Miscues doom Huskers vs. Kansas State
OKLAHOMA CITY — Thanks to a pinball-bumper-like infield, the Nebraska baseball team tilted against Kansas State at the Big 12 Conference Tournament here Thursday night.
The Huskers committed four early errors that led to three unearned runs and lost 5-1 before 5,358 fans in Bricktown Ballpark.
If NU’s sloppy play wasn’t bad enough, starting pitcher Charlie Shirek (strained oblique) and catcher Mitch Abeita (bruised right shin) also left the game with injuries.
After Abeita was hurt in the sixth inning when he was knocked from his feet by a sliding Jordan Cruz, NU coach Mike Anderson and assistant Andy Sawyers were ejected. Two innings later, relief pitcher Steve Edlefsen, first baseman Andrew Brown and volunteer assistant Justin Seely were tossed after Edlefsen plunked Eli Rumler in the back with a 0-2 curveball after he’d walked Cruz.
Edlefsen received a four-game suspension for hitting a batter after both teams had been warned following the sixth-inning fireworks.
The bottom line from the frustrating night is this:
With all four teams in Nebraska’s half of the bracket 1-1 after playing two games, the Huskers need Texas A&M to beat K-State on Saturday. NU then must defeat fifth-ranked Texas in order to advance to Sunday’s championship. Otherwise, it’ll be back to Lincoln to await Monday’s announcement of the NCAA Tournament field.
“We didn’t field the ball, and that got them off to a good start. That’s the bottom line,” Anderson said after his team lost for only the sixth time in 30 games in Bricktown.
In addition to the troubles it had on defense and in maintaining its composure, NU couldn’t solve Papillion-La Vista graduate Brad Hutt. After issuing a walk to Brown and a single to Jake Opitz with two outs in the first, the junior right-hander set down 13 straight.
Nebraska finally got to Hutt for an unearned run in the sixth, when Abeita reached on a throwing error and scored after singles by Craig Corriston and Brown. But Hutt (9-4) got Opitz to hit into a double play, which started a stretch of seven straight Huskers he retired before Daniel Edwards came in to pitch the ninth.
“We had momentum there,” Opitz said of Nebraska escaping a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the sixth, “and just couldn’t come through on the offensive side. He (Hutt) was good. He mixed his pitches up well and we couldn’t get to him.”
Eighth-seeded Kansas State (34-23) got all the runs it needed in the second inning.
Tyler Ruch started things with a bunt single and after Shirek threw a wild pitch, Cruz blooped a single over shortstop Jake Mort. Shirek then got Rumler to hit a grounder to second baseman Opitz for what should have been an inning-ending double play. But the ball scooted under Opitz’s glove and it was 1-0.
After Shirek uncorked another wild pitch, he got Derek Bunker to hit a bouncer to Mort, but the ball went off his glove for an error, and it was 2-0.
K-State made it 3-0 in the fourth thanks to errors by third baseman Corriston and Mort, then, after failing to score in the sixth, tacked on two runs in the eighth.
Nebraska did load the bases with two outs in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate. But Edwards got Mort to fly out to left field to end the game.
Thirty minutes after the game, the Huskers were still stewing, mainly over what happened in the bottom of the sixth.
Facing Dan Jennings, K-State had loaded the bases on a seeing-eye single, an error and a bunt single. With Edlefsen having been called on, Rob Vaughn hit a bouncer to Corriston, who fired home for a force out. Abeita then stepped toward first base to try and turn a double play, but was upended when Cruz slid to the inside of the plate.
Sawyers was immediately ejected, and Anderson got the same punishment after arguing that Cruz had interfered on the play.
“It can work both ways — the momentum swing,” Hutt said. “The big thing our coaches stress is just to keep our composure through any situation. I thought our guys stayed clued in on what needed to be done.”
As for Nebraska?
“We’re already back together,” Opitz said. “We’re ready to go.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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