It was an auspicious start on Friday night in Haymarket Park. After taking batting practice and being announced in the starting lineup, short stop Dylan Carey was pulled from the lineup. Coach Bolt said after being removed from Wednesdays game with tightness, he took batting practice and felt good, but when taking ground balls he cam up and said “he wanted to play, but didnt think he could move well.” Rhett Stokes took over his spot at short, just an odd feeling to look over at short and not see
Carey standing there.
Nebraska got off to a good start as Ty Horn took the mound against the Black Bears lineup. He had every pitch going in the first inning. The top 3 batters for Maine never got a good look at any of his pitches and Horn could smell blood. You could tell he wanted a night where he was going to pile up strikeouts. He struck out the side and emphatically sprinted into the Husker dugout amid a sea of high fives.
The Huskers would open the scoring in the bottom of the first. Leadoff man extraordinaire, Mac Moyer reached on an infield single and advanced to 2nd on a throwing error by the second baseman. Josh Overbeek hit behind him to move him over to third. Case Sanderson then drove him in with a single to center field. Textbook. Huskers lead 1-0 after 1.
Horn got right back to work. He retired the first 8 batters of the game, before things started to go squirrelly for the Big Red. He lost the 9 hitter on a 3-2 walk, which would really come back to bite him as Maine’s leadoff batter Quinn Murphy took his next pitch deep and gone into the Maine bullpen to steal the lead from the home team, 2-1. It seemed to shock the team and put extra pressure on everyone to try and press to make a game changing play from then on.
The teams would take turns loading the bases in the 4th. Maine on 3 walks by Horn as he seemed to completely lose a feel for his breaking pitches, and Nebraska on a Cole Kitchens single and walks to the 8 and 9 hitters. then for seemingly the first time all season, Mac Moyer came up empty in a big spot flying out to straightaway center.
Horn would come out in the 6th, after giving up a solid single just over the head of Jett “Mount” Buck at 2nd, before being replaced by Caleb Clark. Horn finished the day with 6 strikeouts, 4 walks, and 2 earned runs. But his going deep into counts put his pitch count at 97 though 5.1 innings, with the last couple being particularly inefficient. Clark struck out the next batter and induced a groundout to hang another zero.
Nebraska tied the game in the bottom of the 6th. freshman outfielder Drew Grego led off with a solid single to left. Rhett Stokes wore the next pitch up at the shoulders. Freshman catcher Jeter Worthley laid down a great sac bunt to move the runners over for the top of the lineup. Moyer grounded out to second, but it was deep enough to score the runner, and we were knotted at 2-2.
Clark committed the sin of walking the leadoff batter in the 7th. The Bear stole second, and moved over to 3rd on a groundout after a lengthy battle between Clark and Maine 9 hitter who was just a thorn in the pitching staff’s side all night. Nebraska bought the infield in to cut down the run at home, and Murphy hit it sharply just to Stokes right. Stokes was able to come up with the ball and fire a good throw to the plate, but the runner just slid by Worthley to grab the lead back from NU, 3-2.
Moving to the bottom of the 8th, Maine brought their closer. Grego led off and lined one into the right field corner motoring around the bases, with zero interest in stopping before reaching third and collecting Nebraska’s second triple on the season. Stokes reached on an error. Grego came home as Worthley hit a sharp grounder to second for a fielders choice, but deep enough to tie the game at 3-3.
The Huskers current closer, J’Shawn Unger imploded in the 9th. He gave up a single and double to the first two Bear batters, bringing up the top of the lineup. Having seen enough of Murphy, they put him on first to bring up Maine’s best hitter who was 0-4 on the night. He was able to work a walk, and an RBI out of Unger. Clearly rattled, Unger unleashed one to the backstop, allowing another Maine runner to scamper home. It was a miracle of miracles that the Huskers were able to get the next three batters out and hold the Bears to only 2 runs in the inning.
The Husker offense responded in a big way to pick up their pitcher. Sanderson wore a 2-2 inside fastball. “Mount” Buck shot a ball through a big hole in the right side. DH Cole Kitchens unloaded on a ball, driving it to deep right field. Even though it was caught, both runners were able to move up a base. Bolt said going into the inning they were going to run on every chance they had, be aggressive and make the Black Bears make a play.
That brought up Devin Nunez. Nunez had entered the game earlier as a defensive replacement, and has been struggling to get a base hit for the early part of the season. He hit a ball right at the second baseman but it took a tough hop and made it into shallow right field. Staying aggressive both runners headed for home with Buck sliding in to tie the game.
With the red hot Grego back at the plate, Nunez stole second, then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Bolt called an offensive timeout to remind Grego to slow himself down and elevate a pitch that they were going to try and bury in the bottom of the zone. He worked the count full, and had the biggest 3-2 count win of the game, punching a ball past the drawn in infield and scoring Nunez, who touched home and then sprinted to first base to celebrate with his teammate. “If Drew came up, I knew the game was over with,” said Nunez after the game.
Grego had quite the coming out party tonight. Going 3 for 5 with a triple, scoring 2 runs and having the biggest RBI of his young Husker career.
Moyer, Buck and Sanderson all had 2 hits. Sanderson added a walk and HBP and was constantly on the basepaths.
With the impending storm coming Sunday, the two teams will battle in a double header Saturday, with the first game starting at 1pm at Haymarket Park.
