NEWARK – After Serena junior pitcher Carson Baker left the mound in the bottom of the sixth inning with his team trailing by three runs against Little Ten Conference rival Newark, he still was confident he’d get a chance to close out the game in the seventh.
Baker’s confidence in his teammates’ ability to rally was not misplaced.
The Huskers put up four runs on the Norsemen in the top of the seventh, which allowed Baker to come back out and throw a flawless final inning for a 6-5 victory Tuesday.
“When I saw us start hitting the ball in the last inning, I just knew we’d be able to close it out and win this thing,” Baker said. “All I had to do was to make sure I concentrated on getting the final three outs, and I give a lot of credit to my team for giving me the chance to do that.”
Baker improved his pitching record to 4-1, and the Huskers (12-8, 9-1 LTC) stayed atop the conference standings with four games left. He allowed only three earned runs and three hits while striking out seven and walking four.
“I thought Carson looked pretty good on the mound today with some good velocity, his curveball was working, and I thought overall he probably pitched one of his best games of the year,” Serena coach Chad Baker said of his son. “But I also was really proud of our offense for coming alive in the seventh because we didn’t have much life in us until then. It was a big win for sure.”
Newark (7-16, 5-6) just couldn’t hold off the Huskers’ late heroics with Baker leading the way on the hill.
“Hats off to Serena and Carson Baker for finding a way to win another one-run ballgame after they beat us 2-1 yesterday in extra innings,” Newark coach Josh Cooper said. “Every year Chad has his teams ready to fight and grind, and they did it again for the second day in a row to win the season series.
“But I was really proud of our starting pitcher, Jake Kruser, who also threw a heck of a ballgame. It’s just unfortunate and frustrating to lose in the same way two straight days.”
Kruser (6 IP, 5 R, 7 H, 10 K, 3 BB) kept Serena at bay most of his outing but surrendered the first run of the ballgame in the top of the second. Todd Smith led off with a double to the fence in left and scored one batter later on Leo Brennan’s RBI double to center that gave the Huskers a 1-0 lead.
The Norsemen then got to Baker in the bottom of the third with run-scoring at-bats from Josh Acosta and Cole Reibel to go up 2-1.
But with one out in the top of the fourth, Cam Figgins singled, stole second and third base before Bryce Shannon’s bad-hop single bounced past third and brought Figgins home to tie the score 2-2.
A key Serena error would tag Baker with three runs (two unearned) in the bottom of the fifth after an RBI groundout from Landon Begovac gave Newark a 5-2 advantage.
The Huskers, however, found the way to victory in the top of the seventh. Tanner Faivre led off with a double, Baker got hit by a Kruser pitch, and Hudson Stafford popped a bloop single to right that loaded the bases with nobody out before Faivre scored on a wild pitch to cut the gap to 5-3.
Cooper then lifted Kruser in lieu of relief pitcher Caden Wheeler, who surrendered a fielder’s choice RBI to Figgins and back-to-back bases-loaded, run-scoring walks to Shannon and Braxton Hart that put Serena ahead to stay 6-5.
All that was left was for Baker – down to his last batter on pitch count – to close the game by retiring Newark in order.
“My dad told me if I didn’t get the last batter out, I’d be done,” Baker said with a laugh. “So I knew I had to get it done, and I’m glad I did.”