Huskers Rally to Drop Iowa State in 10 Innings

Lincoln, Neb. -- Freshman leftfielder Jeff Leise's RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning scored Matt Hopper from second and lifted the 15th-ranked Huskers (35-12, 18-8) to a 14-13 win over Iowa State (16-31, 6-17), after trailing, 10-0, in front of a season-best crowd of 2,157 at Buck Beltzer Stadium.

Hopper led off the 10th inning with his fifth hit of the day and advanced to second on a sacrifice from Brandt Vlieger. But the Cyclones intentionally walked the hot-hitting Will Bolt to face Leise, who was 0-for-5 with Nebraska's only two strikeouts. Leise delivered a seeing-eye single through the right side of the infield to score Hopper and give Nebraska its 17th win in 18 games.

The win completed the largest come-from-behind victory during Van Horn's three-year Nebraska career. The Cyclones jumped on top of the Huskers early in the 3 hour, 26 minute game, taking control of the game after scoring four runs in the first and six in the second.

Husker starter Chad Wiles was chased from the game after giving up five hits and recording just two outs. However, Steve Hale was unable to silence the Iowa State bats, giving up three straight hits to lead off the second inning. Van Horn went to senior Trevor Bullock, who managed to record the final two outs of the second, but not before surrendering three more runs.

Bullock settled down to scatter just three more hits in the next 4 1/3 innings, retiring nine of the next 14 batters he faced, allowing the Huskers to chip away at the ISU lead.

Bolt got the Huskers started with a two-run double in the second and then added a two-out grand slam in the third to account for Nebraska's first six runs, pulling the Huskers within four at 10-6.

Hopper's league-leading 16th home run in the fifth, a two-run shot, closed the gap to 11-8 after Iowa State scored an unearned run in the fifth.

Senior catcher Justin Cowan finally erased ISU's lead in the sixth with a three-run home run, his seventh of the season, to tie the game at 11-11.

Iowa State came right back to take the lead after a one-run double from Beau Hampton, the ninth hitter in the ISU lineup.

Iowa State's Charlie Bigwood gave up a two-out walk to Josh Hesse in the seventh, before serving up a home run to Adam Shabala, his second of the year, giving Nebraska its first lead of the game, 13-12.

Iowa State again answered by tying the game in the ninth. Ben Van Iderstine led off the inning with a single of reliever Thom Ott. After a Steve Goldberg popped up on a bunt attempt, Brandon Penas came in to pitch for Nebraska and struck out Hampton. But freshman Joe Ferin in a line drive to left field that skipped past Leise, allowing Van Iderstine to score and tie the game.

Despite two hits in the bottom of the ninth, Nebraska couldn't score. R.D. Spiehs retired the Cyclones in order in the 10th to set up Nebraska's heroic finish.

Spiehs improved to 5-1 in the game, earning his fifth relief win of the season. Nebraska regained its third-place hold in the Big 12 standings and remained one-game behind league-leading Baylor and a half game behind second-place Texas.

The two teams will conclude the series on Sunday at 1 p.m.