Ryan Matheny, General Manager
(Omaha) – The Omaha Baseball team met in-state rival Nebraska for the first of two matchups this season on Wednesday night at Werner Park, dropping a heartbreaker 3-2 in 10 innings.
Shane Meltz gave the Mavericks a strong mid-week start, going 5.0 innings, allowing just one earned run on six hits while striking out three.
“Shane Meltz did a good job,” Coach Bob Herold said after the game. “We haven’t been starting him on weekends, but he deserves to. I guess I don’t have a reason why he’s not a weekend starter. He’s a very competitive guy.”
The Mavericks jumped out to a quick lead in the bottom of the first inning. Alex Schultz led off the frame with a double into the left-center gap. After a groundout to move to third, Schultz came in to score on a Clayton Taylor sacrifice fly.
Nebraska would tie things up in the fifth when Jake Placzek singled, advanced on a groundout and then came around to score on a Jake Schleppenbach RBI single.
Omaha responded in the bottom half of the frame and once again it was Schultz serving as the catalyst. With a 3-1 count, Schultz ripped a ball into left. Husker left fielder Luis Alvarado leapt at the wall but couldn’t come up with the ball, giving Schultz his second homerun of the season, making the score 2-1 Omaha.
In the seventh, Nebraska’s Ryan Boldt singled and then came around to score on Schleppenbach’s second RBI of the game, this time a double.
Both teams would get the go-ahead/winning run on second base with one out in the ninth, but neither team could push it across and the game went into extra innings.
With two outs in the top of the 10th, Husker first baseman Scott Schreiber belted a Zach Williamsen pitch beyond the left field seats to put Nebraska up for the first time in the game at 3-2.
Husker closer Josh Roeder came in and slammed the door on the Mavericks in the bottom half, striking out the side on just 11 pitches to earn his ninth save of the year.
After the game, Coach Herold said the team played better than the previous weekend at Oral Roberts.
“We played poorly (in the ORU series),” said Herold. “Tonight, we didn’t play good enough, but we didn’t play poorly.”
Schultz finished the game 3-for-5 with two doubles, a home run and two runs scored to lead the way offensively.
Williamsen (3-4) was saddled with the loss, tossing 2.2 innings, only allowing the one run on one hit.
