No. 19 Huskers Come Back for 6-5 Win over Jays

Lincoln - Joe Simokaitis went 3-for-4 and drove in pinch runner Adam Riddle with the game-winning run with one out in the bottom of the ninth, as No. 19 Nebraska edged Creighton, 6-5, in front of a crowd of 4,361 at Hawks Field Tuesday evening.

With a torrential downpour and winds in excess of 45 miles per hour coming from the south, Simokaitis laced a 1-2 pitch from Creighton closer Steve Grasley into left while Riddle raced home from second, evading Tim Grandville's tag at the plate for the decisive run, as the contest ended amid lightening and hail.

"All I was hoping to do was to make contact and the ball dropped in," Simokaitis said after his first career three-hit game.

With the score tied at five, the Huskers got a break as John Grose opened the ninth with a wind-blown double to right center. Two batters later, Simokaitis's RBI base hit ended the contest, as Nebraska, who improved to 24-13 with its second walk-off win of the season, avenging an 8-3 loss to the Bluejays in Omaha last Tuesday.

Reliever Jeremy Becker (1-1) earned his first career win, striking out three in 1.2 innings of work, while Grasley fell to 2-5 with the loss.

In the first, Creighton, which had won eight of its last nine games entering tonight's contest, jumped to a 1-0 lead, scoring an unearned run, as the Bluejays capitalized on a pair of Husker errors. Scott Allen's sacrifice bunt scored Joe Pietro, who doubled and advanced to third on error by left fielder Daniel Bruce.

The Huskers tied the score at 1-1 in the third, as Jeff Leise, who had two hits, delivered a two-out triple to the wall in center, scoring Will Bolt, who had doubled earlier in the inning.

The Bluejays extended their lead to 3-0 off NU starter Phil Shirek with two unearned runs in the fourth, capped by Ryan Fitzgerald's RBI single, as four NU's errors led to the Bluejay's first three runs. CU added another run in the fifth, as Pietro, who went 3-for-4 with two run scored, singled and eventually came home on Scott Allen's double play.

The Huskers came back, scoring four times in the bottom of the sixth to take a 5-4 lead. Jed Morris' one-out RBI single cut the CU lead to 4-2 before reliever Matt Garland balked home Bruce from third for NU's second run of the inning. Drew Anderson, who went 3-for-4, gave the hosts their first lead of the evening with a bases-clearing double to the gap in left center.

"Things didn't start off good, but we battled back," Nebraska Coach Dave Van Horn said. "We got the big hit with a runner on second and third and two outs and with a couple strikes that punched in a couple to give us the lead from Drew Anderson. Those are hits that have been few and far between the past couple of weeks."

Mike Sillman, who came in for Shirek in the fourth, kept the Huskers in the game, throwing a season-long four innings, as he struck out a pair and got two double plays before Tyler Davies' ninth homer of the season, a solo shot in the eighth, knotted the score at five.

Nebraska returns to action this weekend, traveling to Stillwater, Okla., for a three-game series with No. 15 Oklahoma State.