Nebraska falls flat against Northwestern in Big Ten tourney, leaving fate to NCAA committee

It was fitting that the team that provided so many low moments in Nebraska’s conference season also ended it.

For the fourth time this year, Northwestern got the best of the Huskers in painful fashion, this time an 8-0 drubbing to send Nebraska home from the Big Ten Tournament on Friday in Champaign, Illinois.

The Wildcats jumped on starting pitcher Courtney Wallace, who had been dominant against Illinois less than 24 hours earlier and cruised to face Indiana in the championship game Saturday.

With the loss, the Huskers fall short of the automatic NCAA Tournament bid it received by winning the conference tournament in 2022. Their fate — with nothing guaranteed after a flat conclusion to the season — is now in the hands of the selection committee. They’ll find out if and where their season will continue at 6 p.m. Sunday.

A Hannah Cady two-run single in the fourth inning put the Wildcats in range for the run-rule victory. The Huskers couldn’t capitalize with the bases loaded in the fifth, the final stumble in what’s been an ugly offensive stretch: one run and seven hits over 11 innings of the tournament.

Wallace lacked the command that tied the Illini in knots on Friday. Kansas Robinson singled up the middle two batters into the game, and Hannah Cady walked, something no one did against Wallace on Thursday.

Nikki Cuchran worked the count full before ripping a double into the right-center gap, driving in a pair of runs. Angela Zedak doubled to a similar spot on the next pitch.

Wallace lasted only an inning in the circle, allowing three runs on three hits and throwing 31 pitches. She threw 64 in seven innings one game earlier.

Zedak added another RBI double in the third off of Sarah Harness, an opposite-field drive Caitlynn Neal nearly tracked down near the right-field wall. Zedak was cut down trying to stretch it to a triple, but Maeve Nelson drilled a homer to dead center in the next at-bat. It staked the Wildcats to a 6-0 lead with pitcher Danielle Williams cruising.

Williams, who allowed four earned runs over 13 2/3 innings when Nebraska and Northwestern played in April, kept the Huskers off balance with her pitch mix and location as she stayed away from the middle of the strike zone. After one trip through the batting order, she began working in her change-up more often. Billie Andrews and Katelyn Caneda, the one- and two-hole hitters, both whiffed on the offspeed in their respective second at bats.

The Huskers entered the conference tournament with a chance to guarantee itself a spot in the NCAA Tournament, or at least solidify its case with a win over a quality team like Northwestern. They didn’t do that. Now, there’s nothing the Huskers can do but wait.