Jennings, Huskers Hold off Iowa

Lincoln ? Dan Jennings earned his first career victory, while Jake Opitz and Jeff Tezak drove in two runs apiece, as Nebraska held off Iowa, 7-6, on a soggy Tuesday evening at Hawks Field.

Jennings turned in the best performance of his career in a spot start, allowing one earned run over four pre-determined innings for his first career win. The left-hander from West Des Moines, Iowa, scattered five hits and struck out a career-high four after learning he was going to make his first career start 20 minutes before the game when the tarp was pulled. 

“Jennings gave us a good start,” Anderson said. “We know he was going to throw the amount he did whether it was starting or out of the bullpen. We really liked what he gave us and he filled the zone with strikes.”

Opitz and Tezak both had two hits in the victory, as Opitz’s two-run single in the bottom of the third helped NU overcome an early 2-0 deficit, while Tezak’s sixth-inning solo homer gave the Huskers (20-12) a seemingly safe four-run lead.

Iowa fought back in the ninth, taking advantage of four walks and a pair of wild pitches to pull within 7-6 and had the bases loaded with two outs. Matt Foust finally thwarted the Hawkeye comeback by getting Kevin Hoef to foul out to first baseman Andrew Brown to end the contest and earn his second save.

After Iowa (13-10) scored single runs in the first and third innings to take a 2-0 lead against Jennings, scoring its first run on a Brown error to score Jason White, who opened the game with a single and advanced to second on a ground out.  White, who went 2-for-4 and scored three times, was the Hawkeyes’ catalyst in the third, as he was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on Dusty Napoleon’s RBI single.

The Huskers got on the scoreboard in bottom of the third against Brock Alberts on Opitz’s two-out RBI single. A one-out single by Brown started the rally before Tezak was hit by a pitch to put two on. After a balk moved both runners into scoring position, Opitz lined a two-run single to center to tie the score.

Nebraska took the lead for good one inning later, scoring a pair of runs off losing pitcher George Rasiarmos (0-1). Nick Sullivan walked and stole second before Bryce Nimmo reached on a passed ball to put runners on the corners. DJ Belfonte then lofted a sacrifice fly to right to plate Sullivan with the go-ahead run. Later in the inning, Tezak made it a 4-2 lead with an RBI single to center.

Iowa pulled to within 4-3 in the fifth, as a pair of two-out walks by reliever Thad Weber proved costly after Caleb Curry’s RBI single. It was the first earned run that Weber had allowed in 11 appearances this season.

The Huskers quickly extended the margin to 6-3 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth, getting a sacrifice fly from Sullivan and a RBI ground out from Nimmo. Opitz opened the frame with a single before Jeff Lanning’s double to left put runners on second and third with no outs. Sullivan lofted a sacrifice fly to deep right to plate Opitz and move Lanning to third before Nimmo’s grounder to short scored Lanning with NU’s sixth run.

Nebraska tacked on its final run in the sixth on Tezak’s third homer of the year, a one-out shot to left off Andrew Porter that put NU in control until the Hawkeyes’ ninth-inning rally.

The Huskers will now embark on a four-game road trip beginning tomorrow night, as they travel to Wichita to face the No. 11 ranked Shockers. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be carried on MyTV (Ch. 110 on Time Warner Cable; Ch. 17 on Charter Communications and Ch. 24 on DirecTV) and on 6-2-0 (Cox Ch. 248 in Omaha). The game will also be carried on the Husker Sports Radio Network.