Nebraska baseball falls to Abilene Christian 5-3 in Saturday doubleheader
The Nebraska baseball team (15-9-1) fell to Abilene Christian (21-6) 5-3 in the second game of their Saturday doubleheader. This loss comes after the Huskers took down Texas A&M Corpus Christi 12-1 in the first of Saturday’s two games.
The Big Red fell into a hole early in this game as the Wildcats strung together five hits in the third inning to score four runs. Max Anderson hit a two-run shot to cut Nebraska’s deficit to just two runs late in this game, but NU’s recovery fell short.
Game Recap
It was Jace Kaminska who earned the start in this game. The junior started strong with two straight scoreless innings. Kaminska retired the first six batters he faced and sat down two of them on strikes.
The offense jumped out to a quick start as well with Max Anderson driving in a run as Brice Matthews came around to score.
However, it was in the third inning that Abilene Christian put up a crooked number. The Wildcats strung together five hits off the righty and scored four runs before Kaminska got out of the jam. The junior struck out the final batter of the inning, but the damage had been done and NU trailed 4-1.
The next inning, the defense let Kaminska down as two straight errors brought a run home for Abilene Christian and put them in front 5-1.
After the starter’s day was done, Jackson Brockett stepped onto the mound and worked a scoreless fifth inning, striking out two Wildcat batters. The sophomore got into a jam in the sixth when an error by the defense was followed up with a base hit.With two outs, Brockett walked the final batter he faced and Jake Bunz took over with the bases loaded.
Bunz worked his way out of the inning with no damage to the scoreboard.
The following inning Nebraska looked to jolt some energy into the offense as Max Anderson hit a two-run shot to cut ACU’s lead to two.
However, the recovery attempt fell short and NU failed to score any more runs to fall to 15-9-1 on the season.
“We didn’t play well. We didn’t play good defense. Three errors against a good team, that’s a recipe to get you beat.”
-Nebraska head coach Will Bolt via Huskers Radio Network
Two detrimental innings
The Husker defense gave up this game in the third and fourth innings. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that when looking at the box score, but that tells the story.
In the first two innings, Jace Kaminska was dealing and retired all six batters he faced. In the third inning it was the polar opposite. He allowed five hits that scored four runs and NU never recovered from that.
In the following inning, his defense didn’t give him any help. Two errors in a row allowed a Wildcat baserunner to score and left the Huskers with a four run deficit.
Anderson’s two-run shot cut that deficit in half, but it was too much for NU to overcome in this game.
Offensive efforts lacked
Outside of Max Anderson and Brice Matthews, Nebraska recorded four hits in 26 at bats. Between those two Huskers, they recorded four hits in their nine at bats.
The Big Red struggled to get runners on base outside of hits as well. NU only worked four walks in this game and each time a batter was walked, he failed to round home.
This change is a stark difference to the first game of Saturday’s double-header where the Big Red put up 12 runs against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The Huskers scored just a quarter of those earlier runs and it put them short of the doubleheader sweep.
What’s next?
The Huskers play a midweek game on Tuesday against Kansas State. The game starts at 6:00 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+ (LINK HERE). Following this, NU heads to Michigan to play a three-game series against the Wolverines.
