Nebraska baseball fall 11-6 to Spartans, finish second in Big Ten regular season
Nebraska baseball (34-19, 16-8) fell a game short of a series sweep and a shot at the share of the Big Ten regular-season title with an 11-6 loss to Michigan State (23-27, 10-13). The Big Red leave East Lansing with another series win, winning 12 of their 14 weekends in the regular season.
The Nebraska pitching staff struggled all day Sunday, allowing nine earned runs, 14 hits and giving up six free bases. Junior left-handed pitcher Jackson Brockett struggled for the first time since the memorable no-hitter he threw against Kansas State on May 1. He only got through two innings, allowing three earned runs before handing the game off to Drew Christo. Christo pitched two innings before Nebraska would use six different pitchers to get through the last six innings of the game.
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The Huskers were held scoreless through the game’s first five innings, trailing 6-0 heading into the sixth. Case Sanderson would then lead off the sixth inning with his first of three hits on the day. His hit was followed by a pair of singles from Tyler Stone and Will Jesske before Dylan Carey delivered a big two-RBI double down the left-field line. Gabe Swansen hit a deep sacrifice fly to right center to make it a 6-4 game in the sixth. With that, Nebraska was right back in it.
However, the Spartans answered immediately with a pair of runs off four hits in the bottom half of the sixth to extend their lead back up to 8-4.
Nebraska baseball keeps Big Ten title hopes alive with 11-3 win over Michigan State
Nebraska answered right back, getting those two runs back in the top half of the seventh. Cole Evans led the inning off with a walk. Cayden Brumbaugh followed that up with a single of his own. Sanderson drove in Evans with a base hit, and then a sacrifice fly from Tyler Stone to deep left field made it a two-run ball game again.
Michigan State continued to respond. They grabbed three runs in the bottom of the seventh and putting the game out of reach for Nebraska.
Despite the disappointment of falling short of the Big Ten regular season title, Nebraska baseball clinched second place in the Big Ten Regular season. NU still has a chance at the Big Ten Tournament title. The Huskers will battle No. 7 Ohio State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament at 2:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday, May 21 in Omaha, Nebraska.
Article written by HuskerOnline’s Carter Owens
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