Darin Erstad photo courtesy/huskers.com
The Nebraska baseball team faces a difficult challenge in its Big Ten home opener as the Huskers host 24th ranked Maryland to open a three game series at Hawks Field. Nebraska opened the league race by taking two of three games at Indiana while the Terrapins are 5-1 in the Big Ten and 19-8 overall.
“If you make mistakes they are going to take advantage of them,” said Nebraska coach Darin Erstad. “You have to be able to execute your pitches and we are going to have to win a lot of counts before we get to two strikes as hitters. There are things you have to able to do against quality teams.”
The Huskers posted mid-week victories over Creighton and UNO and enter the series having won seven of eight games.
“For us we have to take care of the baseball and limit the free passes,” added Erstad. “Offensively we have to continue to battle up and down the lineup. When we have done that we have had success.”
This weekend’s series will be just the second series between the two teams as conference foes. The Huskers joined the Big Ten in 2012 and the Terrapins made their entrance in 2015. The Huskers traveled to College Park, Md., in 2015 for a three-game series and were swept by the Terrapins. That series two years ago is the only time the teams have ever met.