Nebraska baseball completes ninth-inning comeback, bests College of Charleston 6-5 in 10 innings

Nebraska baseball came back from 5-1 down in the ninth to force extra innings and edge the College of Charleston 6-5 in the 10th on Thursday afternoon.

It’s the Huskers third consecutive win in a series opener and improves the team’s record to 5-3. The loss is the first of the season for the Cougars, who are in the midst of their best start under ever under head coach Chad Holbrook. Nebraska won despite entering the game’s final inning with just two hits and finishing with a .147 batting average.

“I’d rather win ugly than lose pretty 100% of the time and I know all of our guys would, too,” Bolt said postgame on the Huskers Radio Network. “There were a lot of good things that we did in this game and obviously, most of them in the last couple innings.”

Here’s how the Huskers completed the rally and how starter Drew Christo kept Nebraska in the game with his second consecutive quality start.

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Entering the top of the ninth trailing 5-1, Nebraska’s offense had virtually no bright spots. A Cayden Brumbaugh leadoff double and RBI single from Josh Caron in the first inning were the Huskers’ only hits of the day. Between the end of the first and to the end of the eighth, only six of 28 Nebraska’s at-bats resulted in a Husker reaching base.

Clay Bradford rolled an easy ground ball over to second base to start the inning. But, the ball was misplayed, Bradford reached, Gabe Swansen was hit by a pitch and Cole Evans singled to load the bases. That brought Tyler Stone to the plate who walked to score a run and freshman Case Sanderson followed that up by doing the same to make it a 5-3 Husker deficit.

That’s when Riley Silva delivered a clutch two-RBI single to right to even the ledger at 5-5. Nebraska put runners on second and third with two outs for Dylan Carey and Josh Caron, but each batter went down swinging that sent things back to the Husker bullpen for the bottom of the ninth.

“Really all it takes is a spark,” Bolt said. “They help us out making an error there in the ninth inning, but we did draw some walks, had some guys come off the bench and (Cole Evans) took a really good swing.”

Kyle Perry tallied the first two outs of the frame and was relieved by Evan Borst who coaxed a groundout to hang a zero and force extra innings.

Yet again, Bradford threw the first punch for Nebraska in the tenth. A ground-rule double to center put the go-ahead run on second and a sacrifice bunt advanced the St. Mary’s transfer to third. A high chopper to third from Cole Evans allowed Bradford to make a play for home and he beat the throw to the dish and put the Huskers on top 6-5.

Borst went back to work in the bottom half and recorded the first two outs before the Huskers went to the bullpen one final time with two on base. In came true freshman Tucker Timmerman, who surrendered a grand slam against GCU on Sunday, to face senior infielder Luke Wood. A sharp ground ball hit off Timmerman who was able to knock the ball down, pick it up and throw to first for the game’s final out.

“Bradford, I mean what a swing he took to lead off the 10th with a double and then scores on a ball that didn’t get past the infield,” Bolt said. “A lot of big performances in the back half of the game. The first inning, and the ninth and 10th inning were really good.”

Team grit overcomes dismal showing from Nebraska’s bats

Nebraska went 3-of-9 over the final two innings of this one. Prior to the final frames, the Huskers were 2-for-25 (.080) and without a hit in 7 2/3 innings. Somehow the Huskers managed to lock back in and make a host of key plays when it counted most.

The Huskers had three different players play first base throughout the game, two different third basemen and used eight pitchers. Only one of the team’s seven relievers tossed a complete inning. That was the winning pitcher in Borst.

“Guys just have to stay ready,” Bolt said. “I think they’ve got to see that we trust all of them and that’s the biggest piece of it is we trust all of them to get the job done and we count all of them to get the job done. It could just be something as simple as laying down a (sacrifice) bunt or drawing a walk.”

Rans Sanders was one of the host of players who deserved credit for Nebraska’s win. With the bases loaded in the eighth, two outs and two insurance runs already in. The former Omaha Maverick picked up a strikeout on a 3-2 pitch in the midst of a 10-pitch at-bat to hold the score at 5-1.

Another key player was Timmerman. The Beatrice native has had the trust of the Husker coaching staff in a number of key situations.

“There was no hesitation on our end to go to Tuck (Timmerman) there,” Bolt said. “Borst has closing experience and we wanted him to be able to finish it if we could. He got a little taxed there at the end but Tucker came in, his stuff was sharp and had a little tense moment there with the ball bouncing off of him but he made a big play there at the end of the game.”

It was a win based not in star power, but collective team effort.

Christo logs another quality start

Not to be lost in the Huskers’ late-game heroics is another career-long outing from Christo. The junior from Elkhorn went 6 2/3 innings while allowing two earned runs, walking one and striking out two.

He posted four 1-2-3 innings while keeping the struggling Nebraska offense within striking distance.

“Christo gave us a great chance to win when we weren’t scoring anything after that first inning,” Bolt said. “We didn’t play good defense behind him but he kept us in the game.”

After retiring the first six batters he faced, Christo got into trouble in the third. He coughed up a leadoff double and followed that with a walk. One run scored on a throwing error by Carey and a single gave the College of Charleston a 2-1 advantage.

That easily could have been a moment where the right-hander’s outing collapsed. The same could be said of the fourth inning when Christo surrendered another run on a double, single and sacrifice bunt. Instead, he zoned back in and sat down the final eight batters he faced and took his start into the seventh.

Without Christo’s composure, Nebraska wouldn’t have had a chance to make a comeback.

What’s next for Nebraska baseball?

Nebraska baseball will take on the College of Charleston in another afternoon bout on Friday with first pitch set for 3:00 p.m. CT. The Huskers will send right-hander Brett Sears (1-0, 0.79 ERA) to the mound to face off against the Cougar righty Jake Brink (2-0, 0.75 ERA)

Each of the final three games of the series can be streamed on FloSports and can be heard on the Huskers Radio Network.