Huskers make it 12 straight with win over KSU
MANHATTAN, Kan. — The strangest sight in Tointon Stadium on Saturday afternoon came when Kansas State pitching coach Sean McCann was ejected in the first inning of the Wildcats’ baseball game against Nebraska.
McCann got the heave-ho not because he felt K-State’s Chase Bayuk was getting squeezed by home plate umpire Randy Bruns — but for arguing the strike zone given to the Huskers’ Thad Weber.
Perhaps McCann had a strong hunch that it was going to be rough sledding against Weber after he struck out Dane Yelovich, then caught Jordan Cruz looking for the second out of the inning.
After Cruz was called out, McCann’s temper boiled to the point that he didn’t get to see the rest of NU’s 11-4 win.
No doubt, Weber had the Wildcat hitters feeling just as frustrated while allowing just one run and four hits during a seven-inning outing that included a career-high nine strikeouts.
“It’s really the same stuff that was there at Stanford,” said Weber, who, since getting pounded for eight runs in three innings in the season opener, has gone 3-0 with a 2.66 ERA , 21 strikeouts and four walks in 201/3 innings.
“It’s a matter of maybe getting a little more relaxed. It was maybe a little ‘opening-day (jitters),’ but now it’s easier to go out there and get in the groove of things.”
Nebraska, which extended its winning streak to 12 games, staked Weber to a 7-0 lead by scoring from the second through fifth innings, then punctuated things with a four-run eighth.
Apparently unimpressed by his team’s season-best 16-hit attack against six KSU pitchers, coach Mike Anderson said the Huskers could have been more disciplined at the plate.
Tough crowd, especially when you consider that seven Husker starters had hits, while six players drove in runs.
“The only way this team is going to have success is that we have nine guys focused on our offense,” Anderson said. “I don’t think we have the most talented hitters in the league, but I think we might have the most heart if we continue to work at it. That’s going to be key.”
Now there’s a guy who’s looking for a way to keep his team playing with an edge even though the balls are bouncing the right way.
“I think we just come to the ballpark every day expecting to win, not hoping or wishing,” said senior Craig Corriston.
During Friday’s 2-1 win, Corriston came through with a ninth-inning sacrifice fly to account for the winning run. He also had a single in the seventh inning when Nebraska scored its other run.
He followed that up Saturday with the first four-hit game of his career, going 4-for-5, with two RBIs and two runs.
“I guess it’s just staying consistent in my approach,” Corriston said of his hot streak, which comes one week after he admitted he was pressing after having to sit out the first six games because of suspension. “I knew it’d eventually come around, and it has.”
Corriston also claimed he knew the third-inning pitch Jake Opitz drove off Chase Bayuk was going to clear the right-field wall for the senior’s first homer of the season. It did, and after giving up another single to Mitch Abeita and a double to Corriston, Bayuk was finished for the day.
“Against that lefty, we were going to go opposite-field, and our right-handers did an exceptional job,” said Opitz, who pulled a pitch for a rare homer off a left- hander. “That’s what got us going.”
When the Huskers weren’t punishing pitches, they were taking them for the team. Seven NU players got plunked, mostly by off-speed deliveries, and three ended up scoring.
“We do step up on the dish, at times, and their approach is to say, ‘OK, we’re going to pitch inside.’ When teams do that, and if that’s not their normal pattern, it’s tough to pitch inside,” Anderson said. “It does become an offensive weapon.”
If the Huskers don’t get as much of that, then there’s always their pitching. Sunday, they send junior right-hander Aaron Pribanic to the mound, looking to sweep their first Big 12 Conference series.
All Pribanic has done in his two starts is throw complete-game gems.
“I think it’s just been each guy feeding off each other,” Weber said. “Johnny (Dorn) goes out on Friday and Dan (Jennings) was getting it to me and ‘Pribi.’ It’s just one guy pushing the other.”
Enough so that opposing pitching coaches are now getting tossed. What a strange sight.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
McCann got the heave-ho not because he felt K-State’s Chase Bayuk was getting squeezed by home plate umpire Randy Bruns — but for arguing the strike zone given to the Huskers’ Thad Weber.
Perhaps McCann had a strong hunch that it was going to be rough sledding against Weber after he struck out Dane Yelovich, then caught Jordan Cruz looking for the second out of the inning.
After Cruz was called out, McCann’s temper boiled to the point that he didn’t get to see the rest of NU’s 11-4 win.
No doubt, Weber had the Wildcat hitters feeling just as frustrated while allowing just one run and four hits during a seven-inning outing that included a career-high nine strikeouts.
“It’s really the same stuff that was there at Stanford,” said Weber, who, since getting pounded for eight runs in three innings in the season opener, has gone 3-0 with a 2.66 ERA , 21 strikeouts and four walks in 201/3 innings.
“It’s a matter of maybe getting a little more relaxed. It was maybe a little ‘opening-day (jitters),’ but now it’s easier to go out there and get in the groove of things.”
Nebraska, which extended its winning streak to 12 games, staked Weber to a 7-0 lead by scoring from the second through fifth innings, then punctuated things with a four-run eighth.
Apparently unimpressed by his team’s season-best 16-hit attack against six KSU pitchers, coach Mike Anderson said the Huskers could have been more disciplined at the plate.
Tough crowd, especially when you consider that seven Husker starters had hits, while six players drove in runs.
“The only way this team is going to have success is that we have nine guys focused on our offense,” Anderson said. “I don’t think we have the most talented hitters in the league, but I think we might have the most heart if we continue to work at it. That’s going to be key.”
Now there’s a guy who’s looking for a way to keep his team playing with an edge even though the balls are bouncing the right way.
“I think we just come to the ballpark every day expecting to win, not hoping or wishing,” said senior Craig Corriston.
During Friday’s 2-1 win, Corriston came through with a ninth-inning sacrifice fly to account for the winning run. He also had a single in the seventh inning when Nebraska scored its other run.
He followed that up Saturday with the first four-hit game of his career, going 4-for-5, with two RBIs and two runs.
“I guess it’s just staying consistent in my approach,” Corriston said of his hot streak, which comes one week after he admitted he was pressing after having to sit out the first six games because of suspension. “I knew it’d eventually come around, and it has.”
Corriston also claimed he knew the third-inning pitch Jake Opitz drove off Chase Bayuk was going to clear the right-field wall for the senior’s first homer of the season. It did, and after giving up another single to Mitch Abeita and a double to Corriston, Bayuk was finished for the day.
“Against that lefty, we were going to go opposite-field, and our right-handers did an exceptional job,” said Opitz, who pulled a pitch for a rare homer off a left- hander. “That’s what got us going.”
When the Huskers weren’t punishing pitches, they were taking them for the team. Seven NU players got plunked, mostly by off-speed deliveries, and three ended up scoring.
“We do step up on the dish, at times, and their approach is to say, ‘OK, we’re going to pitch inside.’ When teams do that, and if that’s not their normal pattern, it’s tough to pitch inside,” Anderson said. “It does become an offensive weapon.”
If the Huskers don’t get as much of that, then there’s always their pitching. Sunday, they send junior right-hander Aaron Pribanic to the mound, looking to sweep their first Big 12 Conference series.
All Pribanic has done in his two starts is throw complete-game gems.
“I think it’s just been each guy feeding off each other,” Weber said. “Johnny (Dorn) goes out on Friday and Dan (Jennings) was getting it to me and ‘Pribi.’ It’s just one guy pushing the other.”
Enough so that opposing pitching coaches are now getting tossed. What a strange sight.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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