Nebraska Cornhuskers: Will Walsh plays hero in elimination game

The Nebraska Cornhuskers suffered a heartbreaking walk-off loss to Maryland on Thursday night. I took 10 innings to do it as well. So you could forgive the Huskers a bit if they had a bit of a hangover on Friday night.

The hangover meant that the Nebraska Cornhuskers needed someone to step up and carry the squad until the test of them could shake it off. Will Walsh was up to the challenge. In arguably his best outing of the season he threw 9 shutout innings, including striking out the side in the final frame to help give the Huskers the 4-0 win over Michigan State.

The win means that the Nebraska baseball team will face off in a revenge game against Maryland on Saturday afternoon. As a matter of fact, it sets the Huskers up for the two biggest games of its season as they’re hoping to find a way to knock off the Terps twice on Saturday.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers actually had several heroes

If Walsh hadn’t done what he did on Friday night, it’s a safe bet that Max Andeson would have been named the man who carried the Huskers. He started the game getting a hit in his first four at-bats and only grounded into an out when his team had a 4-0 lead.

Anderson has been a big part of the offensive production so far this tournament as the rest of the team has struggled at the plate. Friday was the best game of three games they’ve played so far when it came to batting average, hitting .265 against the Spartans. However, without Anderson’s contribution, NU would have hit .152 on the night.

While Walsh and Anderson vied for the MVP of the game when it came to living people, it was the baseball that was stung by Casey Burnham in the 8th inning. It looked like a tough grounder off the bat, but then took a weird hop over the first baseman, allowing two runs to score.

One crazily outstanding out by Will Walsh and one crazy hop that gave the Nebraska Cornhuskers the cushion they needed to let him stay in the game later, Will Bolt’s squad is still alive.