Huskers Drop One-Run Game to Sooners

Lincoln - The No. 8 Nebraska baseball team led 2-0 through five innings, but No. 13 Oklahoma rallied with two runs in the sixth and scored the winning run on Chuckie Caufield's eighth-inning sacrifice fly, as the Sooners escaped from Hawks Field with a 3-2 victory in front of 8,252 fans on Friday night.

With the loss, Nebraska (38-13 overall) slipped into a tie with the Sooners (38-16) in the Big 12 standings with identical 16-9 records. Oklahoma St. also moved into a tie for second with a 6-4 win over Texas Tech.

The Huskers went down fighting, putting the tying run in both the eighth and ninth innings off of Sooner ace Daniel McCutchen, who came out of the bullpen for the first time this season after OU took a 3-2 lead.

In the eighth, McCutchen recorded the first two outs, before hitting Luke Gorsett and giving up a sharp single to Andrew Brown, who advanced to second when OU center fielder Kody Kaiser tried to throw out pinch-runner Steve Edlefsen at third base. NU could not capitalize, as McCutchen fanned Jake Opitz to end the inning.

After Brett Jensen set the Sooners down in the ninth, NU continued to rally, as Jake Mort coaxed a one-out walk before Nick Jaros singled up the middle to put runners on first and second.  Bryce Nimmo popped out to short for the second out before Ryan Wehrle grounded to McCutchen to end the game.

Steven Guerra (10-2) picked up the victory by allowing two runs on seven hits through seven innings, before giving way to McCutchen, OU's regular Friday night starter, who earned his first save of the season.

Joba Chamberlain took a no-decision for the Huskers despite taking a shutout into the sixth. The right-hander allowed two runs and surrendered nine hits in 5.1 innings, as he fanned four and walked a pair.

Erik Bird (0-2) suffered the loss for NU by allowing one run on just one hit in 2.0 innings, as the Sooners scratched across the go-ahead run in the eight.  Jackson Williams started OU's decisive rally in the eighth with a leadoff walk off Bird, before Freddy Rodriguez moved Williams into scoring position.  Zach Herr came on to relieve Bird and allowed a pinch-hit infield single to Ryan Mottern to put runners on the corners.  Caufield lofted the first pitch he saw from Jensen to center, scoring Williams with the winning run.

“It was a good baseball game,” Nebraska Head Coach Mike Anderson said. “Both teams had good pitching and good defense for the most part, but they got a sacrifice fly late to win it.”

Nebraska jumped to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, as Nick Jaros led off the inning with a base hit and scored from first on a two-out double off the wall by Brandon Buckman. The Huskers threatened to do more damage, as Buckman advanced to third on a passed ball and Gorsett drew a walk to put runners at the corners, but Brown went down swinging to end the NU first.

Jaros led Nebraska with three hits while Andrew Brown and Jeff Christy also added a pair of hits in the loss.

Brown opened the fourth with a single to center before Christy’s second hit of the night two batters later put runners on first and second. Jake Mort was hit by a Guerra pitch to load the bases for Jaros, who slapped a 1-1 pitch into left to score Brown with NU’s second run, but Christy was gunned down at the plate with a perfect throw from left fielder Aaron Raza.

“I was trying to be aggressive,” Anderson said. “We scored a run in the first because we were aggressive. We were trying to punch runs across and the kid made a great throw, and it was close enough to say ?go for it’ and we would do it again.”

Chamberlain, who worked out of several early-inning jams, finally ran into some problems in the sixth. Ryan Rohlinger started the rally with an infield single that hit off of Chamberlain’s calf. Kevin Smith followed with a single to push Rohlinger to third before Williams added a third straight base hit to score Rohlinger and keep runners at the corners. Williams then tied the game on a fielder's choice ground out by Freddy Rodriguez. OU eventually loaded the bases with one out, but could not plate a run, as Bird induced an inning-ending double play.

Nebraska will face Oklahoma in the second game of their three-game weekend series on Saturday at 2:05 p.m. The game will be televised live by Cox Sports on Time Warner Cable channel 77 in Lincoln and Cox Cable channel 2 in Omaha and on Charter Cable systems throughout Western Nebraska.  A live video stream will also be available for free on Huskers.com. The Pinnacle Sports Network will also provide live radio coverage on 1400 KLIN in Lincoln, 1110 KFAB in Omaha and 880 KRVN in Lexington, along with a free audio broadcast on Huskers.com.