Huskers Stopped by Panthers

Lincoln ? Brett Featherston went 2-for-4 with three RBIs, while eight Northern Iowa pitchers combined to allow just three hits in a 5-1 victory over No. 5 Nebraska Wednesday evening.

The Panthers (24-24) held a Nebraska offensive that was hitting .326 to a season-low three hits, as Andy Gerch’s eighth-inning RBI single provided the lone offensive highlight as NU suffered just its third home loss in 22 contests at Hawks Field this season.

Nebraska Head Coach Mike Anderson didn’t mince words when describing the Huskers’ effort tonight, as they suffered just their third non-conference home loss in 50 games dating back to the start of the 2004 campaign.

“Pretty uninspired baseball,” Anderson said. “I am not very pleased and not very happy with that performance. I think the guys could probably create about four or five different excuses, but there is no excuse. The bottom line is they played uninspired baseball. We were an uninspired team. We played like it. We looked like it. That’s disappointing.

The opportunistic Panthers took advantage of two Husker errors to plate three early runs, scoring once in the second off starter Jon Klausing and two more in the fifth off reliever Charlie Shirek.

Brett Douglas opened the second with a single that was misplayed by Luke Gorsett, allowing him to advance into scoring position. Pat Moran made it 1-0 two batters later with a run-scoring single to center.

That would be the only run Klausing (4-1) allowed over four innings, as he struck out four, but saw his personal four-game win streak snapped. UNI starter Zach Zirbel was the beneficiary of the Panthers’ early run, as he earned the win in his only inning of work, as no UNI pitcher worked more than two innings.

In the fifth, Deric Manrique reached on a throwing error to open the frame, a miscue that would turn out to be costly as UNI pushed across two more runs. Mark Frieske put runners on first and second with an infield single before Curt Bradley’s sacrifice moved both runners into scoring position. Brett Douglas made it 2-0, as he plated Manrique with a grounder to short before Featherstone’s bloop double to center gave the Panthers a 3-0 lead.

Nebraska had its best opportunity of the early innings in the fifth off of Eric Hoffman, loading the bases on a Jeff Lanning one-out double and a two-out walk to Steve Edlefsen before Bryce Nimmo was hit by a pitch. Unfortunately for the Huskers, Ryan Wehrle lined out to left to end the Husker rally.

“He hit the ball hard,” Anderson said. “We got a hard line drive but we just didn’t get the result.”

Northern Iowa got to the Husker bullpen for a pair of runs in the seventh to make it a 5-0. Consecutive singles by Manrique and Frieske off Jared Cranston put two on with no outs. Three batters later, Featherson’s two-run single to right spotted the Panthers a 5-0 cushion.

The Huskers finally broke the shutout in the eighth, as Wehrle and Brandon Buckman drew back-to-back one-out walks before Gerch plated Wehrle two batters later with an RBI single to left.

Nebraska will have to regroup quickly, as they travel to Baylor for a three-game series beginning Friday evening at 7 p.m. The game will be carried on the Pinnacle Sports Network and on Huskers.com

 

                          Northern Iowa at #5 Nebraska
                   May 10, 2006 at Lincoln, NE (Hawks Field)Northern Iowa 5 (24-24)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB  Avg.
Mark Frieske 2b..........  5  2  2  0   0  0  1  5   0  .310
Curt Bradley lf..........  3  0  1  0   0  0  1  0   0  .352
Brandon Douglas ss.......  3  0  1  1   2  1  4  3   0  .374
Brett Featherston 1b.....  4  0  2  3   1  0 12  0   2  .346
Brett Douglas rf.........  4  1  2  0   0  0  0  0   1  .363
Nick Cameron dh..........  4  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   2  .259
Pat Moran 3b.............  4  0  1  1   0  1  0  5   0  .248
Nate Trumm c.............  4  0  1  0   0  2  8  2   2  .237
Deric Manrique cf........  4  2  1  0   0  0  1  0   1  .212
Zach Zirbel p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Nick Kirk p.............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Tim Smid p..............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Eric Hoffmann p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0  .245
 Mark Bennett p..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Jason Smith p...........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0  .140
 Taylor Sinclair p.......  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Jesse Oster p...........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0  .244
Totals................... 35  5 11  5   3  5 27 15   8Nebraska 1 (37-9)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB  Avg.
Nimmo, Bryce cf..........  4  0  0  0   0  2  3  0   1  .294
Wehrle, Ryan ss..........  3  1  0  0   1  0  2  2   4  .361
Buckman, Brandon 1b......  2  0  0  0   2  0 14  2   0  .348
Gorsett, Luke rf.........  3  0  0  0   0  1  1  0   1  .376
Gerch, Andy dh...........  4  0  1  1   0  0  0  0   0  .322
Opitz, Jake 2b...........  2  0  0  0   1  1  0  3   0  .294
 Mort, Jake ph/3b........  1  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   2  .291
Lanning, Jeff c..........  2  0  1  0   0  0  4  2   0  .300
 Christy, Jeff ph/c......  2  0  0  0   0  1  0  1   0  .283
Sullivan, Nick lf........  1  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0  .339
 Brown, Andrew ph/lf.....  2  0  0  0   1  0  0  0   0  .273
Edlefsen, Steve 3b/2b....  3  0  1  0   1  2  1  1   1  .270
Klausing, Jon p..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  1   0     -
 Shirek, Charlie p.......  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0     -
 Cranston, Jared p.......  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Herr, Zach p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0     -
 Bird, Erik p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0     -
Totals................... 29  1  3  1   6  8 27 14   9Score by Innings                    R  H  E
Northern Iowa....... 010 020 200 -  5 11  1
Nebraska............ 000 000 010 -  1  3  2E - Bn. Douglas(22); Gorsett, L.(3); Edlefsen, S.(6). DP - Panthers 1;
Huskers 1. LOB - Panthers 8; Huskers 9. 2B - Featherston(19); Lanning,
J.(2). HBP - Nimmo, B.; Gorsett, L.. SH - Bradley 2(3). CS - Bradley(4);
Nimmo, B.(4).Northern Iowa          IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF  NP   ERA
Zach Zirbel.........  1.0  0  0  0  1  0  3  4  21  3.12
Nick Kirk...........  2.0  1  0  0  0  2  7  7  25  5.40
Tim Smid............  1.0  0  0  0  0  0  2  3  10  8.15
Eric Hoffmann.......  1.0  1  0  0  1  0  4  6  19  0.00
Mark Bennett........  1.0  0  0  0  0  0  3  3   6  7.79
Jason Smith.........  1.0  0  0  0  1  2  3  4  18  2.25
Taylor Sinclair.....  1.0  1  1  1  2  2  4  6  29  4.35
Jesse Oster.........  1.0  0  0  0  1  2  3  4  21  5.40Nebraska               IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF  NP   ERA
Klausing, Jon.......  4.0  5  1  1  1  4 16 17  59  1.29
Shirek, Charlie.....  2.0  2  2  0  0  1  8  9  22  3.40
Cranston, Jared.....  0.0  2  2  2  0  0  2  2   9  5.28
Herr, Zach..........  0.2  1  0  0  1  0  2  4  12  2.04
Bird, Erik..........  2.1  1  0  0  1  0  7  8  30  0.52Win - Zirbel (3-1).  Loss - Klausing, J. (4-1).  Save - None.
WP - Smith(2). HBP - by Smid (Gorsett, L.); by Hoffmann (Nimmo, B.).
Umpires - HP: Tom Svehla  1B: Bill Goa  3B: Joe Wells
Start: 6:38p.m.   Time: 2:38   Attendance: 5650
Cranston, J. faced 2 batters in the 7th.