The Big Ten seesaw battle for first place continued Saturday as the Nebraska baseball team jumped back into first. The Huskers had fallen to third after their loss and a Maryland win on Friday night, but a victory over Michigan State coupled with a loss by Maryland to Northwestern on Saturday switched things around again. The third team in the real race for the top, Minnesota is basically an innocent bystander this weekend as they are playing non-conference baseball against Long Beach State.
Nebraska baseball’s season starting to wrap up
This being the second to last weekend of the college baseball season, every game takes on a bit more importance.
That’s especially true when the first spot in the conference is as up for grabs as it is this year. Maryland and Nebraska have easily been the hottest teams in the conference for the past month but they both have weaknesses that have been exposed in must win games.
The Friday loss threw the Huskers’ season into a bit of doubt. They needed to win the rest of their games this weekend and get a little help in order to stay in contention. Nebraska got exactly that help, as Maryland followed up their Friday win with an 11-3 Saturday loss. That loss was highlighted by allowing seven runs in the top of the 5th inning to a Northwestern team playing the spoiler role at this point in the year.
Perhaps lost in the ongoing three-way battle between Minnesota, Maryland and Nebraska is the fact that if Michigan continues to roll, they too could play a big part in the battle for first place in the Big Ten baseball standings.
The Wolverines are just percentage points behind Maryland after winning their first two games this weekend against Purdue.
It’s a four-team baseball race
Perhaps the real irony here is that Michigan is the highest ranked team among the quartet sitting at number 16 in the country. The Huskers aren’t far behind, as they just entered the Baseball America Top 25 at number 25 in the country.
Nebraska’s 6-3 loss on Friday and Saturday’s 5-2 win means the Huskers baseball team can take control of their own destiny once again.
There is one other team that has an outside shot at the conference title, but would need a lot of help in a lot of different places. Iowa has entered the scrum as well. The Hawkeyes have less of a chance of catching Nebraska after they suffered their own loss on Saturday afternoon.
The Huskers play their final home game of the year on Sunday and then close 2017’s regular season before they head out to last place Penn State. The safest course of action would be a 4-0 finish which guarantees the conference championship.
