It’s day-to-day, of course. A win today doesn’t guarantee a win tomorrow. Or, in this case, wins Friday night and Saturday don’t guarantee a win Sunday, which was the story of Nebraska baseball’s weekend at Haymarket Park.
Nebraska defeated Rutgers Friday night 8-5 and Saturday 10-5 but came up short Sunday, losing to the Scarlet Knights 7-5. The Huskers scrapped, but “that’s just a prerequisite,” a seemingly frustrated Will Bolt said following Sunday’s loss. “I’m not really impressed by fighting for nine innings, no.”
Once again, Bolt’s frustration was a result, in part, of a Sunday starter’s inability to get through five innings, a problem for Nebraska all season, on Saturdays as well as Sundays.
Jackson Brockett allowed only one run on five hits through the first four innings Sunday. Nebraska responded with a run, driven in by Cael Frost in the bottom of the fourth to tie.
In the fifth, however, Brockett allowed a single and a double, and after getting a ground out, gave way to Gavin Blachowicz, who gave up a sacrifice fly and a double. Rutgers came away with three runs. From that point, every time the Huskers scored, Rutgers responded with at least one run in the next inning.
“Again, I had this same conversation with the team, with this post-game conversation,” said Bolt. “You get in the middle innings, the starter comes out and it turns into a three-spot. Then you’re chasing runs. It’s just getting very tiresome that we can’t get a starter through five innings.
“You ain’t gonna win doing that … on, of course, the weekend, very often. You’ve got to really, really hit to do that. And we just didn’t play well enough together today.”
Enough of the negative. Friday and Saturday Rutgers had to chase runs, which it did Friday early. The Scarlet Knights opened with two runs in the first, but Nebraska responded with five in the bottom of the first. Rutgers tied the score in the top of the second, but didn’t score again.
Saturday, Nebraska scored one in the third and five in the fourth. Rutgers responded with four in the fifth and one in the sixth. But the Huskers scored one in the bottom of the sixth, two in the seventh and one in the eighth. They had 12 hits Saturday and 13 hits Friday. Sunday, Rutgers had 15 hits.
“We had a chance to finish a weekend off, finish a week off, and we just didn’t play well enough together,” Bolt said, recounting what he told the team after Sunday’s loss. “I mean, we scratch a run in the fourth and we give up the three-spot, and every time we score thereafter, we gave up a run, and that’s just not playing well together at all. It’s not allowing the momentum to be in our dugout.
“And then we only punched out four times on the day, I believe, (but) two of ‘em were in big spots, with runners in scoring position. That gives them all the momentum, too, so just not competitive enough.”
Tyler Stone was 4-for-10 on the weekend, with three walks, four runs scored, a home run and five runs-batted-in. Case Sanderson was 5-for-15, with three RBIs. Cayden Brumbaugh was 6-for-15, with six runs scored. Joshua Overbeek was 7-for-12, with two runs scored and two RBIs.
The weekend was a “great opportunity to come out here and win a series at home,” Overbeek said. “I mean, that’s something we strive to do every weekend, go for the sweep on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, we fell short and just continue to learn from what’s going on in the game and what it’s asking of us, and what we can do in the lineup to continue to move the ball and hit the ball hard one-through-nine and score as many runs as possible, pick up the pitchers and just see whatever happens every time we come out here and play the game hard.”
One-through-nine? Overbeek, who played third base, hit in the ninth spot on the weekend.
“You can win two games back-to-back, Friday and Saturday . . . but that doesn’t guarantee you anything on Sunday,” said Overbeek.
