[HUSKERNSAV]

Clint McKeever’s two-run single with two outs in the eighth inning broke the third tie of the game and lifted Wichita State to a 9-7 win against the Nebraska baseball team at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kan., Tuesday night.

The Huskers had battled back after Joe Broekemeier gave up five first-inning runs to pull even for the final time on a sixth-inning run.

NU’s Michael Mariot then pitched his way out of jams in the sixth and seventh before the Shockers came through against Mike Nesseth.

Mitch Caster led off the eighth with a single and took second on a wild pitch before Nesseth struck out Andrew Letourneau and got Will Baez to ground out.

Things then got heated when Tyler Grimes was rewarded first base after Wichita State coach Gene Stephenson argued that he’d been hit by a Nesseth delivery after the home plate umpire originally ruled a foul tip.

That drew an argument from Nebraska coach Mike Anderson, and the situation became tenser when Nesseth hit Ryan Jones with his next pitch to load the bases.

McKeever — who had been hit by a pitch from Broekemeier with the bases loaded in the first and delivered a two-run double in the fifth that gave Wichita State a 7-6 lead — swung and missed at the first delivery he saw from Nesseth before pulling the next one past the left side of the infield into left field for the game-deciding hit.

Sophomore Joe Broekemeier, who in five previous appearances had not given up any earned runs, was tagged for five while failing to retire a batter in the first inning.

But freshman Nate Kerkhoff, senior Erik Bird and the sophomore Mariot scattered seven hits while giving up just two runs over seven innings to give the Huskers a chance.

NU, which has given up 69 runs in its last six games, has dropped five of those to fall to 16-11-1 on the season.

The Huskers scored six runs against left-handed freshman Brian Flynn, a weekend starter for the Shockers. But right-handed freshman Jordan Cooper, who also is the weekend rotation and was pitching Tuesday because Wichita State had two games snowed out Sunday, allowed just three hits over the final 52/3 innings to earn the win.

The Huskers play their next eight games at home, and begin that stretch against Kansas State at 6:05 p.m. Friday.