After a very bad 2018 season, Nebraska baseball head coach Darin Erstad is looking for positives. His latest recruiting class fits that bill.
While the on-field product for the Nebraska baseball team hasn’t been looking good lately, it appears the future for Darin Erstad’s crew could be bright. The good news is that future could be arriving fairly soon.
Baseball America has ranked the 2019 recruiting class among its Top 35. While that ranking wouldn’t be all that impressive if you were talking about football, the sheer number of baseball teams out there makes the appearance something Erstad can point to as positive progress.
Baseball America is unveiling its class rankings one piece at a time. Huskers.com points out the site released its top 25 and then its “Next 10.” That group is sorted alphabetically so it’s impossible to know whether the Cornhuskers are ranked 26th or 35th but they are somewhere in there.
The Huskers are in good company alongside Arkansas, Duke, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Oregon, Oregon State, Tennessee, and Wake Forest. The Cornhuskers are one of two Big Ten baseball teams in the Top 35. Illinois is the other, ranked 24th.
The ranking is the good news. The fact that all 15 commits in the 2019 recruiting class made it to campus is the very good news. That’s despite the fact that two players were drafted but decided to spurn the Major Leagues in favor of Lincoln.
One interesting thing to watch in the upcoming season will be how much impact players like JUCO transfer Aaron Palensky will have. Playing for Southeast Community College in Lincoln last season, the Bellevue West graduate hit .417 with 18 home runs, 77 RBI and scored 72 runs in just 58 games.
The Nebraska baseball offense has hit the skids under Darin Erstad. Fans can only hope this class will help turn that trend around.