Huskers bounce back to split doubleheader
PALO ALTO, Calif. — After throwing precious few effective pitches in the Nebraska baseball team’s 17-7 season-opening loss to Stanford here Friday, Thad Weber made this one for the Huskers.
“Not a big deal. We’ll learn from it, move on and get better,” the senior said.
A few hours later, Weber was looking prophetic as NU, fueled by right-hander Johnny Dorn’s six innings of three-hit ball, came back to earn a doubleheader split with a 9-2 win.
“When you get beat as bad as we did, you just kind of get that grudge,” said sophomore right fielder DJ Belfonte, who in the second game had career highs of four hits and four runs. “We understood what our mistakes were, and so we just came out the next game and just tried to keep the ears down and limit the mistakes.“
Friday’s nightcap seemed an appropriate way to end a day that saw both sun and rain — sometimes at the same time — shower a crowd of 1,618 at Sunken Diamond.
Yes, this was about as contrasting as a doubleheader can get.
In the opener, Stanford got a leadoff home run by Cord Phelps, a junior who’d never before hit a ball over the outfield fence for the Cardinal, and before the Huskers could get back to the dugout it was 5-0.
Stanford added three more runs in the third to end Weber’s second career start, and three innings later Cord finished off another five-run outburst with a three-run homer to make it … 17-0.
Never mind that after left-hander Jeremy Bleich was pulled after limiting NU to a Cody Neer bloop single through six innings that the visitors scored the last seven runs. In between games, NU coach Mike Anderson sounded like he’d be happy if his club, which had taken its first outdoors infield practice of the spring only 25 minutes before the opener, could just compete in the next game, let alone win it.
“From a pitching standpoint and a hitting standpoint, they’re ahead. Good team,” Anderson said of the Cardinal. “The best way to do this would be to play these guys this way and then play them in about four, five, six weeks and just see where you go. But you can’t do that kind of stuff.
“What you do is measure your own team and you do the best you can during this time. I know we’re going to be better. I know we’re going to improve. (But) it doesn’t sit well when you lose like that.”
Apparently, Anderson didn’t have to deliver the last part of that message to his squad in between games.
After Stanford tallied a first-inning run without getting a hit off Dorn, Nebraska went to work against right-handed senior Erik Davis to produce four runs in the second and three more in the third. All of the runs in the second and two in the third came with two outs.
Freshman shortstop Ben Kline tied the game with a bases-loaded infield single that shortstop Jake Schlander tried to bare hand before Davis threw a wild pitch to give NU the lead. Belfonte followed by lining a 1-1 pitch up the middle for a two-run single.
Mitch Abeita made it 5-1 in the third with a double to the corner of left field that scored Jeff Tezak. Two outs later, Abeita scored from third on a wild pitch and Belfonte doubled to score Bryce Nimmo.
Meanwhile, after the first inning, Dorn allowed just two Stanford runners to reach scoring position. He got out of both situations before leaving the game having allowed just the one unearned run, and with Nebraska up 8-1.
While notching his 32nd career victory, Dorn struck out seven Cardinal to reach 203 in barely three seasons. That numbers ranks No. 8 all-time at Nebraska.
“I’ve been in that situation before,” Dorn said of pitching after a tough loss, “just had to go out and throw strikes and get adjusted.“
Now, on the field where in 2000 they gained national respect by pushing Stanford to the limit in an NCAA Super Regional, the Huskers are in position to take the edge in this four-game series that continues with a 3 p.m. contest today. That starting time is an hour earlier than originally scheduled because of a forecast for rain.
NU will throw left-handed junior Dan Jennings, while the Cardinal are scheduled to go with Max Fearnow, a right-handed junior from Omaha Westside.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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