Steven M. Sipple: Tomorrow will never come for hardy Huskers

OMAHA — One day at a time, one inning at a time, one play at a time.

That's the time-honored message Nebraska baseball coaches preached to their players throughout this historic season. It sounded trite and corny, but hey, it made perfect sense for the Huskers.

Until Tuesday, that is.

All season, on the rare occasions that Nebraska lost, Husker coaches could say, "Shake it off, fellas, we'll get them tomorrow."

What do you tell players when there is no tomorrow, when the season's finished?

And for crying out loud, what do you tell them when it ends in the manner it did Tuesday, a day when the baseball gods seemed particularly cruel if you were wearing scarlet and cream?

"You tell them that the benchmark for the program has been set by the 2005 team," Nebraska pitching coach Rob Childress said. "Fifty-seven wins, a great pitching staff, great team leadership, a great season. There was a lot of unselfishness on this team. Everybody was committed to each other and to the end result. You don't have that very often.

"When you do have it, you have to enjoy it because it's hard to find."

Those who've followed the College World Series closely for years kept saying Nebraska's 8-7 loss to Arizona State was the most memorable contest they'd seen in this grand event. Indeed, the range of emotions experienced by Husker fans may require those who took Tuesday off to attend the game to take it easy today, too.

The human heart can endure only so much.

Nebraska alternately won this game, lost the game, then won it again, then finally succumbed in the 11th inning when a 150-pound wisp of an outfielder, J.J. Sferra, blooped a single to right field that drove in the winning run.

Sferra, a freshman, was Arizona State's bat boy in 1998, the last time the Sun Devils reached the CWS. What a sweet CWS storyline, and what a wonderful and gracious bunch of baseball gods. Talk about redemption. The last we'd heard from Sferra he was making a base-running blunder in the ninth inning.

Ah, but the baseball gods were having a heyday: One moment, forgiving and benevolent, the next torturously cruel.

How else do you explain two skilled Nebraska infielders, Ryan Wehrle and Curtis Ledbetter, allowing a routine pop fly to fall between them in foul territory? Arizona State would make the Huskers pay by scoring two runs and going up 5-3.

Yes, indeed, the game can be mesmerizing in its cruelty. All Ledbetter does throughout his career is distinguish himself as one of Nebraska's all-time best infielders. All he does is scoop errant throws out of the dirt, saving face for fellow infielders.

What's Ledbetter's reward? It's a CWS in which he makes two costly mistakes in each of Nebraska's losses.

Oh, for a second, Andy Gerch's three-run home run seemed to rescue Nebraska and let it play at least another day.

Turns out, tomorrow never came.

"We didn't make enough breaks," Childress said. "We didn't make the big pitches. We didn't get the big hit when we needed to. We didn't make enough big plays. Those are things we've done all year long."

"We fought, scratched and clawed for 11 innings. I'm very proud of this team."

Childress turned to standout closer Brett Jensen with two outs in the seventh. Sure, the misplayed popup hurt Jensen. But the 6-foot-7 junior, who dazzled all season, was ordinary Tuesday, allowing four runs in three-plus innings, including Jeff Larish's game-tying home run in the ninth.

"If I'm going to get beat, I want to get beat with my best guy on the mound, and Brett Jensen's our best guy at that time," Childress said.

Did Childress, in the ninth, consider an intentional walk when Larish stepped to the plate having already pounded two home runs?

"I'm not going to put the winning run on base," Childress said. "But the thought did cross my mind as far as he had hit the ball. I mean, I think he hit about 1,500 feet worth of baseballs today."

Anyway, this wasn't a day for second-guessing. This was a day to behold if you're associated with Arizona State, and even if you bleed Nebraska red.

Someday, the loss will make sense for the Huskers. Someday, the pain will subside and they'll appreciate the blood and sweat and tears and realize that, in so many wonderful ways, it was all worth it.

Someday, hopefully soon, they'll sit back and realize all they accomplished this season. The school-record win total; the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles; the magical postseason run highlighted by super regional wins over college baseball giant Miami and a first-ever triumph in the CWS.

It was a groundbreaking season, a season in which the program took a significant step forward, a season in which Nebraska coach Mike Anderson showed, without a doubt, the program's on solid ground, even if the Huskers were feeling shaky late Tuesday afternoon. There were tears and players fighting back tears. There was a sense of shock and disbelief.

There were no excuses.

Indeed, Childress said, Sferra hit a good pitch — a slider, low and away.

"Sometimes you have to say, ‘Hey, that guy did a great job,'" Childress said.

Sometimes there's not much a coach can say after a loss.

Alex Gordon, the Huskers' mighty third baseman who struggled mightily in the CWS, said he didn't remember what Anderson told the players in the post-game huddle. Maybe he didn't want to remember. Or maybe it was too painful to relive.

"There was a lot said," said Gordon, 2-for-11 in three games here (.181). "There were a lot of emotions after that game."

I still don't know what Anderson told his players after the game. I was interviewing Childress and players on the field and never got a chance to interview the head coach.

Maybe I'll talk to him today. Yes, there's always another day.

For Nebraska, baseball gods willing, there'll be another glorious CWS.

Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.