By Curt McKeever/Lee Enterprises

LINCOLN - Maybe a game-winning hit is what it'll take to get Ryan Wehrle on track.

At least that's what Nebraska's junior shortstop is hoping.

On Tuesday, Wehrle ended an 0-for-18 stretch with a fifth-inning RBI double down the left-field line that put the 16th-ranked Huskers up 2-1 in a game they eventually won 6-1.

“It was a good hit. I needed one of those,” Wehrle said. “It's hard for me right now. I'm trying to work through it and do my best to just get out there and help the team any way I can.”

Wehrle, an 18th-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds last June after hitting a team-high .367, takes a .226 batting average into NU's opening Big 12 Conference series at Texas Tech Thursday through Saturday.

“I'd say he's just about like every other junior that's got the draft potential and everything else that comes his way, and he starts to press a little bit,” Nebraska coach Mike Anderson said. “(Alex) Gordon did it, and then he got going. It's OK. Ryan Wehrle's going to be fine.“

Wehrle's double Tuesday came off left-handed Travis Mortimore, who through the first four innings had quieted a sun-baked Haymarket Park crowd of 4,564 by limiting the Huskers (9-5) to a lone hit.

But the 2006 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference pitcher of the year ran into some bad luck in the fifth, when NU's Mitch Abeita led off with a bloop double to shallow right-center and Craig Corriston reached on a throwing error by shortstop Brian Sulzman. DJ Belfonte, who went 3-for-4, then tied the game with a bunt single up the first-base line and, after Jeff Tezak flew out, Wehrle produced his double.

A fielder's choice grounder by Andrew Brown made it 3-1 before Jake Opitz singled in another run to knock Mortimore from the game.

Tuesday's result was Nebraska's 29th straight home-opening victory and made it 39-2 all-time against the NCAA Division II Wildcats.

Wehrle, who finished 1-for-5, wasn't the only Husker to produce in the clutch.

Left-handed junior Drew Bowman scatted six hits and struck out four over five innings to improve his record to 2-0. Meanwhile, sophomore reliever Erik Bird retired all three Wayne State hitters he faced in the ninth.

In his previous two outings against Iowa and Alabama, Bird had allowed five hits and five runs over two-thirds of an inning to let his ERA balloon to 15.00.

“It doesn't matter if we're facing Wayne State or the No.1 team in the country - that was good stuff right there,” Anderson said.