Nebraska Baseball Eliminated From Big Ten Tournament, Loses 8-5 Against Maryland

Nebraska saw their season come to a close Friday night in a 8-5 loss to Maryland in Bloomington in the Big Ten Tournament. Nebraska fell behind 7-1 before staging a valiant comeback effort in the loss.

Ethan Frazier made his fourth start of the year, and gave up his first earned runs of the season in the first inning. A walk to Brandon Gum, a single from Nick Dunn, and a three run homer from AJ Lee put the Terrapins up 3-0 in the elimination contest.

The Huskers did get a leadoff home run from Angelo Altavilla in the bottom of the first to trim the deficit to two. The Huskers would work Maryland pitcher Tyler Blohm in the first inning, getting two more runners on base via a Ben Miller single and a Luis Alvarado walk. Luke Roskam would strikeout to end the threat.

Frazier would have to come out of the game in the second when he felt arm discomfort. Nate Fisher would relieve Frazier and would work a clean second and third before Maryland plated four in the fourth to chase him.

In the fourth, Lee walked to start, Nick Cieri and Kevin Smith would follow with singles to load the bases. Madison Nickens would then clear the bases with a triple hit towards the flag pole in left center. A single from Justin Morris scored Nickens and put the lead to 7-1.

Nebraska did manage to chip away, whittling the lead to two with runs in the fourth and fifth and two runs in the sixth. Jake Schleppenbach hit a home run in the fourth, a walk and a hit turned into a run in the fifth, and two singles and an error turned into two runs in the sixth.

Nebraska left a runner on in the seventh and eighth, while Chad Luensmann worked a clean inning in each of the seventh and eight.

The Huskers could only manage a Miller single in the ninth, before Alvarado grounded into a game ending double play.

The Huskers end the regular season 35-20-1 (16-7-1 Big Ten) and now await their postseason fate.

When asked about if he felt his team had done enough to warrant a post season bid, Darin Erstad was sure the Huskers deserve to be in the postseason.

Nebraska will find out their fate when the NCAA reveals their postseason brackets on Monday at 11:00. Television coverage can be found on ESPNU.