"Grand Island Day" at Haymarket Park turned out pretty well for the Nebraska baseball team, even if it wasn't quite perfect for pitcher Johnny Dorn.
Dorn threw 7 2-3 innings Saturday against Louisiana-Lafayette, but had no chance to get the win when he left the game with the score tied at 3.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Huskers used small ball to get a runner in scoring position and Cody Neer scored what proved to be the winning run in Nebraska's 4-3 victory over the Ragin' Cajuns.
Dorn, who is 17-4 lifetime at Haymarket Park, said it was a little disappointing not to get the win. Dorn had 11 strikeouts and threw 131 pitches in the game.
"You always wish you could get the victory," Dorn said. "Things didn't work out a couple of times, but we battled back to get them."
Nebraska coach Mike Anderson was also disappointed that Dorn didn't get the win.
"It was a great outing by Johnny Dorn," Anderson said. "We just didn't get the run in time to get him the win. That's a little disappointing. Obviously we wanted to help him out with that."
The Huskers capped off the day with a 4-3 win in 14 inning when Mitch Abeita's single to center field drove in Jake Mort with the winning run.
The Huskers (36-8-1) trailed 3-1 going into the ninth, but Jake Opitz delivered an RBI single and later scored on a throwing error to tie the game at 3 and send it into extra innings.
"Grand Island Day" was for Dorn and NU bullpen catcher Brooks Wells, both former Grand Island high school and Home Federal American Legion players. A video tribute was played between the fifth and sixth innings that included both Dorn and Wells along with others such as Dorn's parents -- Steve and Vicky -- Grand Island Senior High basketball coach Dave Oman and Home Federal coach Tino Martinez.
"Grand Island Day" was supposed to be Friday night, but that game was canceled because of inclement weather.
Dorn said he appreciated all the support from the Grand Island fans.
"It feels good," Dorn said. "I think we had a couple of busloads that had to turn around yesterday when we canceled the game, but I appreciate everybody coming out."
The fans in attendance saw a duel between the two pitchers leading all active NCAA pitchers for career wins. Dorn leads the nation with 36 wins while Louisiana-Lafayette's Hunter Moody is second in line 29.
"It's funny how things work out in the game of baseball," Dorn said. "He did a good job and kept his team in the game. I think I did, too, and it turned out to be a pretty good day."
Anderson said having two pitchers of that quality going against each other gave the game an NCAA Regional kind of a feeling.
"He was good," Anderson said of Moody. "We knew that coming in. We weren't surprised by him. We knew he was going to be good. I thought if we pushed three or four runs across we'd be in good shape.
"The tighter the game got the more of a regional feel it had. We have to start playing good fundamental baseball when it really matters. We had some inexperienced mistakes today."
The Huskers did the little things in the eighth to push across the winning run. D.J. Belfonte reached on an error to start the inning, but was thrown out at second when Neer was attempting a sacrifice bunt.
Neer then went from first to third on a hit-and-run single by freshman shortstop Ben Kline.
Kline singled right through the hole where shortstop Greg Fontenot would have been if Anderson wouldn't have called for the hit-and-run. Kline said he was just protecting the runner.
"I wouldn't have swung at it," Kline said. "That one was low."
Neer then scored on a groundout to short that could have been a double play, but Kline was running on the pitch.
"Some lucky things happened there at the end," Anderson said. "It was the right timing. Ben put a ball in play. Cody was still disappointed about not getting a bunt down. He kind of hesitated a little bit and still got to third. He was still talking about not getting the bunt down. He just needs to let those things go.
"Ben did a great job and Bryce Nimmo did a great job putting the ball in play. We were fortunate enough to have a runner started. We had a lot of little things in that inning."
Anderson liked what Neer did against Moody. He finished the game 2 for 4 with two RBIs.
"Cody was great," Anderson said. "He might have been the only guy who had some quality bats against Moody. He had a line drive and a couple of base knocks. He was having quality at bats and through our lineup he was the only one that did."
Notes
- Thad Weber was scheduled to start the second game against Louisiana-Lafayette Saturday, but Weber was unavailable. Weber and his wife, Megan, became parents Saturday morning to a baby girl named Isabel Carol Shannon Weber.
- Aaron Pribanic started in place of Weber.
- The win in the second game was the 250th of his career for NU coach Mike Anderson.
First Game
Louisiana-Lafayette (22-24) 100 100 100 -- 3 5 3
Nebraska (35-8-1) 000 300 01x -- 4 10 1
WP -- Herr (3-0). LP -- Glass (2-3). 2B -- LL: Whipple. N: Neer. HR -- LL: Harst (8).
Second Game
Louisiana-Lafayette (22-25) 000 200 100 000 00 -- 3
Nebraska (36-8-1) 000 010 002 000 01 -- 4
2B -- LL: Hawkins 2. N: Johnston. WP -- Bird (3-1). LP -- Harmon.
