Nebraska Baseball Eliminated From Big Ten Tournament Contention

With a Husker win on Saturday and a Purdue loss to Maryland, Nebraska could have found itself in the Big Ten Tournament in Omaha. Instead, Purdue and Maryland sat on the sidelines and watched as clouds, but no rain, passed over West Lafayette for several hours before deciding that Maryland needed to catch a bus to fly back home.

Purdue and Maryland had no motivation to play on Saturday and it showed in the lack of urgency to try and get in the game. The Big Ten had decided to try and televise the game, but with the weather a factor, it should have attempted to have been moved earlier in the week to get all games in.

Maryland did not want to play in case it lost against Purdue. A loss to Purdue would have harmed their chances of clinching a national seed. The Terps were also able to save ace Ryan Ramsey for the opening game of the Big Ten Tournament.

Purdue, meanwhile, was just happy to make the tournament. The Boilermakers had lost the first two games against Maryland and neither matchups were particularly close. Now, depending on the outcome of Iowa and Indiana this afternoon, it looks like Maryland and Purdue get to play in an empty stadium in Omaha Wednesday night.

Nebraska sees its season end without making the Big Ten Tournament for the first time as a member of the Big Ten. A season which saw the Huskers go 0-5 in one run games and lose yet another in extra innings will thus come to a close. Nebraska also lost five pitchers to injury and had struggled with depth on the infield.

NU now looks to a large group of junior college transfers to try and make it back to Omaha not just once next year, but twice.