Maybe the Nebraska Cornhuskers can take solace in the fact that they were the only team from the Big Ten that managed to stay within 10 runs of their opponent in Sunday’s elimination games. Or maybe that’s indicative of how bad the Big Ten is compared to the rest of the country.
No matter what you want to take from Indiana, Illinois and the Huskers all getting pounded on Sunday, one thing is clear. NU never looked like a team that would shock the college baseball world this weekend.
More often than not, the Nebraska Cornhuskers looked like they were hanging onto their playoff lives by their fingernails. Even against a Niagara team far from a baseball power, it took some late-inning heroics to stay alive to face the Florida Gators again.
Nebraska Cornhuskers look overmatched in regionals elimination game
When it comes to the postseason, a team wanting to compete needs to have two things. A pitcher who can dominate and an offense that isn’t relying on just one guy to dominate. NU was 0-for-2 this weekend.
They should have had at least one of those with Brett Sears. But he handed in his worst performance of the season by far. The Huskers offense the last two weeks has been Josh Caron, Gabe Swansen and … sometimes someone else?
This weekend in Oklahoma City, the offense was Gabe Swansen. He wasn’t enough. They scored two runs on Friday, seven runs on Saturday against a Niagara team that allowed 19 the day before, and then just six on Sunday.
Six runs usually sounds good. But runs aren’t hard to come by in the regionals. Especially not at the launching pad, which is O’Brate Stadium.
The Huskers faced off against a pitcher who came into the game with an ERA over 9 and managed to tag him a few times with two run homers. But they also struck out eight times in just 4.2 innings.
They also rarely staged any real rally. There was no feeling that NU’s offense was taking over. In any of the three games. It also didn’t feel that way in the Big Ten Tournament, but Nebraska’s pitching was good enough for it not to matter.
Even when NU did finally score a bunch of runs, like it did late on Sunday, it was too little, too late. It was about trying to get within single digits.
It wasn’t this weekend. 17 runs later and Florida is headed to face off against Oklahoma State again.
Nebraska, along with Indiana’s 15-3 loss to Southern Mississippi and Illinois’ 13-2 loss to Indiana State, should have us wondering if winning the Big Ten is the most the Nebraska Cornhuskers can hope for in this era of college baseball.