A Nebraska offense that has been decidedly un-clutch for the past few weeks found some semblance of clutch-ness Monday and needed almost every bit of it.
Angelo Altavilla had his first three-hit game in a month, the Huskers found a few hits with runners in scoring position, and NU avoided what would have been a debilitating sweep with a 6-4 win at Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois.
"Bottom line, we've been playing awful baseball. And we just had to go out there and have fun and try to get back on track," NU coach Darin Erstad told the Husker Sports Radio Network after the game. "We'll take a win any way it comes."
The rare Monday game seemed to put a little energy back into Nebraska’s bats. The Huskers finished with five extra-base hits, including a leadoff home run from Aaron Palensky and 12 hits overall.
It was NU’s first 10-plus hit game since April 20 in a 17-9 loss at Iowa. That was also Nebraska’s last game with multiple extra-base hits. The Huskers had gone seven straight games without more than one hit going for extra bases.
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Much of the credit for that turnaround goes to Altavilla and Palensky. Altavilla was 3-for-4 with two doubles, three RBIs and a run scored, finishing with three hits for the first time in exactly one month. Altavilla last had three hits April 6 against Purdue.
Palensky was 3-for-5 with two RBIs and the solo homer on the third pitch of the game.
The duo helped Nebraska begin the climb out of a horrific slump with runners in scoring position. After going 1-for-12 in such situations in the first two games of the series, the Huskers were 4-for-18 Monday and started 4-for-11. Nebraska loaded the bases in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings and stranded 15 runners overall, but even that was an improvement over what NU had produced in its previous eight conference games.
"We left a lot out there. Offensively we should have put up a lot of runs, and we didn't," Erstad said. "But that said, we did get 12 hits. I did see some better swings."
Nebraska led 6-1 before Northwestern (21-23, 8-10) scored twice in the eighth inning and got the game-tying run up to bat in the ninth before a Colby Gomes strikeout of Shawn Goosenberg ended the game.Â
Most importantly, the victory moved Nebraska (24-18, 13-8 Big Ten) to third in the Big Ten standings with the Huskers having one league series left. After hosting Arizona State this weekend, NU will host league leader Michigan on May 16-18 to end the regular season.
Nebraska’s offense backed up a solid performance from starting pitcher Reece Eddins, who allowed one run on five hits with six strikeouts in six innings.
"He's obviously putting a lot of work in, because he's still throwing 90-92 (mph) late in his outing, which is great to see," Erstad said. "It's one of those things where he's got a lot of experience and made a couple huge pitches, and we needed that today."
Nebraska played without freshman Spencer Schwellenbach, who injured his ankle Sunday in a collision with Joe Acker. Schwellenbach did take batting practice Monday.
Nebraska returns to action Friday, hosting No. 20 Arizona State at 6:30 p.m. for the first in a three-game set.