Nebraska baseball clinches first series win since early March

(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Nebraska baseball snaps ugly streak.

Nebraska baseball logged a 9-6 win over the Nevada Wolfpack on Friday night. The win was a little more important than non-conference victories at the end of April tend to be most years.

Paired with a 9-5 victory on Thursday night, Friday’s score allowed the Cornhuskers to clinch a series win in a long time. How long was it you ask?

Would you believe the last time the Huskers won a series was March 10 when they swept a doubleheader against Cal Poly? At the time, it looked like the doubleheader was the beginning of something big.

The Cornhuskers beat Cal Poly 22-3 and 13-2. Those were on the heels of a 4-0 Friday victory.

Outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 39-5 in the final three of the four game set appeared to be a sign Darin Erstad’s boys had turned a corner. It turns out it was the high water mark.

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Since that series, the Huskers split a pair versus Northern Colorado, a weather-shortened pair against Northwestern State, and a pair against Oral Roberts. They then lost two of three to Ohio State and Minnesota.

They followed that up with a two-game sweep at the hands of Michigan State, split a pair against Iowa, then lost two of three to Rutgers. Yes, it’s been a long, bad season since they blew out Cal Poly for a weekend.

Finally turning the corner?

Even the two wins against Nevada didn’t come easily. Through three innings on Thursday, the Wolfpack had a 3-0 lead and the Huskers didn’t so much as have a hit.

In the fourth inning, the Cornhusker bats finally came alive, tying the game at three apiece. After falling behind again 4-3 in the top of the 7th, the Huskers scored six in the bottom of the frame to take a 9-4 and held on to close it out.

On Friday night, Nebraska held an 8-3 lead in the 8th inning but allowed Nevada to score three and make the game a bit too close for comfort. In the end, Darin Erstad’s squad managed to add an insurance run before they won again.

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It’s hard to have any confidence that this is really turning the corner for the Nebraska baseball team. It’s time to hold out hope that they can keep the series wins rolling and making squeak into the Big Ten tournament. If they make it there, they’ve got enough offensive firepower to make some noise.