Nebraska baseball secures first Big Ten series win with comfortable victory over Rutgers
Nebraska baseball (14-17, 4-7) handled Rutgers (14-17, 4-7) on Saturday, securing its first Big Ten series win of the season, 10-5. The Huskers jumped out to an early six-run lead before allowing Rutgers to creep back in, but four insurance runs put the game away.
Ty Horn (7.39 ERA) had one of his best starts of the year, tossing four scoreless frames to open the day. Due in part to multiple errors, Horn gave up three runs on three hits in the fifth, but the bullpen posted another stellar outing in relief. Nebraska used just three arms for the second consecutive night.
The Husker bats stayed hot, hitting .350 with runners on base and racking up 12 knocks on the day. Six different batters recorded an RBI, including three from Tyler Stone, as Nebraska scored runs in each of the final three innings.
“Was proud of the guys just staying relentless offensively and I thought the bullpen did a tremendous job. Allowed us to stretch the lead,” head coach Will Bolt said postgame.
Here is a recap of the victory:
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Huskers jump out to big lead
The Huskers poured it on early, racking up four extra-base hits in a monster fourth inning. Rutgers’ talented true freshman pitcher Landon Mack began to crumble.
Cayden Brumbaugh led off the frame with an infield single before Stone ignited the crowd on hand at Haymarket Park. The Huskers’ designated hitter crushed a 440-foot no-doubter into the parking lot, extending Nebraska’s lead to 3-0.
“As it went up I kind of stopped watching it but I heard it went out. That’s awesome,” Stone said postgame.
After Dylan Carey doubled down the left-field line, Max Buettenback joined in on the fun with a 2-run shot of his own.
“He’s just playing with a lot of confidence,” Bolt said of Buettenback. “I’ve said this even as he was kind of going through it a little bit: We had him in the two-hole to start the year for a reason. We saw a lot in him.”
With two outs and a runner on second base, Case Sanderson hit an RBI single to plate another. Nebraska hit through the order in a six-hit, five-run frame, building a 6-0 lead.
Errors gift Rutgers crooked inning
After tossing four scoreless frames to open the afternoon, Horn’s strong start quickly deteriorated in the fifth. A pair of Husker errors and a wild pitch helped Rutgers plate four runs on just three hits.
Horn walked the leadoff man before Brumbaugh’s routine throw to second base went wide, putting runners at the corners with no outs. A wild pitch brought Rutgers’ first run home and foreshadowed the crooked inning to come.
Peyton Bonds hit an infield single and the runners advanced on a throwing error by Joshua Overbeek. Ty Doucette made Nebraska pay with a 2-RBI single up the middle, Rutgers’ first hit of the inning that left the infield.
“Obviously that one inning got away from us,” Bolt said. “I would like to have seen [Horn] finish that inning if we’d have played defense behind him.”
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After another single and a walk loaded the bases with just one out, Horn’s outing came to an end. Rutgers plated one more against left-hander Jalen Worthley, but the Husker veteran escaped the jam. Rutgers clawed back into the game in the fifth, 6-4, but it ultimately wasn’t enough.
Bullpen shows up once again
After using 13 total relievers against Omaha and Creighton, Nebraska’s bullpen bounced back.
For the second night in a row, just three Huskers toed the rubber. Worthley earned the win after 2.2 innings of relief work on Saturday. He gave up one run in the top of the sixth but needed only seven pitches to get through the seventh.
“We’re never out of the fight,” Worthley said postgame. “We put in too much work just to roll over and give up. We all saw this coming. We’ve been putting in a lot of work trying to figure our stuff out.”
Right-hander Ryan Harrahill finished the job. The sophomore tallied two 1-2-3 innings in the eighth and ninth before striking Doucette out looking to end the game.
“He works harder than anybody I’ve seen honestly,” Worthley said of Harrahill. “There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work with the coaches. Just working on hip rotation, maybe some pitch grips but I mean he works really hard. He gets up at like 5:00 in the morning and goes for like a six-mile run.”
Bats remain hot down the stretch
Nebraska scored at least one run in each of the final three innings, backing up the bullpen at the plate. After Rutgers pulled within one in the sixth, 6-5, Riley Silva gave the Huskers some breathing room with an RBI groundout.
The Scarlet Knights needed three pitchers to get out of the seventh inning. Two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases for Will Jesske, who hit a sacrifice fly to plate one run. Overbeek continued his hot day on the next at-bat with an RBI double to center.
Stone extended the lead to 10-5 in the eighth with an RBI double to the right-field gap which scored Brumbaugh from first.
Stone led the way with three RBIs and two hits on the day. Overbeek finished with three hits while Sanderson tallied two RBIs and one knock. The Huskers only struck out seven times and stranded eight.
