I guarantee you everyone from DE down to the water boy was looking past this game. Yale was going to roll over and die, so NU could play OSU
I think you are just frustrated, as a lot of folks are, because we all want to see NU succeed. There is no way Coach Erstad or any of the leaders on that team took Yale for granted - there is no such luxury in the tournament, teams are there for a reason.
Baseball is a funny game. Coached a long time, there are days when stuff just doesn't work. Players can get tense when things don't go well, and if there isn't enough resolve in enough players on the squad to pull themselves out of a funk, the tension spreads throughout the dugout. Doesn't happen all the time, but it happens, and I am not necessarily referring to slumps.
Guys aren't relaxed, patience at the plate suffers and they swing at pitches they shouldn't. Or they swing without conviction. Or, worse yet, they try to coerce a base on balls to make something happen and lose any remaining positive aggression at the plate. Baseball, in general, lends itself to overthinking things - I did not see the game, but even if I did I wouldn't necessarily try to analyze the mentality in the dugout today; there are too many opportunities throughout the course of 9 innings for a team that is inconsistent offensively to create their own demons.
Nebraska has been prone to offensive woes all season long ... today's effort came at a very inopportune time. Gotta get it done tomorrow.