Huskers beat UNK 11-2

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By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star

Unless you were Casey Hauptman, it really wasn’t a big deal that Nebraska fell behind NCAA Division II sister school Nebraska-Kearney 2-0 after the top of the first inning at Haymarket Park on Tuesday afternoon.

“Probably ... made us concentrate a little more,” NU coach Mike Anderson said.

After the right-handed freshman’s shaky start, the Huskers scored the game’s final 11 runs to notch an 11-2 win for their fifth straight victory — NU’s longest streak since April of 2006.

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“The first inning, I was throwing them a little higher — belt high right down the middle, things you’re not supposed to do,” said Hauptman, who shrugged off giving up three doubles in the inning to hold UNK hitless for two more frames before giving way to four relievers who needed some work.

When Hauptman left, NU held a 3-2 lead. The Huskers (6-2) broke away by scoring twice in the fifth on Craig Corriston’s fielder’s choice RBI and Nick Sullivan’s sacrifice fly, then got two more runs in the seventh on Bryce Nimmo’s RBI single and Sullivan’s second sac fly.

The senior center fielder Nimmo finished with a career-high-tying four runs, while the junior left fielder Sullivan matched his career high of three RBIs.

“A game’s a game. You’ve got to approach every one the same, no matter who’s the opponent,” Sullivan said. “We came out here to get our jobs done and get a ‘W’.”

Since he only tossed three innings, Hauptman didn’t get the win. But at least he was able to watch the remainder of it feeling much better about his performance than when he got back to the dugout following the first.

“You’ve got to let those things go,” he said. “It was kind of a wakeup call. After that (inning), coach talked to me a little bit, told me I had to execute a few pitches and throw my game.”

Nebraska is scheduled to begin a four-game weekend series against Northern Colorado on Friday afternoon.

Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.