LINCOLN After getting thoroughly shelled Saturday in a 19-2 loss at Oklahoma State, Nebraska pitcher Erik Bird entered Tuesday night's start against No. 5-ranked Wichita State with one very distinct goal in mind.
"It was really important to me to get back the confidence of my teammates, my coaches and myself after Saturday's outing," Bird said. "It was pretty important to try to get them to believe in me again."
Mission accomplished.
Bird pitched a career-high 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball and combined with reliever Zach Herr for a four-hit shutout as the No. 9 Cornhuskers beat the Shockers 3-0 before a crowd of 5,204 at Haymarket Park. With winds gusting up to 50 mph and blowing across the diamond toward the left-field foul pole, Nebraska's pitchers limited Wichita State hitting .315 as a team entering the game to three singles and a ninth-inning double.
While Herr pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn his second save, the story of the night was Bird (2-1). Making a relief appearance Saturday at Oklahoma State, the junior right-hander allowed seven earned runs on seven hits, including three doubles, in just 2/3 of an inning.
"That's one of those things where you either get mad at yourself or you just laugh because they hit every single thing you threw," Bird said. "We were kind of laughing in the dugout after the (OSU) game, wondering how in the heck does that happen? I got over it pretty quick."
To Wichita State coach Gene Stephenson, Bird's transformation was nothing short of remarkable.
"Obviously, Bird pitched a lot better than he did at Stillwater or Oklahoma State is a lot better team than I've ever seen," Stephenson said. "We are a lot better hitting team than we showed and we needed to do a better job of competing at the plate."
Nebraska coach Mike Anderson said he wasn't quite as surprised to see Bird bounce back strong.
"The only one thing that I was confident about is that I knew Erik Bird's personality and character and I knew he had the ability to put that behind him," Anderson said. "You still have to go out and perform after a tough outing at Oklahoma State. I will tell you this: Our goal was to try to get him through three or four innings and see, so as I told the team, he kind of exceeded (expectations).
"His pitch count was down and we let him keep going."
Herr, who struck out four all looking and allowed just one hit, said he wasn't surprised at all.
"That's Erik Bird he's probably the most mentally tough pitcher we have on our team," Herr said. "Nothing really bothers him. He's just a great kid and he does what he does."
Anderson said Bird made some good adjustments and was well-served by an aggressive approach. Prior to the game, Nebraska pitching coach Eric Newman worked with Bird extensively in the bullpen while he was warming up.
"He coached me and did drills with me in the bullpen and had me get (my arm) out front more and on top more so I'd have more sink to the ball," Bird said. "On Saturday, I kind of had a lower arm angle and the ball was flatter and everything."
Newman went out to the mound to visit Bird again in the second inning, telling him to calm down and to not overthrow.
"There was a lot of emotion going into this game," said Bird, who allowed the deciding two-run single last year in Nebraska's 5-3 loss at Wichita State. "I don't know what they were ranked, but I know that they're top five or something, so a lot of people were talking about it in class and saying, 'Oh, you guys have got Wichita State tonight,' so that was in the back of my head.
"I got a lot of adrenaline going tonight."
Herr carried on the theme. After getting out of a two-out, two-on jam in the seventh, the Huskers (26-6-1) turned a double play behind him in the eighth before the left-hander got the final four outs of the game all via strikeout.
"He changed speeds extremely well," Anderson said of Herr. "We had (right-hander) Michael Nesseth ready and let him go get some right-handers and I think he faced the right-handers just as well as he did the left-handers and kept them off-balance.
"It was one of his most intense performances in terms of velocity and every thing else. I thought he was very good."
Nebraska took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning off Wichita State starter Tim Kelley. After Jake Mort and Jake Opitz hit back-to-back one-out singles, Mitch Abeita and Nick Sullivan each followed with run-scoring singles.
After producing just two base runners and failing to advance any of them past first in innings 2-7, he Huskers scored an unearned run in the eighth. With one out, Mort was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored when Wichita State second baseman Taylor Brown couldn't come up with a hard-hit ball off the bat of Opitz.
Stephenson, whose team was playing the last game of a four-game road trip after playing at Creighton over the weekend, said he was disappointed with his Shockers (27-6). He let his players know about it in the dugout afterwards, as well.
"This was a great atmosphere for baseball wonderful crowd, awesome, loved it and how our guys can not get charged up and play in this atmosphere, I cannot tell you," said Stephenson, whose team has been shut out in each of its last two trips to Lincoln. "I wanted to play, OK? That's how much it meant to be on this field playing these guys. It was fun, but not us. We seemed like we could not wait to get on the bus to get home."
Anderson was considerably more pleased.
"It's a good win against a good program," Anderson said. "You might look back at the end of the year and it might end up being something bit, but right now, it's just a good win against a good program."
Game notes
& Wichita State left fielder Kenny Williams Jr. is the son of Chicago White Sox general manager Ken Williams. The younger Williams finished 1-for-4 with a sharp single in the first inning.
& Nebraska improved to 39-19 against ranked opponents at Haymarket Park, which opened in 2002. It marked the first time since 2005 that two top-10 teams had matched up on Hawks Field.
& The Huskers are scheduled to resume Big 12 Conference play Friday when they host Kansas in a three-game series. First pitch Friday night is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
Wichita St. (27-6) 000 000 000 0 4 1
Nebraska (26-6-1) 200 000 01x 3 6 1
W Bird (2-1). L Kelley (4-2). Sv. Herr (2). 2B Wichita St., Coleman (9).
[an error occurred while processing this directive]