Nebraska baseball cracks top 25 in three national polls
LINCOLN, Neb. (BVM) 鈥� The University of Nebraska baseball team is not only atop the Big Ten standings, the Huskers have also played their way onto the national radar.
For the first time since late in the 2017 season, Nebraska found itself among the top 25 in three national polls Monday after taking a series from Michigan State over the weekend. The Huskers are ranked No. 19 by Perfect Game, No. 22 by D1Baseball and No. 24 by Baseball America.
At 20-7, they鈥檙e off to their best start since the 2008 season which they finished with a 41-16 record. They won鈥檛 play as many games during this shortened, conference-only campaign, but they鈥檙e in a solid spot with about a month left in the season, leading the Big Ten by 1 陆 games over both Indiana and Michigan. The Huskers won the Big Ten regular-season title the last time they were ranked in multiple polls four years ago.
Nebraska鈥檚 .285 team batting average trails only Illinois at .287 for best in the conference and their 3.72 ERA is third-best behind Michigan (3.66) and Indiana (2.70). Jaxon Hallmark leads Nebraska at the plate with 39 hits, which is second-most in the conference, while Cade Povich has anchored the pitching staff with a team-best 3.11 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 46.1 innings. But numbers aside, the all-around consistency that the Huskers have had since the start of the season might be one of the biggest factors that has led to such a strong start to the 2021 season.
鈥淲ith this team, they just show up every day and they’re the same team and I think that鈥檚 a good quality to have to be consistent,鈥� Nebraska head coach Will Bolt said during . 鈥淲e鈥檝e had the same starting rotation all year. The guys that have stepped up in the bullpen are guys that we thought would be pretty good bullpen arms for us. Now we鈥檝e kind of settled on the top six in the order. You kind of hope to have that type of consistency with the team where you don鈥檛 necessarily say, 鈥楳an, just wait until this starts happening.鈥� 鈥� Certainly, we鈥檝e gotten better in some areas and come a long way in others but I think it鈥檚 just a consistent group of guys who show up ready to compete every day.鈥�
Newly-ranked Nebraska will look to stay with that consistency when it returns to the field this weekend for a three-game home series with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (14-13).
