Huskers Fall to Creighton, Umpires

I've got to say, there were more contentious calls in that game than I've seen in a while. There were no less than three stolen base attempts, two plays at the plate, and a strikeout call that didn't come out as Nebraska would have liked. Certainly one or two were the right call, but it just egged on the crowd.

The worst missed call, by far, was in the eighth inning. With a runner on second, Creighton bunted to advance the runner. The bunter was out on the play -- but for whatever reason, the runner was slow advancing to third. Andrew Brown threw back across the diamond, and the Bluejay runner was out by six feet, though he slid. For reasons unbeknownst to me (and the rest of the ballpark), he was called safe.

On the subsequent play, Creighton laid down a suicide squeeze, but while it looked like the runner was surely out this time, Mitch Abeita apparently dropped the ball as he reached into his mitt for it. Once again, a safe call on the basepaths caused the crowd to erupt.

Speaking of the crowd, I was once again disappointed in the behavior of a large and vocal portion of the Creighton fans. After Creighton took the lead, a group of fans sitting in the 1st-base box seats began to get into it with students in the berm section. As soon as the game was over, a dozen or so blue-clad "fans" began to taunt the Nebraska students filtering out of the berm. There was pointing to the scoreboard, loud mocking laughter, and a general sense of arrogance exhibited by the Bluejay hecklers. I don't want to stereotype all Bluejay fans as such, but when I'm consistently exposed to behavior like this from their fans, a pattern begins to emerge.

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Since I'd rather not linger any further upon an ugly game and ugly fans, I'll leave you with these photos from the game, and look forward to the Texas series this weekend.

Jake Opitz and Ryan Wehrle turning two in the early innings of the game.

Look closely. That's the same pitcher, using both hands. It's Creighton's switch-pitching Pat Venditte. Notice how he throws a traditional arm slot with the right arm, but sidearms from the southpaw side. He's effective from both ends, too.

Nebraska scored one on this wild pitch, but the second run was out at the plate in a close call that the umps got right, though the crowd disagreed.