Huskers rally in both ends of doubleheader
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BY CURT McKEEVER \ Lincoln Journal Star
This is exactly why Nebraska’s baseball team has reason to believe it can win the Big 12 Conference regular-season championship even though it’s two-and-a-half games behind first-place Texas A&M with the red-hot Aggies coming to town for a three-game series next weekend.
Trailing to Louisiana-Lafayette 3-1 and down to their final out during the second game of a doubleheader in Haymarket Park Saturday night, the sixth-ranked Huskers took advantage of a Ragin’ Cajun error to force extra innings and then won 4-3 on Mitch Abeita’s one-out RBI single in the 14th inning.
NU took the first game by the same score thanks to another Louisiana-Lafayette error that led to an unearned eighth-inning run.
“We’ve always said it from the first day that we’re a team that’s never going to give up. We mean it,” said Abeita after Nebraska improved to 36-8-1 overall, 26-2-1 at home and 3-0 in extra-inning games this season. “When it comes down to the final out of the final inning, we’re going to be working to get guys on base, score a run, make a pitch.”
Abeita, who caught all 23 innings of the doubleheader, lined a full-count pitch from right-handed junior Gregory Harmon up the middle to drive in Jake Mort from second base. Harmon had walked Mort, the first batter he faced, before Mort took second on a passed ball. Abeita then delivered the game-winner after Jake Opitz lined out to shortstop.
The Ragin’ Cajuns, who left runners stranded in scoring position in each of the extra innings, had a stellar outing by right-handed freshman Michael Cook go to waste. Cook gave up just seven hits and an unearned run over seven innings before handing things over to right-handed sophomore Justin Robichaux, who was trying to notch his single-season school-record ninth save.
Robichaux then retired four straight before giving up a single to Bryce Nimmo with out in the ninth. After advancing on a groundout, Nimmo scored on a single by Opitz to make it 3-2.
NU’s hopes appeared to be over when Robichaux got Abeita to hit a chopper to third baseman Tyler Benzel, but Benzel threw wildly past first baseman Chance Harst. As Harst chased after the ball, Opitz rounded third, and though Harst’s throw home beat him to the plate he slid under the tag of catcher Dillon Guillory to tie the game.
Louisiana-Lafayette (22-25) also gave Nebraska an opening that the Huskers used to win Saturday’s first contest.
The decisive run came on a fielder’s choice groundout by Nimmo that scored Cody Neer, who’d advanced from first to third on Ben Kline’s one-out hit-and-run single.
“I wouldn’t have swung at it (had it not been a hit-and-run play),” Kline said. “I’m a free swinger, but that one was low and in, so ...”
He executed what was asked of him.
Neer was equally as happy to do his part, as during his at-bat he had failed to get a sacrifice trying to advance DJ Belfonte, who’d reached on a throwing error by Jordan Poirrier.
“He put it together. He was trying to get something going in that inning ... doing everything he could,” Neer said of NU coach Mike Anderson.
Nimmo’s RBI grounder to shortstop Greg Fontenot might have resulted in an inning-ending double had Kline not been on the run. But with no play at second, Fontenot had no choice but to take the out at first.
Zach Herr (2-2) earned the win in relief for Johnny Dorn, striking out three of the four hitters he faced in a perfect 11/3 innings.
The matchup between Dorn and Hunter Moody — Nos. 1 and 2 in career wins among active NCAA Division I pitchers — turned into a draw, as Dorn scattered five hits and fanned 11 over 52/3 innings, while Moody allowed three runs on eight hits over the same distance.
In the nightcap, pitchers Aaron Pribanic, Dan Jennings, Mike Nesseth and Erik Bird combined to strike out 19 Ragin’ Cajuns, the most by Nebraska in a game since 1999. Nesseth and Bird recorded 11 of those over the course of the final 52/3 innings.
Pribanic was a replacement starter for Thad Weber On Saturday morning, Weber’s wife, Megan, delivered the couple’s first child.
With their wild Saturday behind them, the Huskers now will deal with final-exam week while preparing for the key series with A&M that begins at Haymarket on Friday night.
The Aggies will enter having won a Big 12-record 15 straight in league play and in seemingly firm command of the race with six games remaining.
But Louisiana-Lafayette must also have felt secure when twice in the ninth inning Saturday night it had the Huskers down to their final strike.
“(If) we take advantage of little things that happen, things will work out,” Kline said.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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