NU gets clutch hit, pitching vs. Bears
Here’s a couple of things that baseball teams with notable winning streaks, like Nebraska’s eight-game one, come to expect:
A guy who admits to pressing at the plate — in this instance, NU senior Craig Corriston — will come through with a late tie-breaking RBI hit.
And, while waiting for something like that to occur, the pitching staff is in control or else stranding runners in scoring position.
Corriston provided the difference Sunday in the Huskers’ 3-2 opening-game victory against Northern Colorado at Haymarket Park. He lined a 3-2 pitch off reliever Sean Peery into left field to score Mitch Abeita from second.
“No matter who it is up there, we’ve got faith in all nine guys right now,” said Corriston, who’s still trying to get comfortable at the plate after sitting out the first six games as penalty for an NCAA rules violation. “It’s a good feeling to have.”
Nebraska then built an 8-0 lead in the nightcap, only to have the Bears score five runs in the sixth and seventh innings off starter Thad Weber. But Zach Herr came out of the bullpen to strike out six in just 22/3 innings to finish off an 8-5 victory.
“One of our goals is 65 percent strikes, and I think every single guy has gone out there and done it — over and over,” said the junior left-hander from Omaha Skutt. “Our pitching staff is lights-out right now, and it’s fun to watch.”
Herr kept the one Bear he inherited who was in scoring position from coming around. In the two games, UNC stranded seven base runners at second or third.
In the opener, the Bears couldn’t score off Mike Nesseth or Erik Anderson over the final three innings. Husker relievers now have thrown 22 consecutive scoreless innings.
“I liked the attack and the mode that our pitchers have been in,” NU coach Mike Anderson said after his team improved to 9-2. “Good rhythm. Good pace. Tremendous amount of purpose, and a pretty good knowledge of what their plan is.
“Eric’s done a great job. You can just see it in their (the pitchers’) body language and everything else. They may make a mistake, and when they do they have the ability to get back up.”
The Husker coach was referring to first-year pitching coach Eric Newman, who Sunday watched Weber show some extraordinary focus while winning the nightcap.
Weber tired before leaving with an 8-5 lead, but some of his exhaustion was mental, too, as his father is scheduled to undergo heart-bypass surgery today in Lincoln.
“I wouldn’t say I totally put it out of my mind. He hasn’t missed a game I’ve pitched in I don’t know how many years,” Weber said of his father, Les. “It was a little tough, but him getting better right now is all that matters.”
In Sunday’s opener, NU did just enough against former Husker Jon Klausing before Corriston delivered in the eighth.
The 6-foot-7 lefty Klausing — who pitched at NU from 2004-06 before missing last season with a back injury, then deciding to play a final season of eligibility at UNC after graduating from Nebraska in December — allowed just two hits. Both hits, however, and two of his six walks came in the third inning, when NU took a 2-0 lead on a fielder’s-choice grounder by Jake Opitz and an RBI single by Bryce Nimmo.
Nebraska starter Dan Jennings got out of a bases-loaded situation in the fourth by striking out Erik Hegstad, but the Bears got a run in the fifth on Erik Whinery’s RBI single, then tied it in the seventh.
Kevin Sandberg led off with a walk, and after Cody Henry walked, the Huskers called on Nesseth, right-handed redshirt freshman. The Bears then loaded the bases when Chad Murray reached on a fielder’s-choice sacrifice bunt that had Nesseth throwing late to third. Nesseth, though, came back to get Whinery to hit a double-play grounder that tied the game, before striking out Hegstad.
Corriston came back with his clutch hit one pitch after UNC thought Peery had caught the Nebraska left fielder looking at a 2-2 strike. Abeita stole second without a throw on that pitch.
“Our catcher freezes on a ball down the middle, but it’s just one play in a game where we only got two hits,” said a frustrated Northern Colorado coach Kevin Smallcomb, who was ejected immediately after Abeita scored the go-ahead run.
“Somehow we scratched two runs out of it and it looked like a game in the eighth, but in that kind of game, every pitch is big.”
Nebraska will try to record its second straight four-game series sweep when the teams meet again today at 1:35 p.m. The Huskers then play host to South Dakota State on Tuesday before opening Big 12 Conference action with a three-game weekend series at Kansas State.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
A guy who admits to pressing at the plate — in this instance, NU senior Craig Corriston — will come through with a late tie-breaking RBI hit.
And, while waiting for something like that to occur, the pitching staff is in control or else stranding runners in scoring position.
Corriston provided the difference Sunday in the Huskers’ 3-2 opening-game victory against Northern Colorado at Haymarket Park. He lined a 3-2 pitch off reliever Sean Peery into left field to score Mitch Abeita from second.
“No matter who it is up there, we’ve got faith in all nine guys right now,” said Corriston, who’s still trying to get comfortable at the plate after sitting out the first six games as penalty for an NCAA rules violation. “It’s a good feeling to have.”
Nebraska then built an 8-0 lead in the nightcap, only to have the Bears score five runs in the sixth and seventh innings off starter Thad Weber. But Zach Herr came out of the bullpen to strike out six in just 22/3 innings to finish off an 8-5 victory.
“One of our goals is 65 percent strikes, and I think every single guy has gone out there and done it — over and over,” said the junior left-hander from Omaha Skutt. “Our pitching staff is lights-out right now, and it’s fun to watch.”
Herr kept the one Bear he inherited who was in scoring position from coming around. In the two games, UNC stranded seven base runners at second or third.
In the opener, the Bears couldn’t score off Mike Nesseth or Erik Anderson over the final three innings. Husker relievers now have thrown 22 consecutive scoreless innings.
“I liked the attack and the mode that our pitchers have been in,” NU coach Mike Anderson said after his team improved to 9-2. “Good rhythm. Good pace. Tremendous amount of purpose, and a pretty good knowledge of what their plan is.
“Eric’s done a great job. You can just see it in their (the pitchers’) body language and everything else. They may make a mistake, and when they do they have the ability to get back up.”
The Husker coach was referring to first-year pitching coach Eric Newman, who Sunday watched Weber show some extraordinary focus while winning the nightcap.
Weber tired before leaving with an 8-5 lead, but some of his exhaustion was mental, too, as his father is scheduled to undergo heart-bypass surgery today in Lincoln.
“I wouldn’t say I totally put it out of my mind. He hasn’t missed a game I’ve pitched in I don’t know how many years,” Weber said of his father, Les. “It was a little tough, but him getting better right now is all that matters.”
In Sunday’s opener, NU did just enough against former Husker Jon Klausing before Corriston delivered in the eighth.
The 6-foot-7 lefty Klausing — who pitched at NU from 2004-06 before missing last season with a back injury, then deciding to play a final season of eligibility at UNC after graduating from Nebraska in December — allowed just two hits. Both hits, however, and two of his six walks came in the third inning, when NU took a 2-0 lead on a fielder’s-choice grounder by Jake Opitz and an RBI single by Bryce Nimmo.
Nebraska starter Dan Jennings got out of a bases-loaded situation in the fourth by striking out Erik Hegstad, but the Bears got a run in the fifth on Erik Whinery’s RBI single, then tied it in the seventh.
Kevin Sandberg led off with a walk, and after Cody Henry walked, the Huskers called on Nesseth, right-handed redshirt freshman. The Bears then loaded the bases when Chad Murray reached on a fielder’s-choice sacrifice bunt that had Nesseth throwing late to third. Nesseth, though, came back to get Whinery to hit a double-play grounder that tied the game, before striking out Hegstad.
Corriston came back with his clutch hit one pitch after UNC thought Peery had caught the Nebraska left fielder looking at a 2-2 strike. Abeita stole second without a throw on that pitch.
“Our catcher freezes on a ball down the middle, but it’s just one play in a game where we only got two hits,” said a frustrated Northern Colorado coach Kevin Smallcomb, who was ejected immediately after Abeita scored the go-ahead run.
“Somehow we scratched two runs out of it and it looked like a game in the eighth, but in that kind of game, every pitch is big.”
Nebraska will try to record its second straight four-game series sweep when the teams meet again today at 1:35 p.m. The Huskers then play host to South Dakota State on Tuesday before opening Big 12 Conference action with a three-game weekend series at Kansas State.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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