Two numbers seemed to be reason for optimism for Nebraska baseball.
“If you’d told me before the season started that we’re going to have an ERA around 4.00 and fielding percentage of .988, I’m taking my chances that we’re going to be in a pretty good spot,” Coach Will Bolt said.
Nebraska’s head coach was talking to reporters Wednesday, in advance of the Huskers’ participation in the Frisco Baseball Classic in Frisco, Texas, this weekend.
Nebraska is slated to play Sam Houston Friday (6 p.m. CT), No. 2 LSU Saturday (4 p.m.) and Kansas State Sunday (noon), with Mason McConnaughy, Ty Horn and Jackson Brockett the starters.
OK, the numbers Bolt cited (actual ERA 4.35); he wouldn’t have expected them to result in a 3-4 record, and in particular 1-2 at Louisiana last weekend.
Consider the offense, or lack of it.
“Hitting’s contagious, right? So when you’re not going good, it can be very contagious,” said Bolt. The Huskers are hitting .217 as a team, with 76 strikeouts and 27 walks.
“Far too many punch-outs,” Bolt said. “Far too many pull-side ground balls … Just all the stuff you don’t want to do as a hitter. We’ve pretty much run the gamut on that. And it’s been very inconsistent, right? I thought Friday’s game was incredibly competitive.”
The Huskers “hit quite a few balls hard,” he said of the 6-1 victory. Although they struck out 10 times, the Huskers had nine hits and eight walks. They were aggressive on the base paths, with six steals.
The next day, they managed only four hits, with no walks and 13 strikeouts.
That was not “very indicative of a veteran team,” said Bolt. “So those are things we’re going to need to clean up, and we’ve been working on this week.”
Confidence is a concern.
“You have to be confident in the box,” Bolt said. “Again, when you have quite a few at-bats in a row that are good, the next guy walks up to the plate … two or three guys right before you that have been on the barrel, you walk to the plate, walking a little bit taller.”
In addition to the Friday victory against Louisiana, he saw that confidence from Husker hitters in a 6-4 victory against Vanderbilt in week one.
“Hitting’s going to come and go, and that’s what gives us confidence as a team,” said Bolt. “(If) we can get the bats going consistently, we feel like we’ve got a lot of good pieces there.”
Nebraska plays at Omaha next Tuesday and then South Dakota State in the home-opener Wednesday before beginning Big Ten play with a three-game series against Washington at Haymarket Park.
So the next five games are crucial in preparing for the conference schedule.
Team chemistry comes with trust. “It gives you the ability to stay on an even keel as the season goes on. Guys don’t start pointing fingers at each other when things don’t go well,” said Bolt.
“You’re not as bad as you think you are. You’re not as good as you think you are. And I think those guys in the clubhouse can remind themselves of that. That’s what good culture does.”
Over time, the numbers will reflect that.
