With concerns about the weather getting wet in the late afternoon, the decision was made to move the start time for the first game of the final series of the regular season up to 2:00. The wind was blowing straight in at the batter making it clear that it wasn’t going to be easy to knock one out of the park today.
What started off as kind a methodical pitchers dual in Minneapolis at Seibert Field turned into a sixth and seventh inning explosion by Will Bolt’s Nebraska Cornhusker baseball team. Carson
Jasa looked very good for the first three innings of the game, getting ahead in the count and recording four strikeouts and no walks.
Gopher starter Cole Selvig was good as well. He did give up an RBI double to Mac Moyer in the third inning, but other than that, he was very solid. Surprisingly, he was pulled from the game after four complete innings. It wasn’t apparent why.
The game started out moving at a really good pace because of the efficiency of the pitchers until what must be one of the longest video reviews in recorded history. In the top of the third, after Trey Fikes had singled, Rhett Stokes laid down a bunt to the third baseman, who threw him out at first base. Apparently, there was a little bit of contact when Stokes crossed the bag, but nothing apparent to fans in the stands.
Head Gopher Ty McDevitt must have seen something and complained to the umpires. After they chatted, they reviewed the play. No one in the media area had a clue what the concern was. What people were aware of is that the total time taken for the review was 25-minutes. Yes, twenty-five minutes! After the game, on the radio recap it was stated that the review was for malicious intent. That’s a serious matter if it happened, but spending twenty-five minutes to figure it out it ridiculous, especially when the call was not overturned. Fans for both teams were agitated, especially as the temperatures dropped and radar was showing rain not too far away.
Regardless, Nebraska took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning.
As good as Jasa was in the first three innings, he struggled in the fourth. He opened it by hitting Charlie Sutherland. After striking out Easton Richter, the tall fella from Colorado gave up back-to-back doubles to Ty Allen and Brayden Hellum. The Gophers ended up scoring a couple to go up 2-1.
Jasa, despite giving up the runs and a handful of hits, was near the strike zone consistently. That control left him in the fifth inning. He walked four batters, two of whom scored, and he had his day ended as Colin Nowaczyk came in to end the inning with a strikeout. After five innings, Minnesota held a 4-1 lead and the Big Red had only managed four hits.
All of that changed in the sixth when Mack Moyer led off with a single right up the middle and Jeter Worthley was plunked by reliever Ben Gregory. That resulted in Gregory being pulled from the game and Adam Urban stepping on the mound to face Dylan Carey. The Nebraska shortstop smoked a double down the leftfield line to score Moyer and Worthley. With Carey standing on second, Case Sanderson lined a single to score him to tie the game at 4-4.
Drew Grego came up with one on and no outs and followed up with another single. Will Jesske brought Cornhusker fans to their feet with a smash leftfield that was well over the fence, but foul. Unfortunately, he struck out for the first out of the inning.
Joshua Overbeek hit another single and drove in Sanderson for the fourth run of the inning. Trey Fikes struck out, but Rhett Stokes kept the rally going earning a walk to load the bases. He scored when Moyer was hit by a pitch. After that, Worthley ripped a single that scored two more Cornhuskers.
When the dust cleared, Nebraska scored seven runs on six hits and sent twelve batters to the plate. Most importantly, they took an 8-4 lead.
After Minnesota scored two in the bottom of the sixth off back-to-back walks given up by Nowaczyk and Tucker Timmerman, and a double by Jack Spanier, that lead was cut in half.
Not to worry as Nebraska sent nine batters to the plate in the top of the seventh inning, starting with a base hit by Sanderson, who scored when Drew Grego lined a double. Will Jesske had the third hit of the inning to put runners at the corners and no outs. Jett Buck was put in the run for Jesske. Overbeek then smacked a double the opposite way into the leftfield corner scoring Grego and Buck. Overbeek scored a couple batters later on a Rhett Stokes single. Nebraska up 12-6.
Minnesota added a run off Timmerman in the seventh, but didn’t get any one else across the plate as Timmerman toughened up and Pryce Bender came on to sit them down in order in the bottom of the ninth. Ball game! Nebraska 12, Minnesota 7.
The win today assures Nebraska that they will finish no worse than third in the conference standings, giving them one of the coveted top four seeds in the tournament.
The two teams will be back at it Friday at 5:00 as Ty Horn takes the mound for the Cornhuskers. Marcus Kruzan is scheduled to start for Minnesota, but they changed their announced starter today so who knows who will get the ball to throw the first pitch.
Notes:
- The dilemma that was mentioned last weekend for Will Bolt in regard to the catcher position was resolved today by starting Jeter Worthley in leftfield in replace of Jett Buck. That got both his and Trey Fikes’ bats in the game.
- Every Nebraska batter got at least one hit in the game today.
- Drew Grego was 3 for 5 today with a double. Mac Moyer, Case Sanderson, Joshua Overbeek and Trey Fikes all had two hits. Overbeek had three RBI.
- Nebraska pitching gave up eight walks and two hit batters. They’ve been struggling with this in the last few games after cleaning up these problems for a good chunk of the season.
- I’m not sure that I have ever heard a Bob Dylan tune used as a player’s walk-up song, until today. Duluth native Charlie Sutherland paid homage to another Duluth native with Like a Rolling Stone. Sutherland will no longer be a complete unknown in my book!
