Lincoln – The No. 23 Nebraska baseball team (24-11, 3-4 Big Ten) was unable to find a rhythm at the plate on Friday night and was shutout, 3-0, in its series opener against the Minnesota Golden Gophers (12-17, 3-7 Big Ten). The Gophers outhit the Huskers, 6-5, on the night and the Huskers were shutout at home for the first time since March 11, 2012, when NU lost to Cal, 4-0.

Senior Chance Sinclair allowed two runs on five hits and one walk, while striking out five, but fell to 4-5 on the year. After posting a 6-0 record in Big Ten play last season, Sinclair is 1-2 in league play this year.

Minnesota’s Ben Meyer went 6.2 innings in his second win of the season. The right hander gave up four hits and four walks, while striking out two.

The Gophers started the game with a double by Dan Motl and two groundouts later he crossed the plate to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. It looked like the Huskers would answer in the bottom of the frame when Meyer walked the first two Huskers of the game. After a sacrifice bunt put two runners in scoring position, Tanner Lubach hit a chopper to Meyer, who got Jake Schleppenbach at third base and Ryan Boldt was caught in a run down between third and home, and was tagged out for an inning-ending double play.

Minnesota pushed its lead to 2-0 in the third when Jordan Smith started the inning with a single and quickly scored on Motl’s second double of the game.

The Huskers got back-to-back singles to start the home half of the third, but Meyer settled in and retired the next three Huskers he faced to keep his 2-0 led intact.

Nebraska threatened again in the seventh when Austin Darby started the inning with a single and Jake Placzek worked a two-out walk to put the tying runs on base. The Gophers went to reliever Jordan Jess, who struck out Boldt on three pitches to end the threat.

Minnesota extended its lead to 3-0 in the ninth when Toby Hanson launched a two-out solo home run deep to right field. The Huskers got a one-out single from Darby in the ninth, but nothing else, and Jess picked up his first save of the season.

Game two between the Huskers and Gophers is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. tomorrow night, and the game will be streamed live on HuskersNSide.