The Nebraska baseball team has relied on its flair for the dramatic for most of the season. However, on Friday afternoon, the Huskers needed to be steady, calm, and collected. They did so in a 4-1 win over South Dakota State that was far from impressive. However, given how many upsets occurred in the early games of the NCAA Tournament, the Huskers just taking care of business was more than enough. Carson Jasa especially took care of business as only an ace can.
To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs... you could even get another chance to host a super regional."
Nebraska's win over the Jackrabbits, the second win over SDSU this season, paired with Auburn's shocking loss to Milwaukee in their regional opener, suddenly has the Huskers sitting pretty. NU gets to play from the winner's bracket, entirely the point of Will Bolt going with Jasa despite an absolute nightmare bracket coming up with Arizona State and/or Ole Miss.
Meanwhile, Auburn will now have to work its way back into things from the losers' bracket. If they don't pull it off, and the Huskers can navigate the nightmare regional and get to the super regional, Nebraska will host the super regional. Even if the Tigers do manage to come all the way back and win their regional, having to play under fire from the beginning can be used to NU's advantage.
Nebraska baseball avoids the upset bid that claimed many others
It's playing from the winning bracket that led Bolt to start Jasa on Friday against an inferior opponent. Many Husker fans (yours truly included) felt as though the gamble was too high. Even if it worked, it meant that the team wouldn't have its best starter against whatever much better team appeared in Saturday's contest.
However, considering the score was 2-1 Nebraska all the way into the bottom of the eighth inning, there is a very real argument that if anyone other than Jasa was on the mound, the Huskers could have gone the way of War Eagle. The two solo shots in that eighth inning by Dylan Carey and Jett Buck were enough to give NU some breathing room. Would they have been enough if another starter had been on the mound on Friday? One who did just slightly worse than one run in 6.1 innings while striking out 8?
Auburn wasn't the only team to suffer opening-game problems, either. The top overall seed, UCLA, lost its Friday game to Saint Mary's. USC Upstate knocked off Oklahoma State. Washington State overcame an old Pac-12 rival in Oregon State, East Carolina beat Tennessee, Little Rock hammered Southern Mississippi, and Liberty upended Boston College.
The Nebraska baseball team gets a chance to catch its breath and prepare for a big game on Saturday. The Huskers will play the winner of Arizona State vs Ole Miss at 7 pm on Saturday night. The Huskers other team of destiny, Rhonda Revelle's softball team will start their game against Alabama at 5 pm on the same night.
Add us as a preferred source on Google