Nebraska edges Michigan State 2-1 in series opener Thursday night

Runs were hard to come by on Thursday night. Nebraska came out on the right-side of a low-scoring affair and picked off a 2-1 win over Michigan State.

The victory helped the Huskers keep pace with Illinois in the race for the Big Ten regular season crown. Head coach Will Bolt’s squad is 15-7 in conference play and is a game back of the Fighting Illini. Illinois downed Purdue 5-4 to move to 16-6 in the Big Ten.

NU has tied its win total from 2023 at 33-18.

Brett Sears logged his 11th quality start of the season and Caleb Clark finished the game’s final 2 1/3 innings. Both pitchers combined for eight scoreless frames after the Spartans took a 1-0 lead in the first.

The infield and outfielders behind them were excellent, too.

“The difference in the game was that we played game-changing defense tonight,” Bolt said postgame on the Huskers Radio Network. “Dylan Carey makes a big play on the diving catch in the first inning, (Ben Columbus) makes a diving play to get us off the field in the first and then Garrett Anglim, catch of the year by far.”

Here’s more on the win for Nebraska as the Huskers began the final weekend of the regular season on a high note.

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Two-out magic was Nebraska’s calling card in the early going. The Huskers tallied their first hit off the bat of Rhett Stokes, who doubled to right with two away in the third. Josh Overbeek smacked a extra-base hit of his own to the same spot and drove in Stokes to tie the game at 1-1.

Then in the fourth, Tyler Stone worked a two-out walk and moved to second base after Cole Evans was hit by a pitch. Ben Columbus gave Nebraska the lead with a single to right.

Michigan State challenged Brett Sears in the first with a pair of leadoff singles. That put runners on the corners with no outs for the Husker ace. But, Sears slithered out of the jam. He came back from 3-0 down to record a looking strikeout, allowed a sacrifice fly and coaxed a foul out to end the threat.

Sears settled in from there.

The right-hander stranded leadoff doubles in the second and fourth as well as a single in the sixth. Sears issued a full-count walk with one away in the seventh and coaxed a flyout before exiting the game for Clark.

“It was a little bit unorthodox type of outing,” Bolt said. “They scored early and then I think they had the leadoff hitter on base in four of the first five innings, so he had to make a lot of stressful pitches in that game coming off short rest.”

The southpaw’s first offering was hammered to right but Garrett Anglim, a defensive substitution, made a diving catch to save a run. Anglim made comments to the media earlier this week about being prepared for Michigan State’s right-field hill.

“I mean he was there, ready to make the play,” Bolt said. “He goes all-out all the time in batting practice so that rep was a result of that.”

Nebraska failed to push across any insurance in the ninth despite Riley Silva’s leadoff walk. He marked the ninth Husker left on base. NU juiced the bases in the seventh via a single, infield hit and a walk, but with two outs but failed to cash in after Tyler Stone grounded out.

Clark stayed on the mound for both the eighth and ninth. The sophomore worked around a one-out double in the former and a walk in the latter frame to pick up the first save of his collegiate career.

In his last 21 innings of work, he has surrendered eight earned runs, which equates to a 3.43 ERA.

An odd Thursday-night opener

There were plenty of odd trends in this series opener.

Nebraska was incredibly efficient offensively with two outs. The Huskers finished the night 6-for-14 (.429) in such situations. Of course, the problem was that NU was a measly 2-for-17 (.117) in all other situations against two pitchers that entered the night with 10.05 and 5.81 ERAs. Just two leadoff hitters reached and both came via a walk.

“It was a little choppy because we didn’t have many leadoff hitters on,” Bolt said. “Then we’d have an extended at-bat and then make a first-pitch out. We didn’t swing at hit-and-runs so we got left out to dry. On one, we made a third out at third base, which is obviously a cardinal sin.”

That’s the second time in as many games the Huskers have had a major miscue at third.

Conversely, Michigan State went 4-for-9 (.444) in the leadoff spot and all reached with a hit. Then when it came to batting with runners on base, Nebraska’s pitching locked things down. The Spartans were 0-for-8 with two outs and with runners in scoring position. With runners on base, MSU finished 1-for-15 (.067).

What’s next for Nebraska baseball?

Nebraska continues its series on Friday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. CT. Mason McConnaughey will get the start against lefty Michigan State ace Joseph Dzierwa. Then the weekend concludes with a Saturday matinee and an 11:00 a.m. first pitch. Each of the last two games of the series will be televised on the Big Ten Network and can be heard on the Huskers Radio Network.