Around the Horn: Previewing Nebraska baseball's visit to Grand Canyon

Following a 1-2 start at the Shriners Children’s College Classic in Arlington, Nebraska baseball returns to the diamond this weekend in Phoenix, Arizona, for a four-game series with Grand Canyon.

Head coach Will Bolt and the Huskers face a 3-0 GCU program that is seeking a third NCAA tournament appearance in the past four seasons. The Antelopes punched their first ticket in program history by winning the Western Athletic Conference tournament in 2021 and earned an at-large bit in 2022.

Here’s more on opening weekend including pitching matchups, storylines, opponent scouts, broadcast information and more.

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Projecting Nebraska’s pitching

Thursday, 7:00 p.m., RHP Drew Christo (Stats: 0-0, 9.00 ERA, 2.2 IP, 2 K) vs. RHP Daniel Avitia (Stats: 1-0, 1.50 ERA, 6.0 IP, 5 K)

Friday, 7:00 p.m., RHP Brett Sears (Stats: 0-0, 1.69 ERA, 5.1 IP, 7 K) vs. RHP Zane Petty (Stats: 1-0, 1.80 ERA, 5.0 IP, 5 K)

Saturday, 7:00 p.m., LHP Will Walsh (Stats: 0-0, 4.76 ERA, 5.2 IP, 4 K) Vs. RHP Connor Mattison (0-0, 3.00 ERA, 3.0 IP, 7 K)

Sunday, 1:00 p.m., LHP Caleb Clark (Stats: 0-0, 3.38 ERA, 2.2 IP, 3 K) Vs. RHP Hunter Watkins (0-0, 6.00 ERA, 3.0 IP, 3 K)

What to watch for the Huskers

Filling in for Josh Overbeek

Nebraska received some bad news upon returning to Lincoln earlier this week. Third baseman Josh Overbeek injured his hand during the Huskers 7-6 loss to Oklahoma on Sunday. The junior transfer from Cisco College managed to finish the game despite his damaged hand but will miss the next few weeks as he recovers.

Bolt said Nebraska has a number of options to step in for Overbeek including Dylan Hufft, Ben Columbus, Bryce Hughes and Rhett Stokes.

Hufft is a redshirt sophomore who drew starts at third base during the Huskers’ fall competitions. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound Johnson County Community College transfer helped lead his squad to a 56-10 record and an appearance in the NJCAA DI World Series. Hufft posted a .357 batting average with 13 doubles, eight triples and 46 RBIs in 59 starts. He also stole 25 bases.

Columbus is one of the a few returning Huskers who did not make their 2024 debuts in Arlington last weekend. He hit .262 last season with 19 RBIs in 38 starts and built on that for a solid summer and fall while serving as the team’s primary catcher filling in for an injured Josh Caron.

Hughes redshirted his first season in Lincoln after batting at a .324 average with over 100 hits at Alvin Community College the year before. Riley Silva described him as one of the team’s better energy guys during Tuesday’s media availability. Finally, Stokes logged a .399 batting average with 19 home runs in 114 games with New Mexico Military Institute.

It will likely be one of or a combination of those four charged with filling Overbeek’s shoes.

Who’s in the circle of trust?

To some extent, the first month of the season is all about answering this question.

It seems Nebraska’s batting order is largely figured out. The addition of the Overbeek injury throws a new variable in the mix but apart from that, it seems the Huskers only need to decide between three options for its corner outfield spots. Gabe Swansen started all three contests this past weekend while Cole Evans got the nod in two of three games while Garrett Anglim started the other.

The Huskers may just continue to ride the hot hand until Swansen’s bat begins to heat up. Bolt said that the Johnston, Iowa, native has been a bit of a slow starter in years past. Anglim made the most of his playing time this weekend eking out the team’s only home run of the season in the first game.

As far as the bullpen, what type of roll will Jalen Worthley get this week after struggling mightily in the ninth inning against No. 19 Texas Tech. Will the freshmen like Tucker Timmerman, Tyner Horn and Ryan Harrahill see more action with an additional fourth game in the works? Casey Daiss will probably get a couple more shots at locking down the closer role after going 1-for-2 in save opportunities last week.

With a four-game set upcoming this week and next, the Huskers will have plenty of time to mix and match lineups to find what works.

Data Dive: Nebraska’s strikeout average during the Bolt era

This week’s Data Dive comes from one of my takeaways regarding Nebraska’s strikeouts after the Huskers posted 14 or more punchouts at the plate on Opening Day for the third time in the last four seasons. That spurred further discussion on the Red Sea Scrolls from folks like Frostitution and brought one question to mind.

How bad is Nebraska in the strikeout category during the Bolt era? With the help of a little code and some line charts, there appears to be some definitive numbers to provide an answer.

Excluding the shortened 2020 season, the Huskers have averaged above 8.5 strikeouts per game in every season under Bolt. In 2021, Nebraska’s 8.93 strikeouts per game ranked 229th of 291 teams nationally. The Huskers’ average dipped to 8.75 in 2022 which was 215th nationally (this time of 305 teams because of the lifting of COIVD-19 restrictions) and in 2023 the numbers fell to 8.52 strikeouts per game and a ranking of 214th.

In each of the last three years, Nebraska has finished in the bottom third of the country in this category and below the national average of 8.15 strikeouts per game.

Strikeouts or unproductive outs are devastating to any sort of offense but they can be particularly crushing for small ball. Take the Huskers’ seventh inning of a 3-3 tie with No. 19 Texas Tech as an example. Riley Silva hit a leadoff single and Cayden Brumbaugh bunted him to scoring position for the first out. Then both Overbeek and Dylan Carey went down swinging.

Rutgers led the country with the fewest strikeouts per game at 5.83 per contest in 2023. That’s nearly three less than Nebraska at 8.52. Basically, the Huskers’ bats on average were operating with one less inning to score per game than the national leader for this category.

Nebraska needs to avoid strikeouts like the plague if the Huskers hope to get back to operating a successful small ball offense. Of course, strikeouts can still be overcome. The best small ball offense of the Bolt era (2021) also has the highest strikeout rate.

Nebraska baseball notes

***Nebraska ranked eighth nationally on opening weekend with four sacrifice bunts in three games. Two of those bunts came from Cayden Brumbaugh.

***After Nebraska’s 4-1 win over Baylor last Friday, Tucker Timmerman became the first Husker freshman to record a win on Opening Day since at least 1999. He is just the fourth underclassman to record a win in the season opener for NU. Timmerman joins Eric Rose (2009), Tony Watson (2006) and Zack Kroenke (2004).

***This past weekend, Brett Sears was one of 12 starting pitchers in the country that tossed a minimum of five innings with seven or more strikeouts while allowing one or fewer earned runs.

***Rhett Stokes and Josh Overbeek were two of 20 NJCAA D-I players that posted a batting average of .415 or higher with 32 or more extra-base hits and 55 or more RBI. Stokes was one of five NJCAA D-1 players to record an on-base percentage higher than .560 while adding 20 doubles and leading all of junior college with 101 runs.

***With two wins this weekend, head coach Will Bolt will achieve the 100th victory of his Nebraska tenure. The Husker skipper is 98-77-1 through five seasons at the helm.

Know the foe: Grand Canyon

***Grand Canyon opened the season 4-0 with wins over Georgetown, USC, BYU and Ohio State by a combined score of 29-8. The Antelopes finished 37-21 in 2023 with wins over then-No. 2 Tennessee and Arizona. That garnered a final RPI ranking of No. 71.

***This weekends’ series will be the first time ever that Huskers and Antelopes have met on the ball diamond. Grand Canyon is the only opponent on the 2024 Nebraska schedule in that category.

***Grand Canyon is picked to win the WAC this year for the seventh consecutive season. Daniel Avitia was named preseason WAC Pitcher of the Year and was joined on the Preseason All-WAC team by outfielder Cade Verdusco and sophomore first baseman Zach Yorke.

***Last year, Grand Canyon was one of 14 schools to have three players picked in the first five rounds of the 2023 MLB Draft. Jacob Wilson, a consensus All-American, became the highest drafted player in program history when he went sixth overall to the Oakland Athletics.

***Players to watch: INF Beau Ankeney, RHP Daniel Avitia

After an appearance-free sophomore campaign and just six at-bats in his freshman season, Ankeney burst onto the scene by tallying six hits in 11 at-bats on opening weekend. His .545 batting average leads the team as do his marks in home runs (two), hits (six) and RBIs (four). Ankeney was named the WAC Hitter of the Week for his efforts. The right-handed designated hitter will be a major key for the Huskers this weekend.

Avitia drew the Friday start against Georgetown last week and delivered a quality start going six innings while allowing just one earned run and striking out five. He was selected to the All-WAC first team for the second time in his career as a sophomore last year. Avitia maintains a 3.90 career ERA with 197 strikeouts to 39 walks in 173 innings of work.

Around the Big Ten

Here are a few Big Ten series/games to keep tabs on this weekend:

Friday, February 23:

Michigan State (1-3) vs. Indiana State (3-0) 11:00 a.m. CT

Illinois (2-2) vs. No. 25 Coastal Carolina (1-2), 2:00 p.m. CT

No. 18 Iowa (3-1) vs. No Auburn (3-0), 5:00 p.m. CT

No. 23 Indiana (3-1) vs. Baylor (0-3), 6:30 p.m. CT

Saturday, February 24:

No. 23 Indiana (3-1) vs. Baylor (0-3), 2:00 p.m. CT

No. 18 Iowa (3-1) vs. No. 14 Virginia (3-0), 3:00 p.m. CT

Penn State (3-1) vs. Stanford (1-2), 3:05 p.m. CT

Sunday, February 25:

No. 18 Iowa (3-1) vs. Wichita State (2-1), 11:00 p.m. CT

No. 23 Indiana (3-1) vs. Baylor (0-3), 1:00 p.m. CT

Michigan (2-2) vs. No. 2 Arkansas (3-1), 1:00 p.m. CT

Penn State (3-1) vs. Stanford (1-2), 3:05 p.m. CT

Broadcast Information

TV: ESPN+: HERE

Radio: Huskers Radio Network (Radio simulcast found HERE)

Stations: Lincoln (1400 AM), Omaha (590 AM)