era to come to a close.

The Huskers came into Saturday ranked 172nd in the country in team ERA. Even if most of the 17 runs yesterday were unearned, the staff still allowed eight earned runs in nine innings, meaning the team ERA is only going up.

Defense is certainly a problem too. Erstad’s squad committed five errors on Saturday. But defense wasn’t the culprit in the Huskers last loss before Saturday.

That loss was a 15-14 defeat to Ohio State. All 15 of those runs were earned.

The game before that was a 7-3 loss. Yes, the Huskers have allowed an average of 13 runs over their last three games.

At least their two losses last weekend were to a good Ohio State team. When the Nebraska baseball team’s game starts in about an hour, they will be looking to avoid a sweep to one of the worst teams in the Big Ten. Where does the team go from here, even if they win Sunday’s game?