Officially, Luke Broderick was credited with the save. But others were involved in saving the Nebraska baseball team’s 6-4 victory against Iowa in Iowa City Sunday.
Riley Silva’s game-ending catch, for instance. Silva, who replaced Robby Bolin in center field after Gabe Swansen pinch-hit for Bolin in the seventh inning, went all the way to the wall on a ball hit by pinch-hitter Mitch Wood for the final out. The Hawkeyes had a runner on base.
A home run would’ve tied the game. Silva jumped at the wall and brought down the ball. In his post-game interview on Huskers.com, Coach Will Bolt called the catch “a really nice play.”
Silva’s catch was a game-saver.
So was Tucker Timmerman’s relief pitching, one hit, no walks and three strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings. Timmerman came on with one out, one run in and two runners on base in the fourth inning. The first batter he faced hit what would’ve been a double-play ground ball if not for a error. Timmerman then retired the next seven batters before giving way to Casey Daiss, who was credited with the win.
Timmerman, “I mean, that’s the difference,” said Bolt.
It was the first time Timmerman had pitched since being hit in the face by a one-hop line drive during the Huskers’ victory against Vanderbilt in mid-February. The final score that day, also 6-4.
Nebraska scrapped Sunday, after losing 1-0 Friday and 11-6 Saturday. The Huskers are 16-20 overall, including 5-10 in Big Ten play. Iowa is 23-11 and 14-4. The Hawkeyes are second to UCLA in the conference based on winning percentage, though in wins and losses, they’re two games ahead.
Will Walsh allowed only two hits and one run in seven innings Friday night. But the one-hit was a second-inning home run. The Huskers struck out 14 times and were shut out, on three hits.
Nebraska led 6-5 going into the bottom of the eighth inning Saturday, all the runs coming on home runs: with one on by Will Jesske, two on by Cael Frost and a solo shot by Joshus Overbeek. But Iowa scored six runs on six hits, two of them home runs, in the bottom of the eighth.
The Huskers used seven pitchers in the game.
Iowa scored first Sunday, in the bottom of the second. But the Huskers tied the game on an Overbeek home run in the third and took a 3-1 lead on home runs by Tyler Stone and Dylan Carey in the fourth. Iowa tied the score in the bottom of the fourth with the aid of two Husker errors.
Enter Timmerman. “We’re able to get a stop and stop their momentum,” Bolt said. “He came in and got a double-play ball (but) we didn’t make the play. He didn’t buckle. He really got us in the fight.”
In the fight, and the Husker grit took over. “We didn’t just go away” after the errors, said Bolt. “The offense kind of kept coming. We took some good swings against some really good arms there at the end. Obviously, (Max) Buettenback’s hit was huge there.”
Buettenback, who was 1-for-10 in the series—the other hit was a double, and the go-ahead run, in the eighth inning—when he came to bat in the top of the ninth with Nebraska leading 5-4, singled in Overbeek with an insurance run.
The Huskers play Creighton in Omaha Tuesday before a weekend series against Northwestern.
As was the case Sunday, the save went to Broderick, but there were other “saves” during the game.
“It takes them all,” Bolt said on Huskers.com.
