Nebraska baseball traveled to Columbus, Ohio, for a weekend series with Ohio State, according to the schedule. But the 16th-ranked Huskers didn’t show up, figuratively speaking.
The Buckeyes, who went into the series with a 10-11 record in Big Ten play, swept Nebraska, which began the weekend 17-4 and second in the conference (34-11 overall). The scores got worse as the weekend went on. Ohio State won 2-1 Friday, 7-3 Saturday and 10-1 Sunday.
This seems like fiction.
“Obviously, Ohio State, it was all about how well they played this weekend,” Coach Will Bolt said on the Huskers Radio Network. “They had a lot to do with how we looked at certain times … we didn’t have a response today. The team they were this weekend is the team we’ve been all year, where you give an inch, they take a mile. That’s kind of the way this game went, that’s the way the weekend went.”
The Buckeyes hit seven home runs Sunday, seven, which accounted for all 10 runs. That included a three-run homer, a two-run homer and five solo home runs, three off starter Cooper Katskee, who made it through 3.1 innings, and two each off Ty Horn and J’Shawn Unger.
Friday starter Carson Jasa allowed two runs on four hits and three walks in 6 innings Friday, with Horn pitching two hitless innings to finish. Gavin Blachowicz gave up four runs on three hits and two walks in 4.2 innings Saturday. The hits included a bases-loaded triple and a solo home run.
Don’t place responsibility just on pitching, however. Nebraska, which went into the weekend batting .318 as a team, managed 13 hits in the three games, 10 singles and three doubles — two by Drew Grego. Mac Moyer, who had a 44-game on-base streak and was batting .399, went 1-for-13, a single in the ninth inning Friday. He reached on an error Saturday, if that counts. Dylan Carey, who went into the weekend hitting .368, was 0-for-8 with two walks. Those are just two examples of frustration at the plate.
In contrast, Ohio State got a combined 22 innings out of its starters and the Buckeyes had 22 hits, 13 of them for extra bases, including two home runs Saturday.
“They just kind of suffocated us with the momentum of the game (Sunday),” said Bolt. “The lineup was just very, very choppy. We’ve seen us be very, very committed to team baseball all year long. They attacked the strike zone relentlessly and today, obviously, we didn’t answer for the slug they had, either.”
Nebraska had a shot in the ninth inning of Friday night’s game, thanks to Ohio State’s pitching. Trailing 2-0, Carey and Jett Buck drew walks. Joshua Overbeek hit into a fielder’s choice, moving Carey to third. Carey scored on a catcher-to-first out by Grego and Overbeek reached third on a wild pitch. But with the tying run at third, Preston Freeman, pinch-hitting for Will Jesske, struck out to end the game.
Saturday’s game ended in similar fashion, sort of. Trailing 7-2, three Huskers drew walks to lead off the ninth. Carey, the first, scored with one out when Grego was hit by a pitch, bringing the tying run to the plate. But pinch hitter Max Buettenback struck out and Moyer flied out to left. Game over.
Next up, the Huskers, looking to play host to an NCAA regional, need to regroup with a weekend series at Haymarket Park against Iowa. The weekend in Columbus “was a learning experience, right? We haven’t had to deal with this all year,” Bolt said. “We’ve been so good, so consistent, we’ve won so many different ways … It wasn’t our weekend. We didn’t play well.
“We just need to get back on the right side of it.”
Literally.
