Huskers come from behind – twice – against A&M
Vince Kuppig
vkuppig@hastingstribune.com
LINCOLN — Nebraska has found a number of ways to win this season.
The doubleheader Sunday between a pair of top-five teams battling for the conference title, though, took it to a whole other level.
Nebraska, coming off a 16-inning marathon loss to Texas A&M that ended Friday night at midnight, first overcame a four-run ninth-inning deficit with five runs in its last at-bat to capture a 9-8 victory and snap the Aggies' 16-game conference winning streak. To top it all off, and make the three games between the top two teams in the Big 12 go down as perhaps the most exciting series ever at Haymarket Park, the Huskers rallied from five runs down to win 13-10 in the nightcap.
With the doubleheader sweep in front of 7,653 fans, Nebraska remained alive in the Big 12 race. The Huskers improved to 38-9-1 overall and 17-6-1 in the conference, moving 1 1/2 games behind the Aggies heading into the final weekend of the regular season. Texas A&M fell to 42-10 and 19-5 with the doubleheader sweep in a weekend series that saw a little bit of everything, with the teams combining to play 12 hours and 18 minutes of baseball with 1,170 total pitches being thrown between the teams.
In the first game, Nebraska scored four runs with no outs to tie the game as they took advantage of a pair of A&M errors. The Huskers then won the game when Mitch Abeita, who had just one hit in first 12 at-bats of the series, hit a two-out single up the middle to score Bryce Nimmo from second.
Just how unlikely was the win in the opener?
The Aggies hadn't lost this season when leading after eight innings, entering Sunday's doubleheader with a 38-0 record when leading or tied going into the ninth inning.
In the second game, Nebraska trailed 9-4 before rallying with three runs in each of the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
The Huskers scored their three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning without a hit to tie the score. With NU down 10-8 and runners on second and third, pinch hitter Cody Neer fell into a 0-2 hole in count before a wild pitch and a passed ball allowed Nebraska to tie the game.
In the eighth with the score tied, Tyler Farst reached on error by A&M shortstop Jose Duran — the Aggies' sixth of the game and 12th of three-game series after committing just 18 errors in their first 21 conference games — /with one out to start the Husker rally.
DJ Belfonte then singled to center. Center fielder Kyle Colligan, trying to pick up the ball with his bare hand, saw the ball go right under his hand to allow Farst to score all the way from first while Belfonte advanced to the third.
Nebraska's two wins Sunday, the Huskers' 19th and 20th come-from-behind wins this season, are the second and third largest deficits Nebraska has overcome in coach Mike Anerson's six years with the Aggies.
The Huskers, who were predicted at the beginning of the season by the Big 12 coaches to finish sixth in the conference, play Creighton in Omaha at Rosenblatt Stadium on Tuesday before wrapping up the regular season with a three-game series at Missouri beginning Friday. Texas A&M, which could have clinched the regular-season Big 12 title with a win in one of the two games Sunday, plays Texas next weekend. The first game is in Austin and the final two games in College Station at the Aggies' home field.

To read more, see Monday's Hastings Tribune or the Tribune e-edition.