All good things must come to an end. Yes, that’s a cliché, but it’s appropriate here.
It comes to an end for Nebraska baseball, a special season in many ways. It ended in the sadness of back-to-back losses in the NCAA Regional for which it played host: 6-3 to Ole Miss in a game that started Saturday and concluded with the ninth inning at noon Sunday because of thunderstorms, followed by an 11-8 loss to Arizona State Sunday afternoon.
“I think we overachieved in so many ways, to be honest,” Coach Will Bolt said, summing up the Huskers’ 43-17 season, ending in the first regional hosting since 2008.
“And that’s not a slight on who we have in the clubhouse or who we have coaching ‘em or anything like that. That’s what you want to be on any team. You want to be overachievers.”
Nebraska battled to the end in both losses. The Huskers trailed 6-1 going into the bottom of the eighth Saturday night, the lone run coming on a Jett Buck home run. But a two-run, pinch-hit home run by Max Buettenback in the bottom of the eighth cut the lead in half.
A two-run Ole Miss seventh was reflective of the Huskers’ relief pitching problems. The Rebels didn’t get a hit in the inning but drew five walks. Nebraska walked nine in the game, while striking out 15. The Huskers struck out 13 times, with only two walks.
In the bottom of Sunday’s lone ninth inning, Josh Overbeek and Drew Grego led off with singles, bringing the tying run to the plate, but a double play and then a fielder’s-choice out after Mac Moyer had been hit by a pitch, to bring the tying run to the plate again, ended the game.
In the Arizona State game, the Sun Devils hit four home runs, including a grand slam by Dominic Smaldino (his second home run of the game), and led 11-1 after six innings.
The Huskers’ lone run had come on an Overbeek home run.
A five-run Nebraska seventh cut the lead to 11-6. Moyer had a two-run double. Jeter Worthley doubled in a run and Case Sanderson’s sacrifice fly brought in another. An error led to the other.
The drama didn’t end in the seventh, however. Dylan Carey singled in a run, and a Buck sacrifice fly, the second out, produced a second run in the ninth. The Huskers had the tying run at the plate with two outs. The game, and season, ended on a Trey Fikes line drive (no blame on him) to right field.
“This last game is like a microcosm of our season, get the tying run to the plate, (after) down 10 runs in the middle innings,” said Bolt.
As often as not this season, Nebraska battled back to win. “A lot of teams, a lot of players, like to pretend that they gave everything they had, and they like to say it makes them feel better at the end of the year,” Bolt said. “It’s another thing to go do that … I think that’s the biggest compliment you can have, somebody tells you you’re about what you say you’re about.”
The influence of the team’s seniors will carry over, according to Overbeek and Carey, who joined Bolt for the Arizona State post-game press conference. Carey referred to the “culture, the buy-in.” Overbeek said, “We left this program in a better place than we found it.”
Both seemed emotional, understandably so, and talked about the importance of religious faith.
“This is a players’ program,” Bolt said. “These guys have set the standard, the guys to my left, among others as well.”
Official attendance Saturday was 7,835, on Sunday 7,748. Fans started leaving after the score reached 11-1 Sunday. They shouldn’t have been surprised when they saw the battle-back final score.
Good things, including the Huskers’ most wins since 2005, came to an end Sunday, but not without a fight to that end. “It stinks that we’re not still playing,” said Bolt.
And so it does.
