Florida flurry sinks Huskers
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BY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
OMAHA — It was cruel how Nebraska fell victim to its own heat wave in front of the second-largest crowd to watch a College World Series game Sunday night in Rosenblatt Stadium.
The nation's hottest college baseball team produced 12 hits against Florida, but largely because all but one of those came with little going on and two outs in an inning, the Huskers were beaten 7-4.
The result represented only the fourth time in 41 games this season that NU had lost when collecting at least 10 hits, snapped an 11-game winning streak and sent it to an elimination contest against Arizona State at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
"I feel like we played just as good as they did," said All-America third baseman Alex Gordon. "We hit the ball just as good — we didn't get those big hits."
That was no problem for the Southeastern Conference regular-season champion Gators, who by the fifth pitch of the game had seen Jeff Corsaletti stroke the first of his CWS-record tying three doubles and gotten a two-run home run from Adam Davis to take a lead they never relinquished.
In fact, Florida — the only team to win all of its NCAA regional, super regional and CWS games en route to producing its season-long, seven-game winning streak — has trailed in only three innings during the postseason.
Now, the Gators (47-20) would have to be beaten in back-to-back games in order to be kept out of the best-of-three championship series that begins Saturday. Florida will try to advance at 1 p.m. Wednesday, when it plays the Nebraska-Arizona State winner.
"We're not sitting here moping," NU senior left fielder Jesse Boyer said. "We know we have the capability ... to go out and win this whole thing."
Said Gordon, "It's a little bit (of a disadvantage), because you've got the extra pressure. But just like the Big 12 Tournament, we're going to take it the same way, play with no fear and hopefully do the same thing."
The Huskers (57-14) overcame an opening-game loss to win that event.
On Sunday, a crowd of 26,813 tried to will them to another comeback after Florida had scored four runs in the fifth to go up 7-2.
NU, which beat Arizona State 5-3 on Friday for its first-ever CWS win, did produce a two-out rally in the bottom half of the inning. After Ryan Bohanan and Daniel Bruce singled, Ryan Wehrle delivered a two-run double to center off starting pitcher Tommy Boss, a right-handed senior.
The Gators then went to soft-tossing sidearm righty Darren O'Day, who struck out Jeff Christy on three pitches to leave the Huskers with their fifth runner stranded in scoring position. O'Day then allowed just two hits over the final four innings to nail down the win.
"Boss was high 80s and then they brought in a different look and different angle to mix up with all our righties," Boyer said of O'Day. "Any different kind of angle, and six miles-per-hour slower is going to throw a little wrench in the system."
Florida did the same to NU freshman Johnny Dorn, who lost for the first time in 13 career starts and had a personal 12-game winning streak snapped. The Grand Island product (12-2) was left with his shortest outing as a starter while allowing four runs in four innings.
Dorn, though, probably deserved a kinder result, as the complexion of Florida's four-run fifth changed when first baseman Curtis Ledbetter dropped a throw from shortstop Joe Simokaitis on a grounder hit by leadoff batter Justin Tordi. With Gordon playing in and reliever Brian Duensing called in to inherit a 2-0 count, Stephen Barton hit a high chopper off Gordon's glove for a single.
Corsaletti then pulled a 2-1 pitch into the left-field corner for a two-run double. After Duensing got Davis on a grounder to Simokaitis, he intentionally walked the nation's home-run leader, Matt LaPorta. But cleanup hitter Brian Jeroloman followed by slicing a ball the other way that fell inches fair down the left-field line for a two-run double.
"We haven't made an error for awhile, and it kind of cost us," Gordon said. "But they came up in key situations."
The Gators, meanwhile, made a couple of defensive gems.
In the fourth, following a two-out single by Simokaitis, Gordon hit a liner than sent left fielder Gavin Dickey racing back to the track in front of the 375-foot sign before he reached up to snag it.
"We knew they could hit the ball, so we knew we were going to have to earn some runs," Gordon said. "Today, we hit right at them."
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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