Lincoln - Behind three solo
home runs, including back-to-back homers by Austin Darby and Kale Kiser in the
second inning and a homer by Chad Christensen in the third, the Nebraska
baseball team (32-19, 12-9 Big Ten) completed a sweep of the Minnesota Golden
Gophers (28-23, 10-11 Big Ten) on Sunday afternoon at Hawks Field with a 6-5
win.
The
Huskers won each game of the three-game series by one run and put themselves back
in the conference tournament with three Big Ten games remaining after entering
the weekend in seventh place. The Huskers are now tied with Michigan State for
fourth in the Big Ten standings, while Penn State and Indiana tied for second with
13-8 records and Purdue (16-5) is in first. The Huskers sit one game ahead of
Ohio State (11-10) and are two games ahead of seventh-place Minnesota (10-11).
Nebraska holds series wins over both Minnesota and Ohio State.
The
win secured the Huskers' first sweep of a conference foe since NU swept Texas
Tech at Hawks Field to end the 2010 season and put an exclamation point on Senior
Day for four Husker seniors, including Kiser, Cory Burleson, Dexter Spitsnogle
and Sam Stucky. Spitsnogle started the game for NU is his first career
conference start and gave the Huskers 3.1 solid innings, as he gave up just one
earned run on four hits and one walk, while striking out three. Luke Bublitz
and Tyler King then combined to throw the next 3.1 innings, before Dylan Vogt picked
up his second save of the weekend with 2.1 innings of work down the strech.
Offensively
every starter picked up at least one hit on the afternoon, while Darby, Kiser
and Michael Pritchard all recorded two hits. NU also stole two more bases on
the day to go a perfect 6-for-6 on the weekend.
The
Huskers broke open the scoring in the second when Darby tattooed a 2-1 offering
from Austin Lubinksy that hit the scoreboard in right-center field. NU was
quickly up 2-0 after Kiser launched Lubinsky's next pitch into the right-field
bullpen. It was the first time NU had hit back-to-back homers since Cody Asche
and Kash Kalkowski hit consecutive shots against North Dakota on March 18 last
season.
After
Spitsnogle sent the Gophers down in order for the second straight inning in the
third, Christensen pushed NU's lead to 3-0 with his ninth home run of the
season on a blast to the left-center-field berm.
With
just one hit through the first three innings, the Gophers opened the top of the
fourth with three straight singles and scored two runs. NU got the runs right
back in the bottom of the frame with three hits of their own, including a
leadoff double from Darby and a one-out double from fellow freshman Pat Kelly. The
Huskers extended their lead to 6-2 in the fifth on three more hits, including
an RBI single by Kiser.
Minnesota
continued to chip away with a run in the sixth off three hits to cut NU's lead
to 6-3. The Gophers had the tying run at the plate with runners on first and
second, but King came in and retired Andy Heckemeyer to end the threat.
The
Gophers had the tying run at the plate again in the seventh following a two-out
double by Dan Olinger that put runners at second and third, but were once again
unable to get a clutch hit as Vogt retired Kurt Schlangen for the third out of
the inning.
Minnesota
got after Vogt in the eighth with two runs on four hits and had the tying run
at third base with two down and cleanup hitter Kyle Geason up. Geason pushed
the count full, but Vogt dug deep and got the Gopher third baseman to pop out
in foul territory to Richard Stock.
Head
Coach Darin Erstad stayed with Vogt in the ninth and the junior retired Olinger
to start the inning. Following a single by Schlangen into center field, Jake
Bergen laid down a sacrifice bunt to put the tying run in scoring position at
second base with two outs. Vogt sealed the sweep with the very next batter, as Michael
Handel lined out to Christensen at short to end the game.
The
Huskers play their final home game of the season on Tuesday night when the
Wichita State Shockers visit Hawks Field. Scheduled for a 6:35 p.m. first
pitch, the game will be shown across the state on NET and streamed live on
BTN.com.
Nebraska
then hits the road for its final three games of the regular season when it pays
a visit to Ann Arbor, Mich., to face the Michigan Wolverines for a three-game
series that starts on Thursday, May 17.
