I made it down to Lincoln for tonight's Nebraska - Baylor game, which we lost 9-2. The good news is that Haymarket Park is a really great place to watch baseball. The other good news - got to see a college roommate I hadn't seen in probably ten or twelve years. The bad news - this year it isn't very good baseball.
Tonight's game in a word - depressing. Nebraska started the game down 2-0 after the first inning. If the Huskers were looking to pick up any energy from the crowd, they were out of luck. The rest of the game shadowed the story of this Husker season.
The Huskers would get something going in an inning, then not follow through on clutch hits. Baylor had three, maybe four double-plays. Nebraska loaded the bases in the fourth and Jake Mort stepped up, getting the count to 3-0, then 3-2. Then he swings at a pitch so high he might as well have thrown his bat at it, and the inning was over.
The only bright spot on the evening came in the ninth inning. Redshirt freshman John Lee stepped up, hit a base hit and drove home a run to save the Huskers from being shut-out. Huskers.com states that Lee had one other plate appearance on the season but the board at Haymarket showed it as his first at bat. Go figure.
More bad news - Nebraska has now lost four games in a row - the first four-game losing streak since 1975. Ouch!
Tomorrow's game is pivotal. If the Huskers win, we have a shot at this series, and we're one game below .500 in the Big 12. Lose and there isn't much hope left for the season.. There's still time for both things to happen - a good season and a bad season, but probably not after tomorrow.
There I go again. It's that negativity. Once again, it's not football season and baseball season for Nebraska is sucking some hot wind. Sometimes its like this team is those kids from South Park, wanting to lose everything and just get the season over. I guess we'll find out this afternoon.
On a positive note, a beautiful thing about college baseball is the accessibility to the players. To an eight-year (or eighty) old kid, this might be the top of the world.