Series Preview
#24 Nebraska Cornhuskers (38-14, 20-7 B1G) at Minnesota Golden Gophers (30-20, 11-16 B1G)
Location: Siebert Field, Minneapolis, MN
Dates: May 14th-16th
Times (all CDT): Thursday **time change**@ 2pm, Friday @ 5pm, Saturday @ 1pm
Coaches: Will Bolt (7th season, 208-140-1) & Ty McDevitt (2nd season, 54-48)
TV/Stream: Thursday and Friday on BTN, All games on B1G+
Radio: All Nebraska games on Huskers Radio Network, Huskers.com, Huskers App
It’s the final weekend of the regular
season, so time to think about the Big Ten Tournament. The Huskers are currently residing 2nd in the standings behind 26-1 UCLA who is locked into the top spot. With USC and Oregon being in 3rd and 4th and playing each other, it would be nearly impossible for Nebraska to fall out of the 4 teams that make the 2nd half of the tournament. But there is still something to play for, as the top 2 seeds will play teams that come out of the losers bracket and with that, those team will have played an extra game, and used more pitchers.
In case you were wondering, Purdue sits tied for 4th with Oregon and one game behind 3rd place USC. If Oregon wins 2 of 3 against USC this weekend, and Purdue beats Iowa 2 to 1, there would be a 3 way ties for 3rd, with Oregon owning both tiebreakers, and USC owning the tiebreaker against Purdue. A Purdue sweep of Iowa could potentially vault them into the 3rd spot. And being the final week of the season, chaos due to the tarp is always in play. #NeverForget
Minnesota on the other hand is battling to not get left out of the 12 team tournament. They are currently in a 4 way tie for 10th place in the Big Ten, with Rutgers, Washington, and Michigan State. Odds are that one of those 4 teams will join Penn State, Maryland, Indiana, and Northwestern watching at home. (Boy, who had those first three missing Omaha at the beginning of the season??) Also, Wisconsin is still too scared and un-American to field a team.
Pitching Preview
Game 1: RHP Carson Jasa (9-2, 3.31 ERA) vs. RHP Isaac Morton (4-2, 3.43 ERA)
Game 2: RHP Ty Horn (2-2, 3.97 ERA) vs. RHP Marcus Kruzan (4-3, 3.24 ERA)
Game 3: RHP Gavin Blachowicz (4-2, 3.18 ERA) vs. RHP Cole Selvig (5-4, 5.40 ERA)
FINALLY, Carson Jasa is your reigning Big Ten Pitcher of the Week. He has locked down the Nebraska Friday night starting slot that has been a glaring issue for a majority of the season. Jasa was dominant in Nebraska’s run rule victory, striking out 9 Hawkeyes in 7 shutout innings. He only allowed 2 hits, both singles, and 2 walks to a team that was leading the conference in batting average coming into the series.
Ty Horn had a very solid return to the starting rotation. He put in a quality start, allowing 2 earned runs over 6 innings, an striking out 6. As has been the case most of the season on his starts, the bullpen gave up the lead and despite the team getting a win, he did not qualify for one. That being said, his fastball looked a lot more alive and he was much better at hitting the bottom of the zone and piling up strikes, despite a notoriously challenging umpire.
For only the second time all season, Gavin Blachowicz has given up multiple earned runs in back to back outings. He didn’t quite have the location of his pitches on point in the Iowa series finale, and with the series already locked up, Nebraska wanted to get some innings in for some pitchers they hadn’t seen in a while too. Blachowicz seems to turn it up a notch on the road since conference play started, so look for a rebound this weekend.
After spending the first two seasons at Texas A&M and doing very well in limited innings, Isaac Morton returned to his home state to pitch for the Gophers. He’s pitched at different slots on the weekend, but has done well enough to be moved up to the top spot. Morton is tied for the team lead with 56 batters struck out in 57.2 innings, but also leads the team with 24 walks. He doesn’t go super deep into games for a Friday guy, having pitched under 85 pitches for the last 7 outings.
Saturday starter Marcus Kruzan is a transfer from St Thomas who has started most of the season. He has struck out 49 batters in 50 innings. He is another guy that generally goes only 3-5 innings and gets out before things go haywire. Former Friday starter Cole Selvig is pitching the Saturday game this week. He has also stuck out 56 batters and has pitched a team leading 63.1 innings. The Wisconsin native was a Texas Longhorn his freshman year before he returned to the north. He’s given up at least 3 runs in 6 of his last 8 outings, the only exceptions being the bottom feeding Northwestern and Penn State teams, hence the slight demotion.
Scouting Report
Minnesota has an aggressive offense. They have a couple assistants in charge of hitting that Husker fans should be familiar with. Connor Gandossy was the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator for Creighton for 7 seasons, and Sean Moore was the hitting coach at Iowa for 2024, and a volunteer assistant for Iowa in 2017-18, the Jake Adams era.
Minnesota leads the conference in steals with 102 on the year, next most being 89 by Iowa. They also have guys with a lot of power. Three gophers have over 10 home runsCatcher Weber Neels is the leader of the team. He has 196 career games and 182 career starts under his belt, so he’s seen everything. He’s batting a career and team best .337. He has 13 home runs and 53 RBIs. Add 23 walks and 16 hit-by-pitches, and he is on the basepaths a lot.
Another bug power bat is center fielder Easton Richter. After starting his career at Saint Louis, he really discovered his power in Minnesota. He had 12 home runs last year and has 14 this season, to go along with 16 doubles, 32 extra base hits in all. Add his 18 steals and he can be a real nightmare for opposing pitchers. Right fielder Charlie Sutherland is the other power bat, batting .322 with 11 home runs and 54 RBIs.
The Gophers have a good bullpen, and aren’t afraid to use them relatively early in games. Joe Sperry is the guy who will come in to put out the fires. He leads the team in appearances with 22, and leads the pen with both innings pitched and strikeouts with 41.2 and 49 respectively. He has a 2.81 ERA ion the year, best of the regulars.
.Grad transfer senior Brandon Jaenke is filling the closer role for the Gophers. He leads the team with 4 saves on the season. He has a 3.08 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 26.1 innings of work. Another late inning guy that will for sure take the mound is sophomore Adam Urban. He might have the best stuff on the team. He has thrown 28.2 innings in 19 appearances on the year. He has a 3.77 ERA and 40 strikeouts. While having that high of strikeout number, he has a .248 batting average against. So he has a tendency to lose his stuff over the middl of the plate.
Minnesota has an elite defense, right behind Iowa and Nebraska for 3rd in the Big Ten with a 98.2% fielding percentage.
Series History
Nebraska leads the all time series 41-34-1 over Minnesota. Nebraska took the series in Lincoln last season. Minnesota won in 10 innings on Friday night on Husker closer Luke Broderick. But Nebraska came back and won in game 2 thanks to a big performance, including a walk off single from Robby Bolin, before running away with game 3.
On Deck
- Carson Jasa is 4 strikeouts from tying Phil Harrison for the 10th most in a season in program history with 98. He is 7 behind Brett Sears for 9th.
- Dylan Carey is 3 hits from tying Scott Schreiber for 5th in Husker history, and 5 hits from reaching Darin Erstad in 4th.
- Jett Buck has 7 sacrifice flys on the season, which puts him tied for the 6th best season in program history. One more and he will be tied for 2nd.
- Last weekends 22,815 fans in attendance for a series were most in the Big Ten era for Nebraska, and third most in a conference series all time at Haymarket Park.
You know you can’t get enough of watching Iowa lose, so enjoy the cinematic recap!
