NU baseball sweeps Saturday doubleheader
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By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
Guess Thad Weber knew exactly what he was talking about when he promised that his abysmal, season-opening outing at Stanford last week would be no big deal.
Saturday, in his first start at Haymarket Park, Nebraska’s senior right-hander distanced himself from that eight-run, three-inning performance by holding UC Riverside to just two runs over seven innings in a 5-2 victory that finished off a doubleheader sweep.
The Huskers, who had split their previous three doubleheaders dating to 2006, won Saturday’s opener 10-4.
“I really like the way our kids are competing,” Mike Anderson said after his club won its third straight to improve to 4-2. “Whether it’s a win or a loss, I like the process.”
On Saturday, plenty of his players joined in.
Freshman shortstop Ben Kline, who started the second game at first base, went 5-for-7 with a sacrifice fly and three RBIs.
Senior second baseman Jake Opitz went 4-for-9 with four extra-base hits.
Senior center fielder Bryce Nimmo went 5-for-9 with three RBIs.
The NU bullpen threw 51/3 shutout innings.
And senior catch Mitch Abeita delivered NU’s first pinch-hit homer since 2005 to erase a 1-0, sixth-inning deficit in the nightcap.
But no one stood out bigger than Weber, who turned down a chance to sign professionally in the offseason only to come out and get shelled by the Cardinal in his first regular-season start.
Not only that, but Saturday, he was tagged with a run in the first inning after making a wild throw hoping to start an inning-ending double play.
“It’s easy to get thoughts in your head when something like that happens, ‘Oh, here we go again,’” Weber said. “But it’s just a matter of getting back up and competing and throwing strikes.
“I never really lost confidence in myself.”
Weber — who during a 10-5 NCAA Regional loss to the Highlanders last season allowed three runs in only one-third of an inning — left Saturday’s game with a career-long performance and career-high six strikeouts. And no walks.
No wonder Abeita seemed a little shy about taking credit for his key hit.
“We had a lot of good pitching to get us up to that point,” he said.
Abeita was called in to pinch hit for Clay Cuno. In the fourth inning, Bryce Nimmo had lined a 3-2 pitch from Paul Applebee to give the Huskers runners at first and second with one out, but Cuno bounced into a double play.
In the sixth, Cody Neer started the rally by legging out a double, but then got caught off second on a fielder’s choice chopper that Jeff Tezak hit to Applebee.
Abeita then turned on a 1-0 pitch and deposited the ball into the grass berm behind left-center field for his second homer of the series and third of the season.
“I’ve always worked hard to be a good hitter and sometimes it pays off like that,” said Abeita, noting that he’s not consciously trying to become more of a power hitter.
Whatever. He’s now got two more homers than he did in 46 games last season.
“It was a pretty good pitch, but I was looking for it,” said Abeita, who said he was surprised that the ball got out in one of the deepest parts of the park. “I was thinking I’d be on two (second base), but I saw Coach Anderson hold up Nimmo jogging into home, and I just did the same.”
Riverside pinch hitter Ben Price came close to doing the same on a swing off Husker reliever Mike Nesseth that would have tied the game in the ninth. But freshman infielder Dan Johnston, playing left as part of a four-player defensive switch that followed Abeita’s homer, caught Price’s ball just in front of the wall to give Nesseth his first career save.
“The thing I liked the most was how we finished,” Anderson said. “We finished strong with runs and did a good job on the mound.”
In the opener, Nebraska gave junior left-hander Dan Jennings all the support he needed by scoring four runs in the second inning and another two in the fourth.
Jennings earned his second career victory by matching his previous long outing of 52/3 innings. He allowed just three hits, but walked five.
Nebraska and Riverside (2-6) conclude their four-game series at 1:05 p.m. today.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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