Nebraska (23-9) vs. Rutgers (21-13) Series Game Thread

[Bugeaters1]

Thanks for the reminder hskr4life.

[throwback]

No change to the rotation - should be a great pitching matchup tonight - two of the best in the league tonight ... well, the best in the league and the guy who's a distant second or third. 

 

RU's pitching depth has been a mess of late, but they can really hit and score. The games could get back and forth squirrely Saturday and Sunday.

 

 

[hskr4life]

2 hours ago, throwback said:

No change to the rotation - should be a great pitching matchup tonight - two of the best in the league tonight ... well, the best in the league and the guy who's a distant second or third. 

 

RU's pitching depth has been a mess of late, but they can really hit and score. The games could get back and forth squirrely Saturday and Sunday.

 

 

Saw perfect game had Caron listed but didn’t have Sears listed in their top whatever it was.  I thought that was crazy.

[throwback]

23 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

Saw perfect game had Caron listed but didn’t have Sears listed in their top whatever it was.  I thought that was crazy.

Yeah, Sears is going to be a draft pick oddity. He'll be 24 years old, he's a late bloomer, and he has no leverage as a super senior, so teams can really low-ball him. Plus, he's going to have to be great out of the gate. Teams aren't waiting around for a 24-year-old to develop over a few years.

 

However, if someone loves his makeup, he could end up going in the first 10 rounds, especially when they can sign him for quite a bit below slot value and give that money to other top 10-round draft picks.

 

Tough to project where he'll go, but I'd guess someone will take a flyer. He's someone where his value to a team may be higher in the first 10 rounds, because he has no leverage, than in the back half. He also could go undrafted and have to try a free agent route. He's definitely in a unique situation.

 

[AuroranHusker]

What time is it going to be played for these 3 ballgames?

 

[hskr4life]

13 minutes ago, AuroranHusker said:

What time is it going to be played for these 3 ballgames?

 

6, 3, 1 EST.. so 5, 2, 12

[hskr4life]

What a disaster!

[brfrad]

Our bullpen is awful!

[Bugeaters1]

Looks like Rutgers is getting some homer calls at the plate now.

 

[brfrad]

This bullpen by committee does not work.  We have no one we trust.

[Bugeaters1]

Well POOP!!!

[hskr4life]

Not a great start.  Remove that ranking from our name.  We played better without it.

[The Polish Rifle]

11 hours ago, hskr4life said:

Not a great start.  Remove that ranking from our name.  We played better without it.

Yeah cart got ahead of the horse. This team should have never been talked about as a regional host/top 25 team. Focus should be competing for a B10 title and making a regional. 

[throwback]

1 hour ago, The Polish Rifle said:

Yeah cart got ahead of the horse. This team should have never been talked about as a regional host/top 25 team. Focus should be competing for a B10 title and making a regional. 

Have to completely disagree - we're still very much in the discussion for hosting. I don't disagree that we should be focusing on trying to win the B1G title, as that should always be the #1 goal, but we earned the opportunity to be in the discussion for a host spot with how we played in the first half.

 

Now, I don't think an NCAA host will happen, you just have so little margin for error when you're in the B1G. But what we did in the non-con was more than enough to be in the discussion as a regional host. And we still are in the discussion with an RPI in the teens. We have to be really good from here - probably in the 18-4 range - so it'll be really difficult, but not impossible. We've already had a 19-3 stretch this season against solid competition, so we are more than capable of doing it again.

 

We're just slumping a bit now. It happens to every team, but especially to northern teams in mid-April as the early-season road trips start to catch up to them a bit.

 

Whether we can flip it around quickly is the key. The offense is starting to come around again, and the defense was outstanding last night (for a change), but now we have some issues in the bullpen and with pitching depth. A couple of our younger guys who were really good early are scuffling now. And Perry has been lights out most of this season, so hopefully last night was just a blip. In hindsight, we probably should've had Daiss ready to go earlier against RU's tough righties in the 9th, but it's hard to fault the coaches for relying on Perry as good as he's been. 

 

Just the ups and downs of a baseball season. We won a few games early in the year with crazy late-inning comebacks, so eventually the law of averages were almost certainly going to catch up to us. Hopefully we bounce back strong today and start a big run to close out the season. Very important for Mac and Christo to be sharp against some great RU hitters the next couple of days, but I'd guess we're going to have two wild back and forth games.

 

[hskr4life]

Agree that we earned the right to host 100% and it’s still there.  In fact, prior to our little 3 game slump here, we were probably closer to a national seed than not hosting.  Had we won either or both of those games in Texas… we would have been close to Top 8 projected.

[The Polish Rifle]

1 hour ago, hskr4life said:

Agree that we earned the right to host 100% and it’s still there.  In fact, prior to our little 3 game slump here, we were probably closer to a national seed than not hosting.  Had we won either or both of those games in Texas… we would have been close to Top 8 projected.

We were a border line host before our slump. Remember college baseball is now using quads. Current teams on the host bubble are Indiana St and Oklahoma state. They both have 5+ quad 1 wins. We’re 0-4 in quad 1. Is it impossible to host? No. But it just seems like something that seems so far away right now. Win 10 out of the next 12 then I’ll start considering it again. Stacking dubs and positioning ourselves to win the conf is what I’m more worried about. 

[Bugeaters1]

3 hours ago, The Polish Rifle said:

We were a border line host before our slump. Remember college baseball is now using quads. Current teams on the host bubble are Indiana St and Oklahoma state. They both have 5+ quad 1 wins. We’re 0-4 in quad 1. Is it impossible to host? No. But it just seems like something that seems so far away right now. Win 10 out of the next 12 then I’ll start considering it again. Stacking dubs and positioning ourselves to win the conf is what I’m more worried about. 

And I suppose you think that Bolt should be on the hot seat like I'm reading on the X?

 

[Bugeaters1]

Did Butgers use all of their good pitchers last night?

[hskr4life]

Exactly what we needed from both Mason and the offense.  Nice job boys!

[Bugeaters1]

As Rik Flair would say WOOW!!!!!!  Don't piss off the BIG RED!!

Edited April 13, 2024 by Bugeaters1

[The Polish Rifle]

38 minutes ago, Bugeaters1 said:

And I suppose you think that Bolt should be on the hot seat like I'm reading on the X?

 

What? Absolutely not. I don’t think expectations should be hosting. Don’t think we’re in line to host in my honest opinion, and with our schedule it’ll be tough/almost impossible to get there. I think making the tournament this year is the expectation and would be more than happy with that. 

[Bugeaters1]

1 minute ago, The Polish Rifle said:

What? Absolutely not. I don’t think expectations should be hosting. Don’t think we’re in line to host in my honest opinion, and with our schedule it’ll be tough/almost impossible to get there. I think making the tournament this year is the expectation and would be more than happy with that. 

Cool, no problem. But we can host.

[hskr4life]

We can definitely host, but it'll have to be darn near perfect from here on out.

[Huskerpapa]

Good old fashioned a** whopping today.

[The Polish Rifle]

5 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

We can definitely host, but it'll have to be darn near perfect from here on out.

Yeah, which is so hard in baseball. Teams like Oklahoma st who we are fighting with have the opportunity to rack up big wins. We basically have to win 80% of our games and somehow get 5+ quad 1 wins in the process, with limited opportunities. 

Edited April 13, 2024 by The Polish Rifle