terry.douglass@theindependent.com
LINCOLN —
A wild and wooly, five-hour and 20-minute marathon between Nebraska and Texas A&M Friday night came down to Aggies’ star hitter Dane Carter making the most of a second chance.
Given new life after Nebraska catcher Mitch Abeita couldn’t come up with a popup behind home plate, Carter later responded with a three-run double in the top of the 16th inning to lift No. 6-ranked Texas A&M to a 6-3 victory over the No. 5 Cornhuskers in the opening game of their key Big 12 Conference series Friday night.
The victory gave the Aggies (42-8, 19-3 Big 12) a 3 1/2-game lead in the conference standings over Nebraska with five regular-season games to play. A&M also extended its conference-record winning streak to 16 consecutive games in a contest that ended at midnight.
“What you saw tonight was two teams that didn’t want to bow down,” Texas A&M coach Rob Childress said. “That’s what everybody was anticipating all week and that’s what you’re going to get all weekend, I truly believe that.”
With one out in the top of the 16th, the Aggies loaded the bases on consecutive infield singles by Brodie Greene, Ben Feltner and Kyle Colligan off Nebraska relief pitcher Dan Jennings (5-1). However, Jennings then struck out A&M's Blake Stouffer and had a chance to get out of the jam, if Abeita could've caught a high popup near the wall and netting behind home plate off the bat of Carter.
But Carter, who entered the series batting a Big 12-leading .411, lined a 2-2 pitch to right-center field later in the at-bat, clearing the bases with A&M’s only two-out hit of the game.
Nebraska coach Mike Anderson refused to hang the loss on the second chance given to Carter.
“My reaction to the whole thing is that our kids fought hard,” Anderson said. “We fought hard throughout the whole thing.”
The Huskers did battle, but struggled mightily to come through in the clutch. Batting .311 with runners in scoring position prior to the series, Nebraska was 1-for-23 in that situation against the Aggies, leaving 18 runners on base.
“The ball didn’t bounce the right way for us,” said Nebraska third baseman Jake Mort, who was 2-for-6 at the plate and scored all three of his team’s runs. “It’s one of those things where we know that we’re coming out with our backs against the wall right now.
“We’ve been battling from behind this entire season. We’ve never been the front-runners and we’ve had our backs up against the wall the entire year and we’re here again. We’ve handled it pretty well.”
Despite the loss, which reduced A&M’s magic number to clinch the Big 12 title to two, Anderson said he’s confident the Huskers will bounce back.
“The key to it is that you can be disappointed with a loss, but you can’t be discouraged,” said Anderson, whose team’s last two games have lasted a combined 30 innings. “Our kids will come out, they’ll fight again (Saturday) and we’ll see what happens.
“Obviously (A&M) is a good ballclub and we think we’re a good ballclub, so what you had is two very strong and determined teams getting after it. Something had to give a little bit right there.”
Prior to Carter’s game-winning hit, both bullpens had been stellar. A&M closer Travis Starling (8-0), bounced back from a rough outing last Tuesday — he allowed a career-high six runs in an inning against Sam Houston State — to pitch eight scoreless innings against the Huskers, permitting four hits, striking out one and walking one.
“It was incredible,” Childress said of Starling’s outing. “He basically said, ‘Coach, I’ll be out there until we score.'”
Nebraska’s bullpen was also solid. Mike Nesseth pitched one scoreless inning, Zach Herr pitched four perfect innings, Erik Bird didn’t allow a run in 2/3 of an inning and Jennings had kept the Aggies scoreless for two innings before allowing the game-winning hit.
“We used a lot of guys, but I thought we kept their pitches down,” Anderson said. “A lot of them are available for (Saturday), too, so I think we’re in good shape with that.”
Nebraska starting pitcher Johnny Dorn got a no-decision, allowing five hits and three runs — two earned — in eight innings pitched. The senior right-hander from Grand Island, who was making his last regular-season home start, struck out six, walked three and hit four batters.
Husker pitchers tied a season high with 19 strikeouts. The performance tied the mark they set on May 3 in a 14-inning win over Louisiana-Lafayette.
“Nebraska has an incredible team and their numbers on the mound, they don’t lie,” Childress said. “They have a very good pitching staff -- as good as we’ve seen all year.”
A&M freshman starting pitcher Brooks Raley allowed four hits and one earned run in six innings, but got a no-decision.
Texas A&M took a 2-0 lead in the second as Brian Ruggiano singled home Luke Anders and Dorn’s throwing error on a Greene sacrifice bunt allowed Darby Brown to score. With runners at first and third and one out, the Huskers escaped further damage as Kevin Gonzalez was called out on batter’s interference on a stolen-base attempt and Colligan flew out to the warning track in left field.
The Huskers cut their deficit to 2-1 in the third as Mort led off with a double, took third on a balk and scored on Abeita’s groundout to third.
Dorn wiggled out of a bases-loaded one-out jam in the sixth to keep A&M’s lead at 2-1. Ruggiano struck out and Nebraska right fielder DJ Belfonte made a diving catch — his second of the game — in foul territory to end the inning.
The Huskers tied the score at 2-2 in the seventh, scoring against Aggies’ reliever Kyle Thebeau, who hadn’t allowed a run in his last 12 2/3 innings, covering six appearances. Mort led off with a slicing triple down the right-field line and, after Jake Optiz had struck out and Abeita grounded out to shortstop against a drawn-in infield, finally scored on a wild pitch by Thebeau.
Texas A&M took a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth when Ruggiano’s single scored Jose Duran from second.
Nebraska rallied to tie it at 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth when Craig Corriston’s groundout to shortstop with one out scored Mort from third. Mort was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Opitz walked, putting two on with none out.
After Thebeau went to a 2-0 count on Abeita, Childress brought in Starling. Abeita was able to put down a sacrifice bunt off Starling, moving Mort and Opitz into scoring position and setting the stage for Corriston.
After Nesseth hit a batter to lead off the 10th, Herr came on to give the Huskers four perfect innings of relief. The left-hander matched a career high with six strikeouts during his career-long outing.
Game notes
--The game ground to a halt in the top of the 15th inning with Anderson arguing a catcher’s interference call when an Aggies’ base runner was allowed to return safely to first base after a stolen-base attempt. Home plate umpire Bob Homolka announced that the game was being played under protest by the Huskers before action resumed.
--Friday’s season-high announced attendance of 8,708 was the third-largest crowd to watch Nebraska play at Haymarket Park.
--Corriston returned to Nebraska’s starting lineup after having arthroscopic knee surgery on April 30, finishing 0-for-6 with a RBI. “Hopefully he can get going again,” Anderson said of Corriston. “He’s valuable to us. He’s been somebody that’s helped us win a lot of games and we’ve got to get his stroke back. You take a week off, he had surgery — there are a lot of things that he’s got to get going again, but it’s nice to have him in the lineup.”
--Jake Opitz’s ninth-inning error was the first committed by a Nebraska infielder in Big 12 Conference play since April 13.
--Ben Kline’s one-out single in the 13th ended a string of 37 combined plate appearances between the two teams without a hit.
--Nebraska fell to 3-1-1 in extra-inning games this season and its last two games have gone 14 and 16 innings, respectively. Friday’s 16-inning game was NU’s longest game since going 16 innings against Texas (2005) and Iowa State (1999).
Texas A&M (42-8, 19-3) 020 000 010 000 000 3—6 11 4
Nebraska (36-9-1, 15-6-1) 001 000 101 000 000 0—3 9 3
W—Starling (8-0). L—Jennings (5-1). 2B—Texas A&M, Carter (11); Nebraska, Mort (13). 3B—Nebraska, Mort (3).
