Late charge is not enough as the Huskers fall to Kansas State

The Nebraska baseball team (4-8) fought back after trailing to Kansas State (4-7) 6-1, but the late run fell short and the Huskers lost 6-4.

Emmett Olson made his first start on the mound for the Huskers in this game, and for the first three innings he was dealing. The sophomore allowed three hits and no runs through three, and his offense started to give him some help.

In the third inning, the Big Red found a run when Luke Sartori worked a walk with two outs, and Luke Jessen drove him in with a double in the next at-bat.

After taking the lead, Olson stepped onto the mound in the bottom of the fourth and met his match. Nick Goodwin hit a solo shot on the first pitch of the inning. The lefty gave up a double, and two bunted singles which gave KSU a 2-1 lead. Mason Ornelas took over on the mound in a tough situation and a couple of fielding errors from Nebraska’s defense scored three more runs, making things 5-1.

The fifth inning started the same way for the Husker defense as a throwing error from Brice Matthews put a runner on second. A sacrifice bunt, followed by a sacrifice fly drove in another run for the Wildcats and gave them a 6-1 lead.

Ornelas finished his day from the mound after two full innings, allowing two runs on just one hit. Tyler Martin took over on the bump and pitched two hitless and scoreless innings to keep his offense in the game.

With the game still within reach, the Big Red started to rally in the seventh inning. Griffin Everitt led off the inning with a single, and Core Jackson drove him in with one out. Jack Steil then drove in the freshman and NU were within three.

The offense went cold in the eighth inning, but in the ninth saw a spark. Core Jackson tripled with one out, and Cervantes drove him in. Nebraska couldn’t do anything more with the momentum, and KSU walked away victorious, 6-4.

The Huskers had some costly errors in this game. In the fourth inning, with one out and the bases loaded, NU saw a ground ball to third base go through the legs of Max Anderson. What could have been a double play to end the inning turned into a run and the bases still loaded. Kansas State then scored on a fielding error by Brice Matthews on the next at-bat.

In the next inning, the Big Red led off the inning with a throwing error. A routine ground ball to Matthews turned into a runner on second and K-State manufactured a run out of it.

Three Wildcat runs stemmed directly from the errors, and that was the difference in this game.

Nebraska’s lead off batter got on base in just two innings in this game. On top of that, the lead off batter struck out four times. In a game where momentum drives how well you play offensively, the Huskers have struggled to give themselves any of that.

Another struggle that continues to bite the Big Red is the continuous strikeouts. NU struck out nine times in this game, and were unable to gain momentum by simply putting the ball into play.

Nebraska will head to Omaha on Sunday to start a home-and-home series against UNO. On Monday the Huskers will head to Haymarket Park for their home opener against the Mavericks.

Both games can be heard on the Huskers Radio Network, but will not be streamed to video.