All good things must come to an end, to begin with a cliché. And so it was with Nebraska baseball’s 11-game winning streak.
The Huskers lost the opener of a three-game Big Ten series at Michigan Friday, 2-1. But they recovered to start a new streak, winning 10-0 Saturday and 9-5 Sunday.
Nebraska is now 18-6, including 5-1 in conference play.
“We just keep coming at you … I think that’s the thing I’m most proud of with this group of guys,” Coach Will Bolt said on the Huskers Radio Network following Sunday’s come-from-behind win. “They’re so together, they’re so galvanized, we’re on a quest to become … as I always say, we want to be the toughest team in the country.
“I’ve said this a few times, too, baseball’s a nine-inning game, and it’s built for a marathon, not a sprint. And so the wave of emotion, you’ve got to try to avoid those.”
Actually, baseball was a seven-inning game Saturday because of the mercy rule. But Sunday’s game underscored Bolt’s point. The Wolverines held Nebraska scoreless through the first five innings and led 1-0. When Nebraska did score in the sixth, on Rhett Stokes’ home run, Michigan responded with two runs.
The Huskers responded with three runs in the seventh, including a Dylan Carey lead-off home run, but Michigan’s Brenden Stressler led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run to tie it at 4-4.
After a scoreless eighth inning, Max Buettenback led off the ninth with a towering home run. Five batters later, Jett Buck hit a grand slam to take the drama out of the game.
“Things weren’t going our way early in the game,” said Bolt. “When we had a punch late in the game, they answered a couple of different times … (then) the slug showed up for us late.”
The “slug” came in the fourth inning Saturday, back-to-back triples by Carey and Miken Miller, Carey’s driving in two runs, Miller’s driving in Carey, who had gotten Nebraska off to a fast start with a two-out, two-run single in the first inning.
With the pitching of Carson Jasa, who went six scoreless innings while striking out eight and only walking one, the Huskers never looked back, adding three in the third and the four-run fourth.
“It was a great response” to Friday’s loss, Bolt said on the network following Saturday’s game. “We played great in all three phases of the game, and it was great to see one of our true leaders (Carey), a guy that’s played as many games as anybody, pick us up there in the first inning.
“As he’s done so many times this year, picked us up right there.”
Carey driving in the two first-inning runs “seemed like that led to a collective sigh of relief, I guess, from the dugout,” Bolt said Saturday.
J’Shawn Unger, the third of four relievers, was the winning pitcher Sunday. Starter Gavin Blachowicz went four innings, allowing three hits and one run, walking one and striking out four. Starter Ty Horn allowed six hits and the two runs Friday, walking two and striking out eight.
Following Saturday’s win, Bolt commented on Sunday’s finale, which started two hours earlier than originally scheduled because of the weather forecast. “We get a chance to win a series on the road,” he said. “It’s championship Sunday. That’s why we talk about it; we don’t run from it.”
So the Huskers resumed their winning ways after seeing their streak snapped at 11 games. Next on the schedule is a game at Kansas State Tuesday before returning home for a Big Ten series with Indiana next weekend.
