“Let’s play two!”
It took a minute to figure out that it was Nebraska playing at Haymarket Park today as they chose to wear their Texas Tech uniforms on Saturday. The Red Raiders Cornhuskers, still undefeated at home, looked to sustain the momentum from last night’s thrilling ninth inning winner.
With the threat of bad weather Sunday, other than being a bit cold, it shaped up to be a great day for a doubleheader. With the softball team next door also playing a doubleheader against Michigan, it shaped up to be a big
day at Haymarket Park.
Game 1
Through three innings today, Carson Jasa pitched as well as he has in his Nebraska career, facing the minimum batters, striking out four, and only throwing 39 pitches. The righthander was in control and filling up the strike zone. Then in the fourth, he gave up a leadoff single to Quinn Murphy, setting the table for a two-run homer by Juju Stevens. Jasa then showed a great deal of resolve, getting a pop up for the first out and then striking out two more Black Bears to end the inning.
With some adjustments to the lineup, the Cornhusker offense put up runs early. To no one’s surprise, Mac Moyer started off the bottom of the first inning with a hit, a double, and scored on a Jett Buck two-out single to put the home team up 1-0 after one.
Nebraska added two more in the bottom of the second when Devin Nunez started it off with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Rhett Stokes. He then scored on a Jeter Worthley single. Worthley scored on a Moyer double, his second in two innings, to put the Cornhuskers up 3-0.
Jett Buck put Nebraska up 4-0 in the third inning reaching on a walk and scoring on a two-out Nunez single.
With the Black Bears cutting the lead in half with two runs on the Stevens homerun, Jasa got back into his groove and kept them off the scoreboard in the fifth and sixth innings.
Rhett Stokes executed a beautiful hit-and-run hitting behind Nunez to put two runners on base in the bottom of the sixth. Worthley followed by laying down a perfect bunt toward third base and beat it out to load them up with no outs and bringing the .462 hitting Moyer to the plate
As great hitters do, he slapped a single the opposite way to leftfield to score Nunez. Drew Grego, poked a flyball to centerfield that scored Stokes. Bases were still loaded with one out. Designated hitter Dylan Carey popped up to the catcher before Case Sanderson struck out to end the inning. After six full innings, Nebraska pushed the lead back to four runs, 6-2.
To start off the seventh inning, Jasa walked Christopher Mondesir, who hustled to second on a passed ball. A couple of pitches later, Mondesir stole third. Jasa then struck out Albert De La Rosa before giving up an RBI flyout to Nolan DeAndrade.
At that point Jasa was over 90 pitches and Coach Childress went to the bullpen and brought in lefty Colin Nowaczyk, who ended the inning striking out Rex Hauser. Going to the bottom of the seventh, Nebraska was up 6 to 3.
Nowaczyk pitched to a couple more batters in the 8th and then Cooper Katskee came in and went the rest of the way. Nebraska did not add any more to their lead and in what was a very short game – two-hours-and-seventeen minutes – the Cornhuskers won the series and look forward to a sweep in Game 2.
Game 2
The second game got off to a slow start on the scoreboard as Nebraska’s Gavin Blachowicz and Maine’s Giani Gambardella locked into a pitcher’s duel. The only blip was a big one as Joshua Overbeek got his first home run of the season in the Cornhusker second inning giving Nebraska a tenuous 1-0 lead. How long would it hold up?
Despite the lack of offensive fireworks, Maine did have five hits through five innings, but some determined pitching by Blachowicz kept them mounting a threat. The sophomore only gave up one extra-base hit and with two inning-ending double plays by the defense, the Black Bears did not have a runner get beyond second base. Blachowicz helped himself out by striking out nine up to that point and twice picking Christopher Mondesir off base.
Nebraska mounted a bit of a threat in the bottom of the fifth with Rhett Stokes stroking a double to leftfield and Trey Fikes working a walk. However, Gambardella worked out of the jam against the top two batters in the Cornhusker order to keep them from adding to their lead.
With their third look at the Nebraska starter, Maine’s top of the order struck in the top of the sixth after Blachowicz walked lead-off man, Quinn Murphy. After Ju Ju Stevens flew out to rightfield, Shane Andrus and Troy Carpenter had back-to-back singles, the second one scoring Murphy to tie the game 1 to 1.
Hunter St. Denis flew out to left for the second out and Coach Childress brought Pryce Bender in to face Mondesir. Bender walked him on a full count to load the bases. Two pitches later, Rex Hauser laced a bases clearing triple into the rightfield corner to put the Black Bears up 4-1.
Things did not get better for the quirky righty from Oklahoma as he walked pinch-hitter Drew Reynolds and then saw number nine batter Brody Rassmussen blast a two-run homer over the left field wall. Now it was 7-1 Black Bears. Grant Cleavinger was brought in and got a strikeout to end the pain.
Maine went to the bullpen to bring in righthander Tommy Martin, who promptly struck out Dylan Carey to start off the bottom of the sixth. Up next, Case Sanderson reached on a fielding error by the second baseman and Jett Buck smacked a single. It looked like maybe the Cornhusker offense found some life. Overbeek then hit a towering fly ball that was caught by the shortstop for the second out.
Devin Nunez has started to find some gaps this weekend and ripped a single to score Sanderson. He and Buck advanced 90 feet to have two runners in scoring position with two outs. Martin walked Stokes to load the bases bringing catcher Trey Fikes to the plate. While he hit the ball hard to shortstop, Stokes was forced out at second to end the inning. Maine held a 7-2 lead.
Tucker Timmerman and Jalen Worthley combined to pitch the final three innings, only letting one Black Bear reach base on keeping them from putting up any more runs.
Nebraska tried to get something going in the seventh, getting a run when Carey reached via error and moved to second on a balk before scoring on a Case Sanderson single. That made it 7-3 Maine, but they could not muster anything else in the inning, or in the eighth.
Maine brought their lefty closer Jack Donlin back from his implosion last night to face the top of the Cornhusker order in the bottom of the ninth. Would there be any last inning magic to end the weekend?
It started to look like de ja vu all over again as Moyer reached on a throwing error by Mondesir and Donlin plunked Grego to start the inning. That brought Dylan Carey to the plate. Carey, 0 for 7 on the day worked a full-count walk to load the bases. Up came cleanup batter Case Sanderson and he smoked a single into the right-center gap to score Moyer and Grego. The score was now 7-5 Black Bears.
Maine’s coach Nick Derba mercifully pulled Donlin with Cornhuskers on the corners, no outs, and the hot-hitting Jett Buck coming to the plate. In came righthander Owen Wheeler. Buck smacked his second pitch between third and short to score Carey, making it a one run game.
Joshua Overbeek came to the plate and showed bunt on the first two pitches, looking to move the runners into scoring position. Unsuccessful at that, Overbeek dug in and looked to put the ball in play. Wheeler then threw a wild pitch to the screen putting both runners in scoring position. Overbeerk walked on the next pitch to load the bases with no outs.
Coach Derba opted to the bullpen once again and brought in Pierce Fried to face Devin Nunez. Every fan in the stands was on their feet when the young Texan stepped in the box with the chance to tie or win the ballgame in a second amazing ninth inning comeback on the weekend.
Fried won the battle, getting Nunez to strike out on a check swing. One down, bases still loaded.
After a chat with Coach Will Bolt, Rhett Stokes stepped in the box with his chance to be hero for a day. On the first pitch he saw, he smacked a line drive over the head of the second baseman to score Sanderson and Buck. Ball game! Nebraska 8, Maine 7.
All three games this series were tight games, and frankly, Maine has to be thinking they let two of them get away. Nebraska showed a lot of resilience and did not quit. If nothing else, they capitalized on the mistakes made by an error-prone opponent. There’s something to be said about teams that make the other one pay for their mistakes.
This team is in a better position than they were a year ago at this time. They haven’t yet played their best baseball, which is good since it is only March. Based on how they used pitchers this weekend, it looks like they are getting a handle on who they can depend on out of the bullpen. They still need to figure out the outfield and what players can consistently produce at the plate and not be a liability defensively.
The Cornhuskers have to feel good about an undefeated homestand, winning nine in a row and getting a day off they hadn’t expected tomorrow. Next week they go to Kansas for two games at Wichita State and then go up to Ann Arbor to face off against the Michigan Wolverines on the first Big Ten road trip.
Notes:
- Mac Moyer continues is torrid season at the plate, extending his on-base streak to 18 games, but seeing his hit streak stop at 11. The transfer from San Jacinto CC has been a big reason for the team’s success thus far in the season.
- Dylan Carey was the designated hitter in both games after being a late scratch from the lineup last night. He apparently has some tightening in one of his legs.
- Will Jesske did not appear this weekend and rumor has it that he may be out for up to five weeks with another leg injury.
- There has been a lack of production from the bottom half of the lineup for a while now, thus Coach Bolt giving a number of different players opportunities show what they can do and grab a spot. Today, the bottom third of the batting order scored four of the six Cornhusker runs in Game 1.
- To offset the abomination worn by the Big
BlackRed, Maine wore beautiful powder blue uniforms, trimmed in navy and white, THEY SCHOOL COLORS! They reminded me a bit of Alex Gordon playing in the World Series for the Kansas City Royals.
