Tigers end NU's Big 12 title hopes
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BY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
COLUMBIA, Mo. — There were 3,126 folks crammed into Taylor Stadium on one of the most gorgeous days of spring Saturday afternoon who had decided they’d rather be watching baseball than catching up on yard work.
Missouri proceeded to reward them for that attitude by cleaning out the Nebraska pitching staff.
The 12th-ranked Tigers took advantage of Thad Weber’s early control problems to score four first-inning runs. Then, during the process of ending the Huskers’ starter’s day, they scored six more times with two outs in the second en route to delivering a 22-9 whuppin’ that officially ended fifth-ranked NU’s hope of a Big 12 Conference regular-season championship.
Nebraska’s second straight loss to Mizzou dropped it to 39-11-1 overall and to third-place (17-8-1) in the league, pending the result of Oklahoma State’s late game Saturday night against Oklahoma — marking the first time all season it has been outside the top two spots.
The last time the Huskers allowed as many runs was during their 1997 season finale — a 22-13 loss to Iowa State that turned out to be John Sanders’ final one as coach.
“It was embarrassing for us as a staff to go out there and not compete like that,” said the right-handed senior Weber, who lasted just 12/3 innings after allowing seven hits and four walks. “There’s no way with the arms that we have that that should ever happen.”
Missouri (36-17, 15-11) wasn’t just rough on Weber. In just one-third of an inning, the Tigers lit up Casey Hauptman for six runs; got five off Erik Bird, who gave up seven hits in three innings; and another three off Matt Freeman in the sixth.
Nine of Mizzou’s players had multihit efforts, while leadoff hitter Greg Folgia led a quartet who produced at least four RBIs with a career-high six.
By the end of the third, the Tigers were up 16-2, which explains why Husker senior Jake Opitz received no satisfaction from crushing a fifth-inning delivery from Ian Berger 420 feet to the roof of Missouri’s football practice building behind right field.
“Too late,” said Opitz, who with Nebraska trailing 4-2 with two outs in the second hit a bases-loaded drive that was caught at the warning track in right-center. “It just got out of hand. It seems like whatever you do, you can’t get out of an inning or score enough runs. One of those games.”
Nebraska’s had a few of those this season.
Saturday’s outcome was the fourth time the Huskers lost when giving up double-digit runs. The good news is that after each of the first three, they won their next game.
The last time that occurred came on April 6, when NU came back from a 19-2 loss at Oklahoma State, a contest in which it allowed 24 hits, to beat the Cowboys 14-5.
“The last 12 innings of this series have not been good baseball,” said Mike Anderson, who watched his club allow a 1-0, seventh-inning lead on Friday slip to an 8-1 defeat. “That’s college baseball, why the Big 12 is tough. These kids have got to figure out a way to overcome it.”
To end just their second two-game losing streak of the year and avoid being swept for the first time, Nebraska will have to beat a team that’s 22-5 at home and will be throwing right-handed sophomore Kyle Gibson, who’s 8-1 with a 3.56 earned-run average.
“I’m not trying to rationalize things out, but we’ve only lost 11 times this year,” Anderson said. “We’ve had some tough losses and our kids continue to respond, so I’d expect nothing but (that again).
“When we’ve had a bump in the road, we’ve responded well, so let’s see how we do tomorrow. … We win, we’re feeling pretty good about ourselves fighting back off of two tough losses.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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