Needing a victory to win the series — and more importantly avoid a devastating, dispiriting loss — the Nebraska baseball team barely gave itself a chance Sunday afternoon.
The Huskers dropped a 3-1 game to last-place Minnesota Sunday, becoming the first Big Ten team this season to lose a series to the Gophers and in the process put any hopes of playing in the postseason on the thinnest of ice.
"There were a lot of competitive moments in that game where we weren't on the right side of it," NU coach Will Bolt said during his postgame radio interview.
Nebraska (19-27, 7-11 Big Ten) managed just five hits, and only two singles after back-to-back doubles from Core Jackson and Gabe Swansen in the fifth inning plated NU's only run.
With the game tied 1-1, Minnesota's Noah Berghammer hit his first home run of the season with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Gophers a 2-1 lead.Â
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Minnesota (14-31, 4-14) added another run in the eighth on an RBI groundout to end the weekend with twice as many conference wins as it started with.
In a microcosm of the season, Nebraska, facing a Minnesota reliever in Jack Liffrig who was carrying an 8.77 ERA and a .330 opponent batting average, went strikeout-strikeout-line out in the top of the eighth inning after Berghammer's home run.
NU drew a one-out walk to get the tying run to the plate against Liffrig in the ninth, but a double play ended the game.
"We've got a 40-plus game sample size here," Bolt said of NU struggles. "You've got to have length in your lineup; you've got to have depth positionally so that you're not riding out guys that aren't swinging it well. That's sometimes what you get."
Jackson Brocket got the start on the mound for the Huskers, allowing just one run on four hits while striking out seven in 5 1/3 innings of work.Â
Jackson was the only Husker with more than one hit, finishing 2-for-3.
Nebraska will go back on the road next weekend at Illinois, needing to make some hay against the third-place team in the conference and get some help around the league to have any shot of playing for the postseason in two weeks.
"We're going to continue to show up, work hard, and compete hard," Bolt said. "We've got to come out on the right side in the last few games here if we want to extend our season."