Nebraska baseball wins one at Auburn

0:00Do you love romcoms? Do you wish you could talk about Christmas movies year round? Then we have the perfect podcast for you, Home Market's podcast. Throughout the year, we cover all things romance, holiday, and home market, including recaps of every home market show, like when calls the heart and the way home. You can also get loads of bonus content covering shows like Bridgerton, Sweet Magnolia, and just like that. We are an all-female group of friends who are passionate for these shows and movies and give our honest opinions as well as gosh over what we love so much. But that's not all. Every Monday there are interviews with all your favorite actors, writers, directors, and more. Check out Home Market's podcast on all your podcasts, providers, and on YouTube. That's Home Market's podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. All right, everybody. It's a baseball day at the World Herald and the pick six pod, and if you're listening to this on Tuesday morning, it is the Husker Home opener. We'll get to that

1:04in a minute. On the Husker baseball minute, he's Evan Blan. I'm Ben Doody. We start the show as always with the Omaha 8. Those are Evan's contenders to make it here to Omaha for the College World Series. Who got in the Omaha 8 this week, Evan? Yeah, Ben. It's sort of fluid at the bottom and starting to solidify at the top. UCLA stays in there. LSU, Texas, North Carolina, our back, Oregon's back, a couple newcomers from the state of Mississippi, Mississippi state, and Southern Miss and UTSA, the road runners, last year's super regional darlings are the sleeper this week amid their 10-in-1 start. We had Kent State as the sleeper last week. We led with that. Let's continue on with that theme and lead with the sleeper. So the road runners, 10 and 1, tell us about UTSA. Yeah, you know, again, they made a lot of noise last year when they beat Texas in a regional. They go to the Super's bow out to UCLA to fall just short of the CWS.

2:07And I think what's interesting about this team, Ben, is a lot of the main pieces from that group actually are gone. They turned over about half their lineup. Their top two starting pictures moved on. And the guy that they pegged to be their opening day starter got hurt in the opener. So they've been piecing it together a little bit with the pitching, but the scoring has made up for it. They just had a three and a weekend. They beat Coastal Carolina, which continues to fall. They've been pretty injured, but that's a heck of a start for UTSA. And you kind of feel like there might be some program momentum there as they get off to a good start. And there's certainly a team to watch for that Omaha 8 here in a couple of months. Tell me how LSU loses to McNeese. How's that happen? That's midweek baseball, man. You see it all over. I think it was three or four of the top eight teams lost on a Tuesday night. Like it just once you get past a team's top three or four starting pictures, it sort of turns into a slip fest sometimes. And so they lost a one run game

3:09to McNeese. LSU people might remember lost to Omaha in a game last year, even though that was on the weekend. But you see it all the time. You just try to mitigate those. I think the difference between a team like LSU and a team like saying Nebraska is that LSU has tons of chances to make up for it in the SEC. Whereas when that sort of thing happens to to a Nebraska, it's a lot harder to make that up because the league schedule isn't as tough. So okay, LSU is not undefeated. We can we can cancel the the undefeated parade there, but they're still looking really good and they should be, you know, have one of the best records in baseball once SEC play begins. Speaking of undefeated Texas still is undefeated. How long is that going to last? Ah, probably until the SEC slate gets going for them too. They did not. I would say they did not overextend themselves in their scheduling in the noncon. And you know, Texas is kind of interesting. I would say there's sort of a theme. I would I would include LSU, North Carolina, and maybe organ

4:11in this mix of teams that have gotten off the good starts, but haven't necessarily validated it against great opponents to this point. And again, I think that's a nod, especially in the in the case of LSU in Texas and North Carolina, that they say our league schedule is plenty tough. So we're going to start building up some wins, play a bunch of games at home. Texas has done that really balanced team to this point. Their pitching staff, especially, has been really impressive. And they have a deep lineup too. I mean, I have people thought Texas would be good coming in. They have proven it. And now they have another week to tune up a little bit before league play begins for them. Who's the best team in the Big 10, Evan? Well, I think you could also ask who's the best team in the country. And the answer is probably UCLA either way. They go down and go three and O against SEC competition, do the Bruins and look really good doing it. They pound Tennessee. And then on Sunday, they knock off Mississippi State, another top five team.

5:13And they're they're just so deep on the mound in the lineup. Will Gasparino speaking of Texas is a Texas transfer who leads the country now with 10 home runs through the weekend. So it's not just the Rock Chalowski show in shortstop. He's got a lot of help now. And so UCLA looking out standing a couple one run losses to to blemish the record a bit, but against the best. I mean, their best is as good or better than anybody else's. So I think they're the runaway team, the runaway favorite certainly in the Big 10. And we'll see how it goes, but the heck of a non-conference for the Bruins. I like Southern Miss being in here, not as a sleeper. Okay. So outside the power for conferences, Southern Miss, not the sleeper. That's UTSA Southern Miss is legitimately in the top seven. So we'll get to the Husker minute shortly. But give me a minute on Southern Miss, which is 10 and one. You say they've got great pitching defense. Yeah, that's a program that you kind of put on the short list with some of the other mid majors out there. Dallas Baptist is another one

6:15that comes to mind or East Carolina, like teams coastal Carolina is another one that really invest in the sport that are always in the mix. And so you look at Southern Miss and they've been in now nine straight NCAA tournament fields and counting. They invested it. It's in a warm weather locale. They turn out professional prospects. And now you look at this team this year. You remember the preseason sleeper that we had was the it was UC Santa Barbara. They beat Southern Miss and their opener. Well, what Southern Miss don't sense then they haven't lost a game. They're 10 and oh, really, really good pitching ton of depth there. And they're just they're rolling through people. They're the number one RPI team in the country coming into March. So you know that they've challenged themselves with that schedule. And now they turn to Sunbelt play, which isn't going to be quite as good, but they've certainly done more than enough to be in that regional hosting conversation. Come late May, as long as they take care of business in the in conference play. So really strong start for Southern Miss, which has been a college baseball power now for a decade plus.

7:17All right. Time now for the Husker minute. Evan Blaine and Ben Doody here at the World Herald. Nebraska home opener against you on Oh on Tuesday in Lincoln. And they come off an interesting series down in Auburn. Evan last week, he told us a passing grade would be one victory. And I get to tell you they get the one victory in the opener, which was a thriller. I was getting ready. Evan to have an emergency pod with you on Sunday night after Nebraska sweeping Auburn. That's where my that's where my mind went after that Friday win. And that is not how I played at it all is Nebraska really gets drilled in those second and third games. So I'm not to unpack on that. What did you make of the weekend series in Auburn? Yeah, the Friday game was a thriller. Absolutely. They didn't lead until extra innings and they hold on by their fingernails when Auburn has the winning run in second base and finish that thing out. That's one of their better wins, certainly better wins on the road in recent program history. And they just weren't able to follow it up. They get run ruled on Saturday. And then on Sunday, you walk or hit 15

8:20batters. That's just not going to get it done. So I think big picture you look at the weekend and the starters really came down to earth. Nobody got out of the fourth inning. Everybody they had to go to the bullpen earlier than that each time. And sometimes they were up for it. And sometimes they weren't. The offense was okay. The defense had its moments a couple of key errors, let things slip away there. But I think it kind of reminds me Ben of Nebraska in regionals in recent years where their best can be on par with the best of a top quality opponent. But the depth really drops off the further you get into a series. And so Nebraska's pitching wasn't quite up to par. And it's not just strikes. It's quality strikes. So they were walking guys. And when they were throwing strikes, oftentimes Auburn was mashing that too. So I think this is a moment where Nebraska kind of assesses where it is on the national scene. It's not at that top level where Auburn is and a lot of the SEC is at this time. I still think it's a team that can develop certainly on the

9:26mound. I think that offense can be good enough to be competitive in games like these moving forward. And so as Nebraska coach Will Bolt said, he felt like they kind of got exposed a little bit in Auburn. I think that's something that you can now use as fuel as you go into March and get ready for big 10 play. Nebraska does not play another away game until St. Patrick's Day on March 17th at Wichita State. It's a nine game homestand and sandwich within that nine game homestand is the big 10 opening series against Michigan State. So a nine game homestand starts with UNO Tuesday March 3rd. It is UNO South Dakota State Michigan State for three North Dakota State and then main the black bears come to town 13th through the 15th nine gamer. What's a passing grade in terms of the Nebraska record on the nine game homestand. I mean, honestly, seven and two. I think you got at least and here's the way that I frame that the first three weekends of the season Nebraska's

10:26facing big brands and ranked competition and they broke even and they have an RPI in the low 50s and that's that's you can use that you can work with that moving forward. Now the challenge for this homestand and you just laid it out. All those teams have losing records at this point. All those teams are would would represent costly RPI blows if you lose to them at home and people that fall in Nebraska baseball know the Huskers are not immune to losing to Omaha or South Dakota State. They've done it multiple times in the last few years and so this is an area where Nebraska needs to button up a little bit. They often talk about these five game swings that can be the difference between being an at large team and missing the NCAA field altogether. This is one of those stretches where they need to take care of business. They need to find a midweek starter. It's going to be Cooper Katzky on Tuesday. We'll see if he's the guy moving forward, but this is a take care of business get right stack wins sort of stretch for Nebraska. We'll see if they're up for it. All right. I can't wait in Nebraska and

11:26UNO on Tuesday. We will wrap it there. Will you be back next week with the Omaha Eat and the Husker Minute meanwhile all the baseball coverage you can want best in town here at the world here with Evan. He's Evan. I'm Ben. We'll see you next week. Hi, I'm Alicia and I'm Stacy and we make trashy divorces. Everybody's favorite good podcast about bad relationships looking for something true crimey without the gore or the body count. We've been shurning out funny feisty feminist episode since 2019. So if you're looking to put some scandalous stories told well into your ears this summer check out trashy divorces wherever you listen to podcasts. Trust us. We've covered someone you love or someone you love to hate.