Your Nebraska Cornhuskers need a win today to win the series vs. Nicholls State if they wish for an at-large bid to the NCAA Baseball Tournament this year.
How much is this needed? According to D1Baseball, Nebraska's RPI is sitting in a self-destructing 87th, while the Colonels wake up with a RPI under 200. While Nebraska can't really do much about their Big Ten Conference opponents, losing a series vs. a non-conference set like this would be make winning the B1G tournament mandatory.
Today's matchup:
Sunday, April 24 (1:05 p.m.)
Probable Starters: LHP Jake Meyers (1-1) vs. LHP Alex Ernestine (2-2)
TV: None
Audio Stream: Huskers.com | Video Stream: BTN Plus
Radio: Husker Sports Network
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About yesterday:
Nebraska falls in Game 2 against Nicholls State 7-1. pic.twitter.com/IpCmK6P6Ef
— Nebraska Baseball (@Husker_Baseball) April 23, 2016
For a lack of a better term, yesterday was a complete team loss. Nicholls SP Cole Stapler, who came into the game with a 4+ Earned Run Average and was allowing opposing hitters a crisp .312 batting average, shut down Nebraska with a complete game, 7 hit performance.
Meanwhile, Jake McSteen gave up 8 of the Colonels 13 hits on the day, which included 11 singles in the small-ball, death by a million cuts victory over the Huskers.
After the game, HC Darin Erstad was not very pleased with his squad's focus level, and the OWH's Jon Nyatawa got the quote of the day from Darin:
“They flat-out — you could see it — they were playing faster, making plays, diving around,” Erstad said. “They had great energy out on the field. They were competing. We got out-competed.”
It seems that Nebraska has a bad habit of having the other team out-compete them this time of year the last few, however for all the frustrations that most of the fanbase has had with the program, the team is still in the B1G Tournament at this moment. The Huskers sit in 6th place, and Maryland is a half game behind in the win column.
This is your Gamethread, let's see what Nebraska team comes out of the gate today.