Nebraska Knocks Off Kansas In Big 12 Championship
May 9, 2008
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla – A wild pitch in the top of the sixth proved costly for Kansas as the No. 10 seed Nebraska Cornhuskers upset No. 7 Kansas, 4-3, during the opening round of the Big 12 Softball Championship. KU wraps up its season with a 37-19 record and 7-11 mark in Big 12 play.
Nebraska improves to 23-27 overall and will advance to play No. 2 Oklahoma in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
With the game tied 3-3 after five innings, Nebraska, who had runners on second and third, used a wild pitch in the top of the sixth to plate a runner, which ultimately proved to be the game winner.
Kansas was behind 1-0 after two innings of play but came back to steal the lead in the bottom of the fourth using three hits and taking an advantage of a Nebraska error to score three. Amanda Jobe jump started the rally with a single to center field to bring in Val Chapple from second base. One out later, Betsy Wilson smacked her sixth double of the season to right field scoring Jobe and Fesmire, who was pinch running for Liz Kocon, to give KU the 3-1 advantage.
Nebraska wasted no time battling back to tie the score at three-all in its next at-bat, stringing together three singles and using a KU error to put a pair of runs on the scoreboard.
After a quick three up, three down fifth inning for the Jayhawks, Nebraska scored its winning run in the top of the sixth with the wild pitch.
The Jayhawks stranded five runners in the final two innings, including three in the sixth, unable to create the offensive production it needed to bring home a run.
Freshman Allie Clark suffered the loss for Kansas. Clark started the first one and two-thirds innings, until junior Val George took over from the circle tossing three and a third innings. Clark re-entered the game in the sixth inning giving up NU’s winning run.
