OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska roared onto the field before the game even started.
The Cornhuskers jumped out of the dugout for warmups the moment the previous quarterfinal game at Charles Schwab Field Omaha ended with a walk-off, just 15 seconds before Friday’s quarterfinal would have been postponed until the morning.
It took the Michigan baseball team a little while longer to make their way out — and the contest between the two clubs was a similar story.
“We were pretty fired up just to know that we were going to play,” Cornhuskers right-hander Carson Jasa said. “I mean, seeing the walk-off was like the game starting for us, because no walk-off, no game tonight.”
The seventh-seeded Wolverines (34-24 overall, 17-13 Big Ten) went run-for-run with No. 2 seed Nebraska (42-14, 23-7) in every inning Friday — except the first. In a back-and-forth game, Michigan couldn’t keep up with the Cornhuskers late, crashing out of the Big Ten Tournament when its offense failed to find the timely hitting it needed.
Nebraska started off hot with a sharp first inning from Jasa. Cornhuskers first baseman Case Sanderson followed suit in the next frame, putting Michigan in an early hole with a two-RBI triple to the right-field corner.
“We got the crowd going immediately on the mound, and we got the crowd immediately going at the plate,” Nebraska coach Will Bolt said. “So we were able to carry that momentum and made it tough on them in some big situations as well.”
In the top of the third inning, though, the Wolverines’ lineup came alive. Junior second baseman Colby Turner and sophomore third baseman Brayden Jefferis recorded back-to-back hits before a pair of sacrifice bunts brought Turner home for Michigan’s first run of the game. Redshirt sophomore designated hitter Cade Ladehoff supplemented the small ball with an RBI double to tie the game at two, and suddenly, the Wolverines were knocking at the door.
The Cornhuskers quickly answered in the next frame, forcing redshirt freshman right-hander Erik Puodziunas out of the game and regaining the lead with a two-RBI single. With a 4-2 lead, Nebraska was back in the driver’s seat, and Michigan was back to the drawing board.
“It’s frustrating,” Jefferis said. “You feel like you pull closer, and then they take a lead and you’re clawing back still. This team’s resilient, really gritty, and there was never a doubt in anyone’s mind that we were going to get that big hit and keep getting guys on base. But it’s just baseball, and they’re a good team, that happens.”
In the sixth inning, the Wolverines got the big hit they needed to stay afloat. When Cornhuskers right-hander Carson Jasa hung a curveball over the plate, junior first baseman Matthew Ossenfort took full advantage — blasting it out of the park for just his second home run of the season. Ossenfort’s shot tied the game at four and put Michigan back within reach, but the Wolverines’ defense needed to hold firm.
Once again, Nebraska responded. Sanderson rattled a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning, capitalizing on a Michigan fielding error to score two runs and retake the lead, 6-4.
“We did it both times, they put up two, we scored two to answer, and that was the difference in the game,” Bolt said. “… We like to make it dramatic where we can get the two-out RBIs, because it’s an extra backbreaker for our opponent.”
The Wolverines had found a way to respond each time the Cornhuskers powered themselves back in front. But as the game wound down to the final few innings, Michigan’s string of timely hitting came to a screeching halt. Jefferis and redshirt sophomore center fielder Evan Haeger both reached base at the top of the eighth inning, but a pair of strikeouts left the runners stranded and the Wolverines still trailing by two.
Down to its final three outs, Michigan turned to pinch hitting for the spark it needed to keep its Big Ten Tournament aspirations alive. But the Wolverines’ efforts were too little, too late. Ultimately, they couldn’t break through Nebraska’s bullpen and went three up, three down in the final frame — sealing a 6-4 loss and an end to their Tournament run.
