Indiana Downs Nebraska Baseball 8-1

In a season marred by struggles, the Nebraska baseball team had one of its worst efforts on Saturday. In what is often considered on of the most hitter friendly setups in the conference, the Husker offense couldn’t get anything going after plating the first run of the game. Nebraska took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, as Core Jackson drove in Leighton Banjoff with an RBI double.

The next half inning is where the game turned. Indiana took advantage of a 1 out Nebraska error, scored on an 2 RBI single and 3 RBI double, and ended up plating 5 runs, all unearned. They didn’t stop there either, a solo home run, the only earned run given up by Nebraska starting pitcher Emmett Olson in 6 innings, pushed it to a 6-1 ballgame.

Nebraska went with freshman Corbin Hawkins for 1.2 innings and he allowed his first runs in over a month, giving up an RBI triple to Indiana lead off hitter Bobby Whalen, who stole home on the next batter.

The Huskers only were able to get one more runner to 3rd base for the rest of the game. They finished the game 0-7 with runners in scoring position, many of those coming via the strikeout, of which the Huskers had a season worst (and that’s saying something this season) 16.

Indiana is now tied with Nebraska at 4-7 in the Big Ten Conference. That 4-7 record puts the teams in 9th place. Keep in mind, only 8 teams make the conference tournament in Omaha at season’s end. The two teams finish the series Sunday at 11am CT in Bloomington, trying to claw their way back up into postseason projections..