Nebraska crushes Indiana 10-4, sweeps double header to advance to Big Ten Tournament Championship game

On Tuesday night, a Nebraska baseball trip to the Big Ten Tournament title game seemed well out of reach.

Will Bolt’s Huskers had just lost 15-2 to Ohio State in the opening round and had a tall climb out of the loser’s bracket ahead. Four days later Nebraska is the first team since Minnesota in 2009 to lose it’s first game and advance to the tournament finale.

After the Huskers bested Indiana 4-2 on Saturday morning, Nebraska returned for the nightcap and left no doubt in a 10-4 clobbering of the Hoosiers.

Drew Christo made the start for the Huskers and allowed just one run over five innings of work. The right-hander said he hadn’t had that big of break between games on the same day since his 13U days.

“Back then, I was probably hitting the pool and going for Buffalo Wild Wings,” Christo said. “Didn’t do that today.”

Christo’s day began with bullpen work in the opening bout with the Hoosiers. From the second inning on, he was throwing and ready to backup Will Walsh if needed. Then he went home, showered and got ready for a second round. He proceeded to give the Huskers another 81 pitches and Bolt said the coaching staff had to protect Christo from taking the hill in the sixth despite his wishes to pitch another inning.

“It was maybe one of the more impressive things I’ve ever seen coaching college baseball,” Bolt said. “That was incredible what he did for the team.”

It wasn’t just the arms. Nebraska posted 10 runs on 11 hits and took advantage of two Hoosier errors in the win. Here’s more on how the Huskers clinched their first Big Ten Tournament Championship appearance since 2019.

Join HuskerOnline today and get your first month of a premium subscription for just $1!

---

Bases-loaded opportunities defined the first two innings. Indiana failed to capitalize on its chance, but Josh Overbeek helped the Huskers cash in. With two outs and the bags juiced, the Nebraska third baseman one-hopped the wall for a bases-clearing double to make it 3-0 in the second.

“When you get in the box and have runners in scoring position, you’re looking for the first available pitch to hit hard,” Overbeek said. “That’s what I got, put a good swing on the ball and when you hit the ball hard you run hard as well and the game rewards you when you hustle. I wasn’t really looking for much, just an opportunity to pick up my teammates who had set up the bases for me.”

The Hoosiers countered with three straight singles to push across a run an inning later, but it didn’t take Nebraska long to regain its three-run advantage. Josh Caron gave the Huskers a 4-1 lead when he took a 1-0 offering to deep left for his fifth home run of the weekend, tying the tournament record.

Gabe Swansen got in on the action soon after and mashed his third home run of the tournament for a two-run shot in the fifth. Then Overbeek scorched his second double of the day to center to drive in another run and grow the Huskers advantage to 7-1.

Meanwhile, Husker pitching continued to hold a dynamic Indiana offense at bay. Christo and Kyle Froehlich combined to hang three straight zeros from the fourth to sixth innings while the bats build a significant cushion. Previous Nebraska starters during this tournament had set a high bar for Christo.

“I knew to just follow their lead and do what they’ve been doing,” Christo said. “Big park, wind is blowing in, throw the ball over the plate and we’ve got a great defense behind us.”

Christo overachieved.

“We were hoping for an opener type of situation to be honest,” Bolt said.

Indiana picked up a run on a Tyler Cerny single in the seventh. Yet, the Huskers answered once again. Pushed two more across in the frame with the help of a pair of Hoosier errors and a Rhett Stokes RBI single. An eighth-inning nuke from Ben Columbus stretched the lead to 10-2.

That was more than enough runs to finish the job.

“To beat a team twice, a good Indiana team, is hard enough as it is,” Overbeek said. “But to do it with a time gap in between, that just shows how focused the boys are and how locked in and hooked up we are.”

The anatomy of a winning streak

Nebraska is on a roll. For the second time in as many weeks, the Huskers have won four in a row and eight of the last 10.

What’s changed?

“We haven’t really done anything different,” Caron said. “We just stuck to our process and trusted our preparation up to this point.”

The numbers certainly aren’t the same.

In the last four games, the Huskers starting pitching has allowed six earned runs in 26 innings of work (2.08 ERA) while striking out 30 batters compared to seven walks. The bats have risen to the occasion as well. Nebraska has 15 doubles in the same stretch with nine home runs. The Huskers have multiple home runs in each of their last four wins.

Add it all up, and a 32-13 scoring margin is the result.

“You’ve gotta slug to get crooked numbers,” Bolt said. “That’s what we’ve been able to do here in Omaha in these last several games and today wasn’t a great day to hit.”

Playing loose has been another key feature of Nebraska’s run. Both Caron and Stokes pointed to it during postgame media sessions. Now comes an opportunity to finish the week strong ahead of a NCAA Regional appearance in six days.

“We’re focused on tomorrow, most definitely,” Christo said. “I think the best way to continue momentum is to keep showing up and doing it. Each and every day, it’s a clean slate. You haven’t done anything yet on that day. That’s the mentality we’ve had up to this point so that’s how we’re going to keep moving.”

What’s next for Nebraska baseball?

As improbable as the Huskers Big Ten Tournament run has been, they won’t be the Cinderella on Sunday morning. Nebraska faces Penn State, the first No. 8 seed to reach the final since 2016 (Iowa). Neither team has won the Big Ten Tournament before.

First pitch is set for 10:00 a.m. CT, moved up from 2:00 p.m. due to potential inclement weather. Fans can watch the game on the Big Ten Network and listen on the Huskers Radio Network.