Husker baseball team ready to roll after dropping series to Illinois

It’s been an abnormal week for the Nebraska baseball team (23-16, 12-6 Big Ten). Following their series loss to Illinois, Nebraska had the whole week to themselves and their studies. There were no midweek games to worry about however the players all had varying schedules due to finals, which made organizing practice complicated. According to NU head coach Darin Erstad though; it’s nothing his team hasn’t dealt with before.

“You have to move a few things around because study groups pop up but that’s part of being a student-athlete in college,” Erstad said, speaking to reporters at Haymarket Park. “They make it work.”

Nebraska hasn’t been able to make it work on the base paths as of late, however. The Huskers are just 2-5 in their last seven games, in large part because they’ve left runners stranded when they were in scoring position far too many times.

“We are getting guys on base. That hasn’t changed,” Erstad said. “Where we’re running into an issue now, is the pitches we’re supposed to be hitting, we’re not hitting.”

Nebraska will be taking on the Northwestern Wildcats this weekend, a team that has struggled in the Big 10. They’re 6-9 in conference play, 5.5 games out of first place. The Wildcats are a team the Huskers will probably need to sweep if they’re going to take home the Big 10 title for the second time in three years. However, Northwestern have won back to back games and will have home field advantage, something that can’t be easily discounted, according to Erstad.

“They have guys in their lineup that can hurt you and going on the road in the Big 10 is no joke,” Erstad said. “Pretty much like any week, we can’t really concern ourselves too much with them. We need to go out and concern ourselves with playing good baseball and getting back to hitting like we can, playing good defense and pounding the zone.”

Despite the offensive struggles, Nebraska is just one game back out of first place in the Big 10 standings. Also, the latest Baseball America projections still have the Huskers as a three seed in the NCAA Tournament. For a team that didn’t make it to the Big 10 tournament last year, 2019 has seen a remarkable turnaround for Erstad’s squad.

“In a weird way, I think last year kind of helped,” Erstad said. “I’m not saying it humbled everybody, but it was some tough times. It’s no fun getting your teeth kicked in all the time and not having a good season. I think the older guys didn’t want that to happen again. They kind of got that feeling of ‘let’s leave this place and this program in a good position.’”

The first of Nebraska’s three game series against Northwestern is set to start on Saturday at 2 p.m. Coverage will begin at 1:30 p.m. on KLIN.

(Photo – Kenny Larabee)