Nebraska Baseball: Blame Coaches For Four-Game Losing Streak

The 2008 Big 12 Baseball Tournament did not start out very well for the Huskers as they lost 10-4 to the Baylor.  Once again the starting pitching for the Nebraska Cornhuskers (No. 7 overall, No. 3 seed in Big 12) did a respectable job of keeping the Baylor Bears (No. 6 seed in Big 12) from crossing home plate.

Dan Jennings started the game and went six innings, allowing four runs, two of which were direct results of Husker errors.  The rest of the way, it was nearly all Baylor, as they put up six more runs and held the Big Red at arm's length the rest of the way. 

Whenever there is a sporting competition, no matter the effects of officiating or coaching, the results of the game depend most heavily on the execution of the players.  That being said, Nebraska Coach Mike Anderson influenced the game heavily in a negative way for his team.

After the sixth inning, Anderson chose to replace the starting pitcher, Dan Jennings, even though he had been performing adequately.  Zach Herr came out to start the seventh, and promptly walked two batters and allowed a single, loading the bases with no outs.  The Bears got a three-run triple from Shaver Hansen and cruised the rest of the way out. 

Now, I don't want to attack a college athlete who has contributed to his team like Zach Herr, but several times in big games he has been inserted into the game only to look extremely unprepared.  Today was no different, and rather than again point to this player's failures, the necessity of the pitching change should be brought into question.

Why did Coach Anderson take Jennings out of the game?  Jennings had a couple of 1-2-3 innings in between the innings where he gave up runs.  He looked as if he could have gone at least two more innings.  Instead, by pulling his starter too soon, Anderson did not put his players in a position to be successful. 

Overall, the Huskers lacked focus.  They made mistakes in the field, and catcher Mitch Abeita allowed five runners to grab extra bases.  After relief pitcher Mike Nesseth righted the ship in the seventh, getting outs from the first two batters, shortstop Ben Kline opened the door for more Baylor runs when he fielded a routine grounder but failed to throw out the runner at first. 

After a walk, a two-out hit by the next batter allowed the two base runners to score and shut the door on the Huskers.  The Husker offense was also inconsistent, getting good performances from supporting players while the stars struggled.  In doing so, they failed to take advantage of a great performance by Tyler Farst (No. 32 in the photo), getting a career-best three RBI. 

The Huskers received their first series shutout at the hands of the Missouri Tigers last weekend.  It looked like those losses have shaken the confidence of the Big Red.  Coach Anderson needs to get his players focused and back on track.  While no one wants to lose the first game of a tournament, the Huskers have had success while losing the first game, winning the tournament with this scenario in 2000 and 2005.