Huskers rally to stop Longhorns 7-5
BY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
Saturday, Apr 22, 2006 - 07:19:29 pm CDT
AUSTIN, Texas — It wasn’t the 90-plus-degree heat at Disch-Falk Field on Saturday afternoon that left Texas’ fifth-ranked and fat-and-feasting baseball team the big loser.
The Longhorns melted courtesy of one big inning by Nebraska and an even bigger catch by left fielder Nick Jaros that turned the fourth-ranked Huskers into 7-5 victors.
One day after dropping a 6-2 decision in which it fell behind 5-0, NU nearly duplicated that before a crowd of 6,383 by falling into a 4-0 hole after three innings.
But with redshirt freshman Charlie Shirek picking up unbeaten teammate Tony Watson, who had been lit up for nine hits in 21/3 innings, Nebraska put up six runs in the fifth inning to produce its 10th come-from-behind win of the season.
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Without Jaros’ acrobatic catch of a drive hit by Preston Clark in the seventh, which started an inning-ending double play, the Huskers probably wouldn’t have come away from Saturday’s action with a chance to take first place in the Big 12 Conference from the Longhorns today.
“I told you I’m not the smoothest out there,” said Jaros, who tracked down Clark’s fly and caught it from a seated position on the warning track. “I heard it off the bat wrong, came charging in, took a couple wrong steps and realized it was way over my head. I put my head down and started running to get back there. By the time I looked back up, it was in front of me. My cleat got caught in the turf and all kinds of stuff happened.
“I saw a blur of a baseball and stuck my glove out where the blur was and the ball went in.”
That wasn’t the worst part for Texas, which had runners at first and third with no outs when Drew Stubbs, trying to steal second, was called out on a bang-bang play. The Longhorns then pulled to 6-5 when Chance Wheeless, who started the inning with a ground-rule double, came across on a wild pitch by Shirek that also left strikeout victim Carson Kainer at first.
But Kainer, taking off at the crack of Clark’s blast, was near third base when Jaros caught it and was easily doubled up at first.
“I was shocked it stayed in (the park), and the way (Jaros) played it I was totally baffled when he caught it,” said Texas coach Augie Garrido, whose team had a seven-game winning streak in league play snapped.
“I saw an entertainer from Cirque du Soleil do that once. If (Jaros) was on my team, I’d say he’s a very exciting player. ... Great effort and recovery.”
The same thing could be said of Nebraska’s offense in the fifth.
Prior to that inning, the Huskers had managed just two hits against left-handed freshman Riley Boening, and had two of the innings end on double plays.
But Andrew Brown, the Huskers’ lone Texan, got the fifth going with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. Jeff Christy followed with an RBI single to make it 4-1.
A single by Jake Mort and walk to Bryce Nimmo left the Longhorns in a bases-loaded situation, and they chose to face it with Kenn Kasparek taking over for Boening. But the junior right-hander walked Jaros on five pitches, then gave up a two-run single to Ryan Wehrle that also scored Jaros and allowed Wehrle to reach third because center fielder Stubbs let the ball skip under his glove for an error.
Reliever Kyle Walker kept Wehrle at third by retiring Brandon Buckman on a grounder to short, but Luke Gorsett slapped a 1-2 pitch into left to make it 6-4 and leave NU with its second-best scoring inning of the season.
After Texas pulled to 6-5, the Huskers added an insurance run in the eighth, when Gorsett, who’d led off with a double, scored from third on a two-out wild pitch by Walker.
After freshman Zach Herr needed just eight pitches to retire Texas in order in the bottom half, the Horns got something going in the ninth against preseason All-American Brett Jensen.
Jensen walked pinch-hitter Hunter Harris with one out, and yielded a two-out single to Stubbs. But after NU coach Mike Anderson went to the mound for a quick visit, the senior proceeded to strike out Kainer, looking, at a 1-2 delivery.
Thus, instead of looking to salvage a win out of the series, Nebraska (31-6 overall and 11-3 Big 12) can overtake Texas (28-14, 13-3) in today’s 1 p.m. series finale.
“You start thinking, ‘Here we go again,’ ” Anderson said in regard to thoughts he had after Texas had grabbed its quick 4-0 lead. “I was real happy about the way the kids came back.
“The biggest thing was Charlie Shirek. To get ahold of it the way he did allowed us to have a big inning.”
Shirek, who went 72/3 innings against Creighton on Tuesday, went 42/3 Saturday to pick up his second win of the week.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.