It’s safe to say the Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team didn’t expect for the start of the season to go like this. Especially after winning its second game of the year, over a Top 10 Vanderbilt squad.
However, after an 11-3 loss on Saturday night, the Huskers are now just 7-10 on the season and 1-4 in the Big Ten. Should they lose to UCLA on Sunday, they could be staring at the very bottom of the conference standings.
Just why the Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team is struggling has been pretty consistent. The same old problems reared their ugly heads on Friday and Saturday against a red hot UCLA Bruins squad.
Nebraska Cornhuskers pitching continues to be inconsistent at best
On Saturday, Ty Horn looked like he might be able to roll. “Ty [Horn] gets three punchouts, it’s on,” head coach Will Bolt said after the game. “Grabbed the momentum and we’re not able to cash in.”
The three-run homer in the fourth inning and the solo blast in the fifth that he allowed negated his impressive start. Nebraska’s starting pitcher posted four plus innings on the mound, striking out six and walking two Bruins. Unfortunately, by the end of the 5th inning, it was already 9-1 UCLA.
“How we responded on the mound and defensively, the game completely got away from us,” Bolt added. That’s something that’s happened far too often, especially in conference.
Offense has been an Achilles heel for the Nebraska Cornhuskers
As has been the case in most games, Nebraska had opportunities but managed just one run through the first seven innings. NU took an early 1-0 lead. For a while they made it stand up, until that fateful bottom of the fourth.
“We got off to a pretty good start,” Bolt said, adding, “We never responded offensively.”
That followed a Friday 5-2 loss where the Huskers managed to tie the game, but allowed three runs in the seventh inning and that was the game.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team will try to right the ship on Sunday afternoon in the final game of the series against UCLA.