Huskers fall in Big 12 tourney opener
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By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
OKLAHOMA CITY — Nebraska’s 12th-ranked, but suddenly can’t-come-up-with-a-big-pitch-or-clutch-hit baseball team better hope that Tyler Farst is right about Wednesday’s 10-4, Big 12 tournament-opening loss to Baylor.
That’s it’s just a hiccup in the road.
“I think we can still come out and win some ballgames, even in this tournament,” the sophomore Farst said after the Huskers’ fourth straight loss.
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They’d better hold their breaths on that one.
On the heels of being swept at Missouri last weekend, NU was quieted in Bricktown Ballpark by right-handed redshirt freshman Shawn Tolleson, who they had rocked for seven runs in just two-thirds of an inning during a 14-1 win on April 26.
It lacked defensive sharpness, as two errors led to three unearned runs, while another mental mistake on a pickoff play led to another ‘earned’ run.
And a bullpen that allowed 24 earned runs in 14 innings at Missouri struggled yet again.
Two walks by Zach Herr, who relieved Dan Jennings to start the seventh, led to a four-run outburst from a Baylor team that in Big 12 games posted the league’s lowest batting average.
Herr also gave up a single that loaded the bases, and after he was pulled, sophomore Shaver Hansen, batting clean-up for the first game in his career, pulled a 3-2 pitch from Mike Nesseth past the drawn-in first baseman Farst for a three-run triple that broke the game open.
The result, though, according to senior Craig Corriston, didn’t break the Huskers’ spirit.
“We haven’t (taken) a step back, I don’t believe,” said Corriston, who started at first and went 0-for-2 before giving way to pinch-hitter Nick Sullivan in the sixth. “When we were going good we got the timely hits, we were filling up the strike zone. We’re not doing either of those right now. And we’re not making the routine plays.
“We weren’t doing anything spectacular when we were winning, we were just doing the things that we have to do. That’s what we need to get back to, and we will.”
NU (39-13-1) looked overmatched by Tolleson in the early going. In the first two innings, when his fastball was clocked at 94 mph, Tolleson got the Huskers on four infield pop-ups and struck out another looking. Nebraska had two more infield pop-ups in the third.
“He’s got shutout stuff, and I think a real key for him is how he gets started,” Baylor coach Steve Smith said of Tolleson, who, back from a year off recovering from reconstructive elbow surgery, improved to 6-4. “His ERA in the first inning is something over 12. The rest of the game, it’s under three.
“I was sitting over there (early in the game) going ‘Good.’ His fastball was down. They called strikes and swings were down. I haven’t seen Nebraska as much as you, but I would think that infield pop-ups to that extreme are probably very unusual.”
NU did claw to 3-2 in the fourth, getting three of the five hits it managed against Tolleson then. But the Bears (32-24) got an insurance run in the sixth thanks to Hansen winding up with an unusual steal of second. Jennings had made a move to first as Hansen was breaking for second, but shortstop Ben Kline dropped Corriston’s throw to the bag, and two batters later Adam Hornung lined a first-pitch double to right-center field to make it 4-2.
Jennings (6-3) wound up being the first Husker besides Johnny Dorn to lose a game this season in which he produced a quality start (at least six innings and no more than three earned runs).
And Baylor’s uprising in the seventh took some sparkle off Farst’s 12-pitch at-bat against Willie Kempf in the bottom half in which he produced a two-run single.
Nevertheless, the Huskers vowed to come back with a better fight for their second tourney game against Kansas State at 4 p.m. Friday, when they’ll start the right-handed senior and first-team all-league performer Dorn.
Should Nebraska win that one, because of the Wildcats’ victory against No. 2 seed Oklahoma State on Wednesday night, as long as Baylor doesn’t go 3-0 in pool play, then NU will control whether it advances to the tournament championship for a seventh time in 10 all-time appearances.
“It’s going to take one thing,” Herr said of the Huskers turning their fortunes, “and it’s bound to happen sometime soon.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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