Series Preview
#20 Nebraska Cornhuskers (31-10, 15-3 B1G) at Illinois Fighting Illini (20-19, 8-10 B1G)
Location: Illinois Field, Champaign, IL
Dates: April 24-26th
Times (all CDT): Friday @ 6pm , Saturday @ 3pm, Sunday @ 1pm
Coaches: Will Bolt (7th season, 201-136-1) & Dan Hartleb (21st season, 617-462-1)
TV/Stream: All games on B1G+
Radio: All Nebraska games on Huskers Radio Network, Huskers.com
, Huskers App“You broke their hearts, now go and take their souls!” That
was the final phase of the Huskers’ team meeting Friday night after a big comeback win, exclaimed by pitching coach Rob Childress. And that really epitomized the approach the team took the remainder of the biggest weekend in at least 11 years at Hawks Field. That propelled the Huskers up the RPI ladder, where they now sit at 13. That puts them right in the thick of the battle to host a regional, one of the major goals for Will Bolt each year. Taking care of business with nothing like the 2021 Rutgers sweeping them at home, should mean we see June baseball in Lincoln.
Coach Dan Hartleb (somehow in his 21st season) and Illinois are stuck in the middle of the slog of the Big Ten. They sit at 8th with an 8-10 record, with 6 teams either tied in wins or within a game of them in the standings. They’ve basically won the series against the teams they should have (Minnesota, Rutgers, and Penn State) and have lost to the teams you’d expect them to (USC, Purdue, and Oregon).
The major thing the Illini have going for them is that they are finishing up a 3 week home stand, and Nebraska has been living on a bus since the USC series ended. But they are only 5-4 in the home stand against some “meh” teams, other than Oregon. They are going to be striving to not drop close to the 12 spot and be in danger of missing the Big Ten Tournament field.
Pitching Preview
Game 1: RHP Cooper Katskee (5-0, 4.02 ERA) vs. LHP Regan Hall (5-4, 5.37 ERA)
Game 2: RHP Carson Jasa (7-1, 3.93 ERA) vs. RHP Mitch Dye (1-0, 5.35 ERA)
Game 3: RHP Gavin Blachowicz (3-1, 3.02 ERA) vs. TBD
It’s safe to say Cooper Katskee’s first Friday night start didn’t go as planned. 5 earned runs on 6 hits and 5 walks in 3 innings against an average USC offense put Nebraska in a hole against the best pitcher in the conference. Katskee admitted he may have been a little too excited to start his first Friday night game in scarlet and cream, and may have overdone his preparation, which was also on a shorter week with the move from Sundays. Let’s see how a normal week lets him rebound.
From the first inning, Carson Jasa was in control against USC. He was hitting 97 mph on his fastball with ease, and had his big 12-6 curve working maybe the best it has all season to mix with his slider and cutter. He struck out 7 and didn’t give up a run until the 7th and final inning. He gave up both of his runs and 3 of his 5 hits on the day in that inning. He’d obviously run out of gas, but with some big arms doing lots of work Friday night, powering through for a complete game was a huge help to the bullpen.
In his return to the Sunday slot, Gavin Blachowicz also had a rough start, walking the bases loaded, tossing a wild pitch, and giving up back to back home runs in the 2nd inning. With the bullpen fully rested, the coaches wasted no time in going to new long reliever Ty Horn to steady the ship. Sweeping a ranked team despite 2 starters only tossing a couple innings each is beyond difficult and just shows the resolve of this team.
Regan Hall has been the Friday night ace for the Illini all season and has pulled off some big victories, including against Coastal Carolina. However, his last outing against Oregon makes Katskee and Blachowicz USC lines look like they were Roger Clemons and Pedro Martinez. Hall gave up eleven (ELEVEN!!!) runs on 11 hits with 2 doubles, a triple and 3 home runs by the Ducks in only 3.2 innings. His ERA jumped from 3.83 to 5.37. Woof. Hall has struck out 49 and only walked 11 in 55 innings. So he is coming right at you.
After being a lights out reliever for the first month and a half of the season, Mitch Dye was inserted into the starting rotation. He had gone 4 straight appearances without allowing a run, and in his first start against Minnesota, only gave up a single run in 4.3 innings. Since then his ERA has gone from 2.31 to 5.35. But injuries and ineffectiveness of other starters force him to remain in the weekend starting role. The Sunday slot is not yet declared, as the team weighs going with
Scouting Report
The Illini offense is nothing like it was in 2024 when they won the Big Ten regular season crown by just mashing the ball all over, and out of, the yard. They are in the bottom half of nearly every offensive statistic. One thing they do is take a ton of pitches, trying to both draw walks and get a team to its bullpen. They are only 13th in the B1G in batting average at .269, but tied for 3rd in walks. You have to attack them.
The player that has been the most steady performer on offense has been a freshman first baseman, AJ Putty. Putty has worked himself into being the team’s cleanup batter, leading the team with a .338 batting average. He also leads the team in extra base hits with 20 (11 doubles, a triple and 8 home runs), and RBIs with 43. He really looks to be the guy they can build around in years to come, if they can hang on to him. He is an home grown Illinois kid, so its not out of the question.
Leadoff batter and outfielder Nick Groves is one of the harder outs to get on the team. He is batting .320, but adds a team leading 30 walks to push his OBP to .451. The Senior outfielder loves to show off his speed. He is a team best 11 for 15 on stolen bases and also leads the team with 3 triples on the year. He currently has an on-base streak of 42, good for 4th in Illinois history. The team’s Director of Player Development Cam McDonald is the program record holder at 63.
The best power bat in the Illinois lineup is outfielder Collin Jennings. At 6’5” 215 lbs, he is an imposing centerfielder. He led the team in home runs and slugging last year, and is leading in home runs again this year. He currently has 10 home runs, and is second on the team with 31 RBIs.
The Illinois bullpen is fairly average. They have decent numbers that that are around the middle of the Big Ten teams, except for their walks. The staff as a whole only averages 3.5 walks per 9 innings, which is 3rd in the Big Ten behind UCLA and Michigan State at 3.2 and 3.4.
Reed Gannon is the top option in the bullpen. He leads the team with 16 appearances, and 3 saves. He can go multiple innings, having gone 5 innings against Penn State earlier in the season. He has 25 strikeouts and 6 walks in 32.1 innings of work on the year. Expect him to get a lot of work if one of the games still seems in the mix.
Sam Reed is another oft used left handed reliever. His ERA is only 3.27, but his other numbers suggest that should be higher. He only has 13 strikeouts to go with 8 walks in 22 innings of work. Batters are hitting .253 against him, which is very high for someone with that ERA. He makes up for that with only having allowed 6 extra base hits. He is quite the enigma with all of his numbers.
The young arm that seems to have the most upside is sophomore Sam Mommer. He is a transfer from Wisconsin-Parkside a D-II school where he won the conference freshman of the year last year before transferring to Illinois for this year. He has made 12 appearances, including 3 starts, with a bullpen best 2.45 ERA. He has 23 strikeouts and 11 walks in 25.2 innings on the year.
Illinois has a very good defense, fielding the ball at 97.8%.
Series History
Illinois owns a 16-15 all time record against Nebraska (Illinois claims it is 18-15). Nebraska won the last series in 2023. The last time the teams met in Champaign, you might remember the 5 hours worth of weather delays during the series finale. Nebraska was making a late season push to try and make the Big Ten Tournament, so was willing to stay as late as possible to try for a win, but gave up a run in the bottom of the 9th to lose 5-4. Then they would get tarp-ed the next week by Purdue. #NeverForget
On Deck
- Drew Grego, current Big Ten co-Player of the Week and Freshman of the week, has 33 RBIs on the season. Thats 6th most by a freshman this century. He is 1 behind Brice Matthews (2021), and 4 behind Pat Kelly (2012).
- Dylan Carey and Mac Moyer are tied for 2nd in the Big Ten with 65 hits, and Nebraska is the only team in the country with 2 players over 65 hits.
- The 36 runs Nebraska scored in the USC series, is its second highest total in a Big Ten series. Against the team that led the conference in ERA.
- Carson Jasa has 77 strikeouts on the year, 5th most in Nebraska’s Big Ten era, and 3 behind Emmett Olson (2023).
If you haven’t been a watcher of the cinematic recaps that the athletic department puts out, check out one of the best ones, the recap of the USC series.
