02 March: Nebraseball (5-3;RPI116;J:Red/P:CFGrey) at Wichita State (6-0;RPI30;Whites) - WSU wins 9-1

[saluno22]

Photo of the field at Wichita State...

 

[saluno22]

A few video highlights from the Wichita State twitter (Nebraska didn't post any)...

 

[k9_r]

Why do I feel like this is going to be a long season? I know it is early but those excuses have to stop at some point. WSU is #30 RPI yada yada yada. Win these games. Especially don't get blown out in them like Nebraska is lower than a mid major. I was excited to see the power the team had the first weekend but where was any of that today?

Losing Luensmann, Palkert, Eddins and McSteen has created a heckuva hole in our pitching staff and filling that hole with untested freshmen arms is a reality not an excuse. Buckle your seat belt b/c this could be a bumpy ride.

Also, all in all, this was a rather evenly played game. Losing 9-1 to a team which batted .233 for the game is just weird. Two grand slams is weird. WSU got a 3 for 3 day including a grand slam from one guy (O'Brien) who was hitting .176 prior and last year hit 5/21, three runs, one double and three RBIs at a JUCO so that's weird too.

And, also, WSU is 7-0 playing us at home. If we win one game this weekend it will be a success.

Anyway, that's how I see it. Unhappy game, hope it gets better, would love to win this series starting today.

 

[saluno22]

That second grand slam in the second clip was by Alec Bohm out of Omaha Roncalli. That ball went far.

From the sounds of the Husker radio broadcasters, this was essentially Jesse Wilkening's day behind the plate yesterday...

 

[saluno22]

Losing Luensmann, Palkert, Eddins and McSteen has created a heckuva hole in our pitching staff and filling that hole with untested freshmen arms is a reality not an excuse. Buckle your seat belt b/c this could be a bumpy ride.

Also, all in all, this was a rather evenly played game. Losing 9-1 to a team which batted .233 for the game is just weird. Two grand slams is weird. WSU got a 3 for 3 day including a grand slam from one guy (O'Brien) who was hitting .176 prior and last year hit 5/21, three runs, one double and three RBIs at a JUCO so that's weird too.

And, also, WSU is 7-0 playing us at home. If we win one game this weekend it will be a success.

Anyway, that's how I see it. Unhappy game, hope it gets better, would love to win this series starting today.

Also, we have a lot of inexperienced bats. That is my reason for hope as this season progresses. We've been doing a good job in recent games of getting pitching counts up early, but after the third inning yesterday, Heuer really settled in. The first grand slam followed.

There were a few concerning fielding miscues. We had just one official error, but there was a bad AB for our defense in B8 where there was terrible communication on pop ups that went foul (one landed in fair territory but luckily rolled foul. Troutwine should have been out a few times in that AB. Gotta get that cleaned up. With our thin pitching staff, we can't have those mental errors in the field that extend innings (well, can't have them ever, but they get magnified with the lack of erasers on the mound).

Hopefully by the time conference season rolls around, we're playing a lot better. We have 11 games after the Wichita State series before hosting Minnesota, we need a lot of development to occur in those 2+ weeks.

 

[k9_r]

Also, we have a lot of inexperienced bats. That is my reason for hope as this season progresses. We've been doing a good job in recent games of getting pitching counts up early, but after the third inning yesterday, Heuer really settled in. The first grand slam followed.

There were a few concerning fielding miscues. We had just one official error, but there was a bad AB for our defense in B8 where there was terrible communication on pop ups that went foul (one landed in fair territory but luckily rolled foul. Troutwine should have been out a few times in that AB. Gotta get that cleaned up. With our thin pitching staff, we can't have those mental errors in the field that extend innings (well, can't have them ever, but they get magnified with the lack of erasers on the mound).

Hopefully by the time conference season rolls around, we're playing a lot better. We have 11 games after the Wichita State series before hosting Minnesota, we need a lot of development to occur in those 2+ weeks.

We're not behind the eight ball yet but I can definitely see that eight ball. Got to avoid being swept this weekend.