Husker baseball sweeps weekend games with team effort

About 30 minutes after Nebraska finished its four-game sweep of Cal State Northridge on Sunday, sophomore pitcher Mike Nesseth was shoveling dirt out of the Nebraska dugout.
Twenty feet away, senior hurler Erik Bird had a broom sweeping all the sunflower seed shells into one big pile that would later be shoveled out by Nesseth.

The picture that was painted after the 8-2 NU win by the two Cornhusker pitchers summed up just about everything Nebraska was able to accomplish over the weekend.

Nebraska (10-3-1) not only swept the Matadors of Cal State Northridge (5-8) this weekend, but the Nebraska pitching staff was able to dig themselves out of the rut they had been in.

“We are letting the defense play,” Nesseth said. “We are just throwing to contact and making them hit the ball. We are all just playing for each other, and we’re still not quite there, but it’s getting better and better each week that we’re out there.”

Nesseth started off the weekend with a bang, throwing his first complete game of the year, and career for that matter, in a 9-3 Cornhusker win on Friday. The sophomore struck out seven and allowed only six hits the entire game en route to his second win on the year.

Nesseth, who is now 2-1 in the season, said he probably would have gotten the win no matter what he did on the mound this weekend.

He said the real credit goes to his teammates holding the NU bats.

“It’s not just a pitcher out there,” Nesseth said. “It’s the hitters, fielders and everything. Everybody’s behind each other.”

Nesseth was alluding to the nine runs the NU offense was able to put on the board.
The offense didn’t stop there. In fact, it was almost the lowest run total Nebraska posted all weekend.

In Saturday’s double-header with the Matadors, the Huskers roped together 23 runs, with 11 coming in game one and 12 in game two. The NU bats could only muster eight in the series finale, but Nebraska coach Mike Anderson is more than pleased with numbers like that.

“(I’m) thrilled with the way our offense has clicked this weekend and last Wednesday,” Anderson said. “I think the last four to five games we’ve been really motivated. I really like seeing that — just overall pleased.”

Throughout the series, both players and coaches agree that there has been more team unity than ever in the Nebraska dugout.

Coming into the 2009 season, Anderson admitted that there are going to be a lot of younger players that would need to step up for NU to be successful.

The freshmen knew it as well as the seniors. Freshmen like Kash Kalkowski and Boomer Collins both said in the preseason press conference that they understand how young the team is, and that they will need to mature quickly.

Over the weekend, several fresh faces found themselves in the NU lineup and made immediate impacts — especially in Saturday’s double-header.

Junior college transfers Kyle Bubak, Adam Bailey, Cade Thompson and Jordan Roualdes joined freshmen Khiry Cooper and Cody Asche as big contributors to NU’s current five-game winning streak.

It’s a mix that was different for the Huskers at first, but Nesseth said the way the team is gelling is almost above and beyond the expectations this early in the year.

“There’s nothing that we can do but give up our bodies for each other and play as a team,” Nesseth said. “It’s just getting fun out there.”

Teammate and senior catcher Cody Neer couldn’t agree more with Nesseth about the team chemistry.

“It’s great because we always say a freshman is not a freshman and a senior is not a senior — we’re a team,” Neer said. “We expect guys to come in there every day and compete like you can.”

The Huskers will look to continue that competitive edge and extend their five-game win streak further as they head down to Lubbock, Texas for a weekend series with Texas Tech. It’s the first set of Big 12 Conference games for the Big Red and several players said they feel confident about where the team is.

Cal State Northridge swept the Red Raiders when Tech came to Northridge; the Huskers hope to do the same, this time in Tech’s backyard. Until then, it’s more practice, and, according to Nesseth, he hopes a shovel might not have to be in his hands again.

“That would be (pitching) coach (Eric) Newman’s decision,” Nesseth joked. “We just got chosen to do it this week, but hopefully it’s the last time we have to do it.”