Sullivan sparks NU to sweep at Haymarket
Mike Anderson gladly stands corrected.
“I made a huge mistake yesterday,” the Nebraska baseball coach said Sunday after the Huskers rallied to beat Texas Tech 5-3 at Haymarket Park to cap a three-game sweep. “I said each day it’s somebody different contributing, but that’s two days in a row for Nick (Sullivan).”
Saturday, Sullivan hit a three-run, first-inning homer that gave ninth-ranked NU all the offense it would need in a 5-2 victory. Then on Sunday, the junior left fielder lofted a three-run shot over the center-field wall with one out in the sixth to give him a career-high five RBIs in the game.
Sullivan’s third homer this season erased a 3-2 deficit and left Nebraska 24-4-1 overall and leading the Big 12 Conference with a 10-1-1 mark.
It also was his third hit of the day off freshman right-hander Chad Bettis, who decided to become a Red Raider despite being chosen by Houston in the eighth round of the Major League Baseball draft last June.
After giving up a two-run double to Sullivan in the first inning, Bettis retired 14 of 15 batters, and Tech battled back to take a 3-2 lead. But with one out in the sixth, he walked Jake Opitz, then gave up a single to Mitch Abeita.
Although that might have been an opportune time for the Red Raiders to call on left-handed specialist James Leverton — who’s holding opponents to a .145 batting average, hasn’t yielded a homer and was warming up in the bullpen — they stuck with Bettis.
Sullivan — who finished the series 5-for-12 and drove in half of the Huskers’ 16 runs — hit Bettis’ next pitch out.
“I saw him in the pen and I thought that’s what they’re going to do,” Anderson said of Leverton. “It did create a question of whether I’m going to go hit a right- hander with our hottest guy (coming up). I was pleased they left the right-hander in there.”
Obviously, so was Sullivan, who watched Tech center fielder Tanner Rindels backtrack ready to make a catch near the wall before watching the ball sail over the wall.
“I thought it was just going to be a deep fly ball, and then he (Rindels) just kind of kept drifting,” Sullivan said. “Abeita did a great job to get on, so did ‘Opie’ before him with that walk. It’s just a tribute to our offense.”
Tech, which had taken the 3-2 lead on Jeremy Mayo’s RBI double with two outs in the sixth, did make things more interesting than the Huskers wanted in the ninth.
With two outs and Willie Rueda on first after drawing a leadoff walk, Monk Kreder reached on a strange play to bring Jason Seefeld to the plate representing the go-ahead run. Monk had swung at third-strike pitch that got away from Abeita. Though it appeared Monk accidentally kicked the ball while running to first (which would have been an out), he was ruled safe when Abeita’s throw glanced off the glove of first baseman Craig Corriston.
Undaunted, NU reliever Dan Jennings got Seefeld, who had hit a solo homer to tie the game in the fourth, to fly out to right to end the game.
It gave the junior left-hander, who has made five starts, his third straight save and extended his streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 201/3.
Jennings also recorded two of the Husker pitchers’ 11 strikeouts, which left them with 35 for the series.
“The first two days I thought it was their pitching,” said Tech’s 22-year coach Larry Hays, who drew a rare ejection in the fifth for arguing that NU starter Aaron Pribanic should have been called for balks. “Today, I felt like we were the enemy even more.”
Which isn’t to say that Hays couldn’t admire Nebraska’s effort.
“They got ahead of us every game, we were playing catch-up, the opportunities were there and we never did anything,” he said.
The Huskers, who drew 18,320 fans to Haymarket Park over the weekend, now hit the road for a game at Iowa on Tuesday night before returning to league action with a three-game series at Oklahoma State this weekend.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
“I made a huge mistake yesterday,” the Nebraska baseball coach said Sunday after the Huskers rallied to beat Texas Tech 5-3 at Haymarket Park to cap a three-game sweep. “I said each day it’s somebody different contributing, but that’s two days in a row for Nick (Sullivan).”
Saturday, Sullivan hit a three-run, first-inning homer that gave ninth-ranked NU all the offense it would need in a 5-2 victory. Then on Sunday, the junior left fielder lofted a three-run shot over the center-field wall with one out in the sixth to give him a career-high five RBIs in the game.
Sullivan’s third homer this season erased a 3-2 deficit and left Nebraska 24-4-1 overall and leading the Big 12 Conference with a 10-1-1 mark.
It also was his third hit of the day off freshman right-hander Chad Bettis, who decided to become a Red Raider despite being chosen by Houston in the eighth round of the Major League Baseball draft last June.
After giving up a two-run double to Sullivan in the first inning, Bettis retired 14 of 15 batters, and Tech battled back to take a 3-2 lead. But with one out in the sixth, he walked Jake Opitz, then gave up a single to Mitch Abeita.
Although that might have been an opportune time for the Red Raiders to call on left-handed specialist James Leverton — who’s holding opponents to a .145 batting average, hasn’t yielded a homer and was warming up in the bullpen — they stuck with Bettis.
Sullivan — who finished the series 5-for-12 and drove in half of the Huskers’ 16 runs — hit Bettis’ next pitch out.
“I saw him in the pen and I thought that’s what they’re going to do,” Anderson said of Leverton. “It did create a question of whether I’m going to go hit a right- hander with our hottest guy (coming up). I was pleased they left the right-hander in there.”
Obviously, so was Sullivan, who watched Tech center fielder Tanner Rindels backtrack ready to make a catch near the wall before watching the ball sail over the wall.
“I thought it was just going to be a deep fly ball, and then he (Rindels) just kind of kept drifting,” Sullivan said. “Abeita did a great job to get on, so did ‘Opie’ before him with that walk. It’s just a tribute to our offense.”
Tech, which had taken the 3-2 lead on Jeremy Mayo’s RBI double with two outs in the sixth, did make things more interesting than the Huskers wanted in the ninth.
With two outs and Willie Rueda on first after drawing a leadoff walk, Monk Kreder reached on a strange play to bring Jason Seefeld to the plate representing the go-ahead run. Monk had swung at third-strike pitch that got away from Abeita. Though it appeared Monk accidentally kicked the ball while running to first (which would have been an out), he was ruled safe when Abeita’s throw glanced off the glove of first baseman Craig Corriston.
Undaunted, NU reliever Dan Jennings got Seefeld, who had hit a solo homer to tie the game in the fourth, to fly out to right to end the game.
It gave the junior left-hander, who has made five starts, his third straight save and extended his streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 201/3.
Jennings also recorded two of the Husker pitchers’ 11 strikeouts, which left them with 35 for the series.
“The first two days I thought it was their pitching,” said Tech’s 22-year coach Larry Hays, who drew a rare ejection in the fifth for arguing that NU starter Aaron Pribanic should have been called for balks. “Today, I felt like we were the enemy even more.”
Which isn’t to say that Hays couldn’t admire Nebraska’s effort.
“They got ahead of us every game, we were playing catch-up, the opportunities were there and we never did anything,” he said.
The Huskers, who drew 18,320 fans to Haymarket Park over the weekend, now hit the road for a game at Iowa on Tuesday night before returning to league action with a three-game series at Oklahoma State this weekend.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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