Network Bar

Husker Baseball Ends Season With Bittersweet Sweep of Texas Tech

by Jon Johnston on May 23, 2010 11:24 PM CDT in Nebraska Husker Baseball

The Husker Baseball team swept Texas Tech (9-3, 8-6 8-7) this weekend, winning their first Big 12 series of the year. Unfortunately, it ends their season, as they'll finish ninth in the Big 12, and only the top eight teams make the Big 12 tourney. They finish the season at .500 with a 27-27 overall record. Their Big 12 record stands at 10-17, ahead of Oklahoma State at 8-19.

The good news is the team won eight out of their last 11 games. The bad new is obvious - they finish out of the tourney in consecutive seasons for the first time in the Big 12 and their sweep of Texas Tech avoided the first consecutive losing seasons since 1975 and 1976.

It's not so coincidental that the team performed well at the end of the season - after they'd been relieve of the pressure of expectations. It points to having a young team, one with players who weren't mentally tough enough to play Big 12 baseball.

The good news it that the Huskers improved this season in pitching, going from a 7.32 ERA in Big 12 conference play to 5.51 this season and most of the pitching staff will return next season. The Huskers lose Adam Bailey, who tied for the lead the Big 12 in homers this season with nine, but will return most of the players who were regular starters.

Sad but true is the fact that if Mike Anderson goes through another season like this Tom Osborne will need to look for another baseball coach. Anderson runs a good program, but the team will need to win back the fan base after going through two incredibly lousy seasons. I know there's a lot of the "Fire Mike Anderson" stuff going around, but I believe in giving the guy another season to prove his abilities. I hope that's the case anyway, as the alternative - another losing season and a coaching staff being fired - is lousy at best.