Hoosiers miss first chance at tourney title

MINNEAPOLIS --- The IU baseball team looked poised to capture a Big Ten Tournament championship before a slip-up by its bullpen spoiled the celebration.
 
Nebraska catcher Tanner Lubach ended a wild back-and-forth affair with an 11th inning walk-off homer that propelled Nebraska to a 7-6 win against the Hoosiers Saturday at Target Field.

Lubach rocked a fastball from Hoosier closer Ryan Halstead four rows deep into the left-field bleachers for his first hit of the tournament, keeping the one-loss Cornhuskers alive for the conference tournament crown.

No. 1-seeded IU and No. 3-seeded Nebraska will play in a winner-take-all game at 1:05 p.m. ET Sunday with the Big Ten Tournament championship on the line.

“It’s one loss, we’re not out of it all, and we still have our goal right in front of us,” senior shortstop Michael Basil said. “That was a hard fought game, ball bounced their way today but we still have a chance to do exactly what we want to.”

The Hoosiers had a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth before the Cornhuskers put together back-to-back two-run innings in the sixth and seventh.

In all, Nebraska scored five runs off four IU relievers, a rarity considering the Hoosiers came into the tournament with nation’s 5th-best ERA.

“That was probably the one thing I was a little upset with today is if we got a lead in the seventh inning, the game should be over,” IU Coach Tracy Smith said. “We did a good job of getting to two strikes and then we’d leave stuff out over the plate.”

At 29-29, Nebraska has little-to-no shot at earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, and would need to beat the Hoosiers Sunday to get the Big Ten’s automatic bid and make the postseason. 

IU (42-14), on the other hand, is well-positioned to earn an at-large bid and is projected to host a regional regardless of the outcome Sunday because of its No. 14 RPI.

With that said, Smith said he plans to use his pitchers carefully on Sunday to preserve them for the NCAA Tournament.

“Mark my words, we want to win this championship,” he said. “In fairness to being a competitor, in fairness to Hoosier fans all over, we didn’t come up here to lose, we came up here to win.

“But I think at the same time, we need to be smart about our pitching. I believe we’re in. We feel like we’ve got a lot of season left to play and I think that we have to manage that right.”

Nebraska Coach Darin Erstad said he plans to start left-handed sophomore Kyle Kubat on three-days’ rest.

Kubat tossed seven inning of one-hit ball in Nebraska’s first tournament game, an 11-2 win against Michigan on Wednesday.

Erstad said only three pitchers would be off limits tomorrow: Dylan Vogt, who allowed five runs in seven innings against IU tonight, Christian DeLeon, who started Nebraska’s win over Ohio State earlier Saturday, and senior righty Ryan Hander.

With two outs in the 9th and IU down a run, Pinch hitter Ricky Alfonso delivered a clutch RBI-double that landed just fair down the right field line, scoring Dustin DeMuth from second to tie the game at 6-6.

“We hoped that we’d carry that momentum through, but seeing Ricky do that is not surprising to us,” Basil said. “Ricky’s been clutch in pinch-hit situations all year.”
IU took a 5-2 lead in the top of the fifth on a three-run homer to left by Sam Travis, a mammoth shot that made it to the second deck.

Nebraska then started its two-inning rally.

Michael Pritchard led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and advanced to second on a throwing error by Nick Ramos. Two batters later, Kash Kalkowski doubled home Pritchard and Blake Headley followed with an RBI single to center to cut the lead to 5-4.

One inning later, another error cost the Hoosiers.

Bryan Peters and Pat Kelly led off the bottom of the 7th with back-to-back singles off freshman right-hander Scott Effross. Michael Pritchard then flew out to shallow center, keeping the runners at first and third. Chad Christensen followed with a chopper to third that scored Kelly, but DeMuth booted it, allowing Christensen to reach first safely.
Kash Kalkowski took advantage of the extra out, serving a single to center that gave the Huskers a 6-5 lead.

Halstead (3-4) worked the final two innings, allowing the game-winning run on three hits.

Luke Bublitz (4-1) pitched the top of the 11th for the Cornhuskers, pitching through an error to lead off the inning to strand Michael Basil at second.

Nebraska got on the board first on a two-run homer to left-center by Kalkowski in the bottom of the first.

Sophomore catcher Kyle Schwarber tied the game at 2-2 in the third with his Big Ten-leading 16th homer of the year, a ball that barely cleared the fence in left and stayed fair.