Late Rally Falls Short on Saturday

Nebraska scored twice and brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth but couldn’t plate the tying run in a 4-2 loss against top-seeded Maryland in the Big Ten Baseball Tournament on Saturday afternoon in Omaha.

Nebraska ends the season with a 33-23-1 record, while the Terrapins advance to face third-seeded Iowa in the Big Ten Championship tomorrow afternoon.

The Huskers scored two runs on five hits and one error, while the Terrapins totaled four runs on 10 hits.

Jackson Brockett fell to 2-2 on the season after allowing three runs on five hits in two innings. Corbin Hawkins pitched 1.1 shutout innings for the Huskers, surrendering three hits. Kyle Perry tossed 1.2 innings in relief and allowed one run on two hits and struck out three. Shay Schanaman pitched four no-hit innings with two strikeouts and a walk. The Grand Island, Neb., native faced two batters off the minimum in the final four innings.

Cole Evans paced the Husker offense, going 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Max Anderson and Charlie Fischer recorded one hit apiece, while Ben Columbus and Dylan Carey scored one run each.

The top-seeded Terrapins grabbed a three-run lead with three runs on five hits in the top of the second. Elijah Lambros’ RBI bunt single with runners on first and second with no outs plated the game’s first run of the afternoon. Kevin Keister tacked on two more with a two-RBI single to left with the bases loaded to make it a 3-0 game.

Maryland had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the fourth until Perry garnered a strikeout and flyout to elude the jam and keep it a three-run deficit.

Eddie Hacopian’s one-out solo homer to left in the fifth had the Terrapins out front 4-0.

Nebraska threatened in the bottom of the sixth with runners on first and second with no outs after a walk to Brice Matthews and a single by Max Anderson. A 1-6-3 double play from the Maryland defense put a halt to the Huskers’ rally and kept it 4-0 through six.

Schanaman blanked the Terrapins in the final four innings to keep the Big Red within four. The Husker reliever worked around a two-out NU error in the eighth and a leadoff walk in the ninth to keep it 4-0 heading into the bottom of the ninth.

Three consecutive walks to Columbus, Carey and Garrett Anglim loaded the bases for the Huskers in the bottom of the ninth with no outs. Evans ripped an RBI single to left on a 3-2 count to plate Columbus and bring the Huskers within three.

Matthews lifted a first-pitch sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Carey to make it a 4-2 game with two outs. Anderson stepped up to the plate as the go-ahead run with runners on first and second with two outs but couldn’t keep the rally going, as the junior lifted an 0-2 pitch to the warning track in right for a flyout to end the game.

Nebraska ends its 2023 season with a 33-23-1 overall record.