Huskers beat Cowboys 14-5 in last game of series
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By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
STILLWATER, Okla. — Much of what the Nebraska baseball team accomplished with its 14-5, series-salvaging victory Sunday afternoon against Oklahoma State occurred well before first pitch.
In fact, it was even before they were through being pounded 19-2 on the same field Saturday that the sixth-ranked Huskers decided how they planned to finish the weekend against the No. 21 Cowboys.
“I think Coach A (Mike Anderson) ended yesterday’s loss pretty well. He said ‘OK, we’ve got some adversity here, but we’re going to have to step up and be men,’” senior center fielder Bryce Nimmo said. “Before we left our (post-game) meeting yesterday, we pretty much had decided ‘This one happened, let it go. We’re still all right.’”
Short memory and Anderson’s tinkering with the lineup served NU well on Sunday against a team that was 14-1 at home.
With DJ Belfonte 0-for-his-last 13, Anderson moved his leadoff hitter down to the No. 8 spot and replaced him with Nimmo, who’d been hitting eighth.
Nimmo would draw three walks, single twice and score three runs, while Belfonte singled and doubled, driving in a run and also scoring one.
“It did (have a great effect),” said senior first baseman Craig Corriston, who went 2-for-4 and tied his career high of 4 RBIs. “It’s kind of like ‘See, you’re not getting the job done, somebody else will.’ And that’s a compliment to our team as a whole.”
What Corriston liked as much as the actual production out of a lineup that had produced just nine hits while losing back-to-back games for the first time all season, was its attitude.
“I think that’s the first time we got punched in the nose, besides the first game at Stanford,” Corriston said of Saturday’s outcome. “That’s the first time we’ve faced some adversity this year and I was impressed with the way we handled it.”
Nebraska’s response to its season-opening, 17-7 loss to Stanford was to win the second game of that doubleheader 9-2.
On Sunday, the Huskers pulled off a similar feat behind a 13-hit attack, another stellar pitching effort by Dan Jennings and some plain ol’ good fortune.
For instance, entering the third inning trailing 2-1, NU exited it with a 5-2 lead without even managing a hit. During that rally, four Huskers drew walks, another got hit by a pitch and Oklahoma State committed two errors.
Nebraska built its lead to 8-2 in the fourth, but Oklahoma State got three runs back in the fifth to knock starting pitcher Aaron Pribanic from the game.
NU matched that with a two-out rally in the sixth that never would have occurred had center fielder Michael Dabbs not lost a routine fly ball in the sun. That stroke of luck gave Jake Opitz a cheap double and left runners at second and third with one out. OSU reliever Robbie Weinhardt came in to strike out Mitch Abeita, before Jake Sullivan produced a two-run single that Dabbs might have caught had he not slipped while making his initial break on the ball. Craig Corriston followed that with an RBI double.
The left-handed junior Jennings had entered in the fifth after the Cowboys had scored once and loaded the bases with no outs. He then got Neil Medchill, who had hits in each of his last six at-bats, to bounce into a force out at home. Rebel Ridling followed with a sacrifice fly and, after Tyrone Hambly was hit by a pitch, Jennings walked Thomas Belza to force in a run.
But Jennings came back to strike out Michael and allowed only one hit until he left after the eighth, raising his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 25 while earning his fourth win without a loss.
Pretty impressive for a guy who went into Sunday thinking he’d be the Huskers’ starter for Tuesday night’s home game against fifth-ranked Wichita State.
“I, of course, wanted to start that game, but I told coach before I’d rather pitch a win on the weekend and get a win on the weekend than worry about Tuesday,” Jennings said. “You can’t look ahead.”
After Sunday, though, Nebraska should feel a little better about its coming week. After facing the Shockers, the Huskers, 25-6-1 overall and second in the Big 12 Conference at 11-3-1, play a three-game series against Kansas in Haymarket Park this weekend.
“Fighting back on a Sunday after being two games down, it’s a good win,” Corriston said.
One that started well before first pitch.
“No earthshaking, earthquake moves, but I really stressed throughout last night and this morning ‘Keep your heads up,’ ” Anderson said. “I’m proud to see it. Win or lose that game, I did feel good about the kids’ attitude coming into it. That was a tough one. They needed to be resilient after getting pounded.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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