Apparently, Jake Meyers should have been held out of today’s Nebraska baseball game after all. The pitcher and position player needed to get a couple of stitches in his throwing hand this weekend after getting spiked. There was a period of time when there was some doubt whether or not he would take the mound on Sunday. After allowing seven hits and five runs through just 2.2 innings, it appears the Huskers would have been better off if he had taken the rest of the weekend off. In the end, his poor performance wasn’t enough to sink Nebraska. Darin Erstad’s club managed to open some breathing room up at the top of the Big Ten baseball standings thanks to its 8-7 victory and yet another loss for Maryland, this time a 6-5 loss in extra innings.
Nebraska baseball’s outlook
With the logjam that is the top of the conference standings, this weekend has seen a bit of a rollercoaster ride for a number of teams. Nebraska actually fell to third in the standings, and Maryland jumped back on top after Friday’s contests.
Unfortunately for the Terps, they couldn’t take care of business against a Northwestern squad mostly playing out the string. The Wildcats are just hoping to make the Big Ten tournament, knowing they’ll need to win the whole thing to make the post season.
Nebraska, on the other hand, took two of three in their final home series of the regular season against a Michigan State team in the same boat as Northwestern. Maryland is now 5-6 in their last 11 games, struggling at the worst possible time in the season.
There was a period where it appears the Big Ten was the Terrapins’ to lose. Even worse for the team, is their conference season is over, meaning they’ll have to hope every has horrible weekends next week in order to climb back into first. The Terps take on High Point to finish the year.
The new three-team race
The three-team race for first place is now between Michigan, who appears well on its way to a weekend sweep of Purdue, Nebraska and Minnesota.
The Golden Gophers have the strangest schedule down the stretch. Minnesota has five games left against the Big Ten with a rare mid-week double header against Rutgers and then a trio of games next weekend against Purdue.
Michigan will take on in-state rival Michigan State next weekend and will be hoping for a sweep and a bit of a falter by Nebraska.
The Huskers are especially feeling good after their comeback victory on Sunday because their final three games of the year come against the Big Ten’s worst team. The Huskers will travel to Penn State next week as they take on a Nittany Lions team that is 3-18 in conference.
