Huskers Shut Out Shockers, 4-0

Lincoln – After its six-game winning streak was snapped on Friday night, the Nebraska baseball team (10-7, 0-0 Big Ten) got back in the win column on Saturday afternoon with a 4-0 victory over the Wichita State Shockers (6-12, 0-0 MVC). With their fifth shutout of the season, the Huskers evened their series with the Shockers and improved to 7-1 at Hawks Field in 2016.

Redshirt freshman Jake McSteen tossed 5.0 shutout innings in his second career start and was backed up by 3.0 no-hit innings from Reece Eddins and a no-hit ninth from Chad Luensmann. Following a one-out double from Tanner Kirk in the fifth, the Shockers didn’t get a hit the rest of the game and had just three base runners.

NU’s bats struggled early against WSU starter Zach Lewis, who was tagged with the loss and fell to 0-3 on the year. Lewis limited NU to no runs on one hit and one walk over the first five innings. On the day, Lewis gave up three runs on five hits and two walks, with six strikeouts in 5.1 innings.

The Husker offense finally got things going in the sixth with three runs on four hits. Lewis retired Steven Reveles to start the frame, but then the next five Huskers reached and Lewis exited the game. Ryan Boldt got the offense started with a one-out single and Jake Placzek followed with a walk. NU then got three-straight RBI hits, including a single from Ben Miller, a double from Scott Schreiber and a single from Jesse Wilkening. WSU went to reliever Reagan Biechler and he retired Elijah Dilday, but then walked Luis Alvarado to load the bases. Jake Schleppenbach worked a full count and lifted an offering from Biechler into deep right field, but the fly ball was caught on warning track to end the inning, but not before NU took a 3-0 lead.

Eddins put the Shockers down in order in the seventh and then the offense gave him some insurance with a run in the bottom of the frame. Reveles started the inning with his second double of the season and after moving to third on a groundout by Boldt, Reveles came into score on a sacrifice fly by Placzek.

The Shockers had a threat going in the eighth when Eddins issued back-to-back one-out walks that put two runners on for clean-up hitter Ryan Tinkham. Eddins dug in and got a 5-3 double play that put an end to the rally.

Luensmann took the mound in the ninth and struck out a pair of Shockers to complete the shutout.

Tomorrow’s rubber match is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. Matt Waldron will start for the Huskers, while the Shockers are set to start freshman Clayton McGinness.