Seven innings into the weekend series against 12th-ranked USC, Nebraska trailed 7-2. Mason Edwards, the Trojans’ ace, had struck out 12. Enter the USC bullpen.
At that point you wouldn’t have expected a Husker victory, much less a series sweep. But a three-run home run by Joshua Overbeek in the eighth, a sacrifice fly by Jett Buck, an error and two wild pitches in the ninth sent the game to the 10th, in which a Mac Moyer single and a throwing error gave Nebraska an 8-7 victory. Oh yes, Kevin Mannell, Ty Horn and J’Shawn Unger combined to pitch 3.2 scoreless innings.
That set the stage for the sweep, as a pair of 10-run victories followed — 12-2 in seven innings Saturday and 16-6 in eight innings Sunday. Need that be repeated? A series sweep of USC.
“This was a chance to make a statement weekend,” Coach Will Bolt said.
With the victories, the Huskers solidified second place in the Big Ten standings, at 15-3. And USC, 13-8 in the conference, must step up down the stretch if it is to finish the regular season in the top four. UCLA — Nebraska doesn’t play the Bruins in the regular season — has yet to lose in Big Ten play.
But this is about this weekend’s sweep. The Huskers had 40 hits, including seven home runs. In addition to Overbeek’s, Case Sanderson, Dylan Carey and Drew Grego hit solo home runs Saturday, all in the third inning, and Carey, Grego and Moyer hit home runs Sunday.
Carey’s was a solo blast, Moyer’s a three-run shot and Grego’s a grand slam.
Grego drove in nine runs during the weekend.
The offense “just showed up,” said Bolt. And “it was a little bit of everything.”
The example he used was Moyer’s home run in the fourth inning Sunday with Nebraska trailing 5-3. Rhett Stokes led off the inning and reached on an error. Trey Fikes followed with a single. The Trojans were probably expecting Moyer, the leadoff hitter, “to lay down a bunt,” Bolt said.
Instead, Moyer sent the first pitch out of the park to give the Huskers the lead.
Unlike USC’s bullpen, which struggled, Nebraska’s stepped up Friday and Sunday. Friday starter Cooper Katskee managed only three innings, allowing six hits, walking five and giving up five runs. Sunday starter Gavin Blachowicz lasted two innings, giving up five runs, four earned, on four hits, four walks and two wild pitches. But, as mentioned earlier, Mannell, Horn and Unger saved Friday. And Horn, who had been the Friday starter, pitched five innings Sunday, allowing only one run.
Unger earned Friday’s victory, Horn Sunday’s. Coming out of the bullpen, Horn’s mound presence was “a complete 180 (degrees),” said Bolt. There was “a little bit more edge to him.”
Being able to go to him in the third inning was a “luxury,” Bolt said.
As for Saturday? Carson Jasa pitched all seven innings, allowing the two runs, one earned, on five hits, with two walks and seven strikeouts. With the victory, he’s now 7-1.
The loss was the first for the Trojans’ Grant Govel, also 7-1.
Fikes, a junior transfer from Three Rivers College, caught Saturday and Sunday, with Jeter Worthley, who has been the regular catcher, batting second as the designated hitter.
Fikes “is elite at receiving the baseball,” Bolt said of the move.
Bolt said he was so focused on the game he wasn’t certain whom Nebraska was playing next weekend. He thought it might be at Ohio State. It’s a series at Illinois. Ohio State is the weekend after.
First, the Huskers play at Kansas Tuesday. Who will be the starting pitcher? He had “no clue,” Bolt said. Horn had replaced Blachowicz as the mid-week starter, but his weekend work precludes that.
Official attendance Sunday was 7,510, following 7,602 Saturday and 6,271 Friday night. Saturday’s attendance was Haymarket Park’s second-largest in the Big Ten era and 25th all-time.
