Nebraska felt fortunate to win Tuesday against Northern Colorado, giving up 13 runs.
They weren’t so lucky Wednesday.
The Cornhuskers fell to the Bears 10-7 Wednesday afternoon despite motoring out to an early 3-0 lead after two innings.
With the loss, the Huskers drop to 15-8-1 on the season.
NU pitchers had trouble keeping the Bear’s hitters off the base pads, giving up 14 hits and walking five in the game.
“We were fortunate yesterday and not fortunate today,” said NU coach Mike Anderson. “I thought they were very offensive, but at the same time, way too many walks and we didn’t pitch out of any jams today.”
Nebraska’s offense went to work immediately, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first and then tacking on another in the second when Jed Hanson drilled his first pitch over the left field fence.
The Bears wouldn’t go away, though, as they struck back with a three run third inning, highlighted by a two out, two-run home run by Mike Raudenbush that tied the game at three.
Anderson said he was disappointed his team wasn’t able to build on the momentum built in those first two innings.
“You go out and score three runs in the first couple innings – that should set the tone for the day,” Anderson said. “Then, to get behind and give up three runs, boom boom boom. That’s not what this team is used to. I think from the offensive side, we started off right, but again, we’re going to have to have some pitching that holds things down.”
Nebraska caught a break in the fifth inning when a potential inning-ending double-play ball off the bat of NU third basemen Jake Mort took a wicked hop and bounced over the shortstop’s head.
Later in the inning, Nebraska would capitalize on the opportunity by scoring on a wild pitch, and then again on an RBI single by Tyler Farst to give NU a 5-3 lead.
The Bears would bounce back again in the sixth by singling the Huskers into submission. Five Northern Colorado singles led to three runs and its first lead of the game, 6-5.
Northern Colorado would tack on three additional runs in the seventh inning – all with two outs. A passed ball on a third strike kept the inning alive for the Bears.
A solo home run, four walked batters and a wild pitch later, the Bears led 9-5.
Mort said pitching isn’t the only aspect of the game to blame.
“From the pitching side, we didn’t throw strikes,” Mort said. “From the offensive side we only got six hits. It’s hard to win games when you’re doing that.”
NU loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh, but only managed two runs in the inning because of a double play ball off the bat of Jeff Tezak.
After that, NU wouldn’t put up a serious scoring threat while the Bears tacked on an insurance run in the ninth.
Six Husker pitchers saw action Wednesday. Sean Yost took the loss after pitching more than three innings of relief work giving up three runs on six hits. He struck out five.
Michael Mariot started the game, but was on a strict pitch count. He went 2.1 innings and gave up three runs on three hits with one walk.
Boomer Collins had two hits in the game while Mort reached base safely and scored three times.
Anderson said his pitchers have to learn to hold leads if they expect to win many ball games this year. He said the offense is doing its job putting up runs.
“You can rely on your offense, but you can’t rely on them all the time,” he said.
lukenichols@dailynebraskan.com
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