Nebraska knocks off Kansas State 5-2 on Friday during pool play in the Big 12 Conference Baseball Tournament.
CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2008 7:00 pm
OKLAHOMA CITY — Mike Anderson was back to throwing foul balls to kids in the stands, a sure sign that the Nebraska baseball team’s mood swing was on the rise.
No, the Huskers weren’t proclaiming after Friday’s 5-2 win against Kansas State that they’re back to playing like they were before a four-game losing streak.
But at least they’ll play Oklahoma State today at Bricktown Ballpark with a shot to advance to the Big 12 Tournament championship game.
That’s because senior right-hander Johnny Dorn held KSU hitters to an 0-for-10 performance with runners in scoring position in his 62/3 innings.
“He’s outstanding,” K-State coach Brad Hill said after Dorn worked around seven hits and a two-run NU error to end a stretch of four straight no-decisions. “He gets guys to swing at pitches they don’t necessarily want to swing at. He’s a fierce competitor and made some big-time pitches.”
So, too, did junior left-hander Zach Herr, especially after he hit pinch-hitter Byron Wiley with his first pitch. Herr then threw a wild pitch to put runners at second and third and fell behind 3-0 to Rob Vaughn.
Three pitches later, Vaughn became the first of Herr’s six strikeout victims over the final 22/3 innings.
“I just kind of had to take myself and calm down, I guess,” said Herr, who walked two and gave up a single to the three hitters he faced in Wednesday’s 10-4 loss to Baylor.
“Doing it for my team. (Jake) Mort and Jake (Opitz) yelling at me to get going. Hearing Johnny out of the dugout. Mitch (Abeita) is getting at me, too, barking at me. That’s kind of where it clicked. After that, I attacked the zone.”
After being one pitch from walking Vaughn, Herr threw three straight fastballs. Vaughn looked at one pitch over the plate and took a hack at another in a similar spot before drawing air swinging at a pitch over the outer half.
“He’s got to come to me, which he did,” Vaughn said. “But he didn’t just throw it over the middle, he made some quality pitches.”
With one out and one on in the top of the seventh, KSU’s Thomas Rooke tried to do the same to Opitz. After taking a strike from the freshman left-hander, Opitz lofted an opposite-field drive that landed in the Wildcats’ bullpen for his eighth home run and a 5-2 Husker lead.
“It starts with (the No. 2 hitter) Mort,” said Opitz, who had put NU up 1-0 during a two-run third, and singled with two outs in the fifth, when the Huskers snapped a 2-2 tie. “He’s on base all five times, I think, today.
“He (Rooke) was giving me some good pitches to hit and I just got a fastball up and just went with it.”
Kansas State had tied the game with two out in the fourth when, with runners at second and third, a smash hit by Dane Yelovich went under Mort’s glove and between his legs. But Dorn, after plunking Derek Bunker and walking Brett Scott, escaped further trouble by striking out Nate Tenbrink.
It was only the second of three strikeouts for Dorn, who had given up a single and triple in Tenbrink’s first two at-bats.
“(I) just tried competing,” said Dorn, 37-10 in his Nebraska career. “You think about how bad the other guys want it and you can’t let them down.”
NU — now 40-13-1 and the only Big 12 team to have won at least 40 games in eight of the last 10 seasons — will go with senior right-hander Thad Weber (8-3, 5.17 ERA) today, while Oklahoma State (41-16) will throw sophomore lefty Tyler Lyons (10-2, 3.06).
Both were the starters when the Cowboys won 19-2 in Stillwater, Okla., on April 26. Weber gave up nine hits and seven runs in just 31/3 innings, while Lyons scattered six hits in a complete game.
To advance to their seventh Big 12 title game in 10 tournament appearances, the Huskers must win today and then have Baylor lose to Kansas State in the tourney’s final pool-play game.
If NU isn’t playing Sunday, its next appearance will be an NCAA Regional, likely at Haymarket Park. The NCAA will announce 16 host sites Sunday and then the top eight seeds and entire field Monday.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.