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Heartbreak: Arkansas’ big 8th inning ends Nebraska season in NCAA Baseball Regionals

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Nebraska took the nation’s top-ranked team down to the wire, but Arkansas’ big 8th inning proved to be the difference on Monday night.

The Huskers dropped a 6-2 contest to the Razorbacks on Monday night, ending their season in the NCAA Baseball Regionals. Monday’s game was a winner-take-all bout with a trip the Super Regionals to play North Carolina State on the line.

It was a solid start for Nebraska, which scored the first run of the game on a Luke Roskam solo shot in the top of the 2nd inning. Jaxon Hallmark had an RBI in the top of the third, with Mojo Hagge scoring to give the Huskers a 2-0 lead.

Arkansas responded with solo home runs from Casey Opitz in the bottom of the 5th and Robert Moore in the bottom of the 6th to tie the game at 2-2.

Then the 8th inning happened.

Nebraska recorded the first 2 outs of the inning with no problem and appeared to be on its way to the top of the 9th with a tie game. But pitchers Koty Frank and Frank Bunz walked three consecutive batters and a Bunz wild pitch gave the Razorbacks a 3-2 lead. Charlie Welch then hit a 3-run bomb to left field to give Arkansas a 6-2 advantage entering the final inning.

The Huskers’ season comes to an end having won the B1G and finishing with a 34-14 record.

Nebraska defeated Arkansas 5-3 on Sunday night to force a final game on Monday with the all-or-nothing circumstances. But the Huskers didn’t have the same magic as Sunday.

In the NCAA Baseball Regionals, Nebraska posted victories over Northeastern (8-6), New Jersey Institute of Technology (18-4) and Arkansas (5-3) and lost its two games to the top-ranked Razorbacks (5-1, 6-2).

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB