Waldron Deals in 2-0 Husker Win

Lincoln – Freshman Matt Waldron continued to toss zeroes up on the board Friday night at Hawks Field, as the Omaha native followed up his complete-game shutout of Penn State with a 8.0 scoreless inning against the Indiana Hoosiers. The Huskers blanked the Hoosiers 2-0 to secure a series victory and now Nebraska and Indiana are tied in the Big Ten standing at 15-8 on the year entering tomorrow’s regular season finally.

The Hoosiers came to Lincoln with victories in their last sixth Big Ten series, while the Huskers have now won four straight league series. Since NU was swept at Michigan, Nebraska has posted a 14-4 record.

With Nebraska’s win on Friday and a win by Minnesota over Ohio State, the Gophers won their first Big Ten regular-season title since 2010. With a win tomorrow the Huskers would earn the No. 2 seed at next week’s Big Ten Tournament.

Dating back to the end of his start at Michigan State on Sunday, May 8, Waldron has tossed 18.2 straight scoreless innings. Waldron allowed just three hits on the Friday and walked two batters in a game for the first time all season, while striking out a career-high seven. Waldron kept IU’s offense guessing all night, as six of his seven punch outs were looking, including three from leadoff hitter Alex Krupa. Waldron retired Indiana in order six times on the night and allowed a runner to reach third base just once.

Waldron’s freshman teammate Chad Luensmann closed the door in the ninth for this 12th save of the season, which ties him with Josh Roeder (2014) for fourth place on NU’s single-season saves list. With a runner on first and no outs in the ninth, Luensmann took over for Waldron and needed just four pitches to end the game. His first offering to Logan Sowers resulted in a 6-4-3 double play and three pitches later Ryan Fineman hit into a game-ending groundout.

It was definitely a pitching duel on Friday night at Hawks Field, as NU’s offense only notched six hits, but were able to string them together, including back-to-back hits in the first and three straight in the fifth. Jake Placzek led all hitters with two hits on the night, while Ben Miller and Cole Klemke each recorded a RBI.

IU’s Caleb Baragar went 6.0 innings and limited the Huskers to just a pair of runs on six hits and two walks, but the senior didn’t get any help from his offense and left the game after the sixth trailing 2-0. Relievers B.J. Sabol and Thomas Belcher combined for 2.0 innings of perfect relief, but IU’s offense was unable to solve NU’s true freshmen duo.

After a 1-2-3 top of the first from Waldron, Nebraska’s offense gave its starter a 1-0 lead. Ryan Boldt started the bottom of the first with an infield single and Placzek followed with a single. Jake Meyers advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt and it immediately paid off when Miller delivered a RBI groundout. Barager was able to strand Placzek at third, but the Huskers were out to a 1-0 lead.

Trailing 1-0, the Hoosiers got their leadoff man on in the second with a single and eventually put him scoring position with a two-out walk, but Waldron stranded both with an inning-ending fly out.

Indiana got its leadoff man on in the fifth with a single from Luke Miller and Laren Eustace followed with a sacrifice bunt to put the tying run in scoring position. Following a hit-by-pitch, Waldron nearly got an inning-ending double play ball, but instead the Hoosiers had runners on the corners with two out for the top of their lineup. Waldron dug in an struck out Krupa looking for the second straight at bat to end the inning.

Following the back-to-back singles in the first, Barager retired eight straight Huskers before Placzek belted a two-out double off the left-field wall in the third. Barager stranded Placzek and retired the next four Huskers he faced before Steven Reveles snapped that streak with a leadoff double in the fifth, the first of three straight Husker hits. Jake Schleppenbach followed with a bunt single and then Klemke came through with a RBI single, his fifth RBI of the season in just his ninth start of the year, but on the play Schleppenbach was cut down at third.

Working with a 2-0 lead, Waldron retired IU’s offense in order in the sixth seventh and eighth innings, with strikeouts to start both the seventh and eighth. After hitting Wilhite in the fifth, Waldron retired 11 straight before Craig Dedelow started the ninth with a single. With the tying run at the plate in the ninth Luensmann quickly ended Indian’s hope for a comeback.

The Huskers and Hoosiers wrap up the 2016 regular season tomorrow at 1:02 p.m. Before the start of the game the Huskers will celebrate their five-member senior class and the game will be shown live on the Big Ten Network.