Cooper Katskee was, shall we say, modest following his first start for Nebraska baseball, and only his third appearance as a Husker. In Tuesday afternoon’s 8-5 victory against Omaha at Haymarket Park, Katskee said, he did the things “I’m supposed to do, that’s all it comes down to.”
What the junior right-hander, a transfer from Miami (Ohio), did was pitch six innings, allow five hits, three runs, two of them earned, strike out 10 and walk no one for the win.
“That was unbelievable, I mean unbelievable,” said teammate Cole Kitchens. “He came out, gave us a really good chance … more than a really good chance.”
So let’s start at the beginning, with some credit to Omaha, which got three of the five hits against Katskee in the first inning, after he opened with two strikeouts. The second of the hits was a home run by Tyler Bishop, his first of the season, following a single by Jackson Trout.
Trout was 3-for-4 with three runs scored.
Katskee got out of the inning, after another single, with a third strikeout, the first of eight-consecutive outs, a streak snapped by an error, after which he retired six more before giving up the unearned run.
Nebraska responded in the bottom of the first with six runs, on four hits, two walks and two hit batters. The hits included a two-run home run by Kitchens, a two-run single by Mac Moyer, and RBI singles by Case Sanderson and Dylan Carey, who was 3-for-5 and another run-batted-in.
“After we scored six, he got the shutdown innings to keep the momentum in our dugout,” Husker Coach Will Bolt said of Katskee.
While Katskee was shutting down the Mavericks, Nebraska was adding single runs in the second and third innings. After the third inning, however, Omaha’s bullpen blanked the Huskers.
The Huskers left 12 runners on base, Omaha 11.
Nebraska’s “bats with runners in scoring position weren’t good enough,” said Bolt. “If you’re going to strike out more than you should, you need to slug to make up it. And we did that today.”
The Huskers struck out 11 times, Omaha 14.
In addition to the home run, Kitchens had a double, as did Carey and Nico Newhan.
Nick Riggs, who started on the mound for Omaha, had two hits and also drove in two runs, the second with two outs in the top of the ninth as the Mavericks refused to fold. Despite the two-run first, however, they couldn’t overcome the pitching of Katskee.
“I’ve known him forever, played a little bit of high school summer ball together,” said Kitchens, a senior transfer from Southern Indiana who has settled in as the designated hitter. I’ve always known him as a dog, and last year (he) had a great year, picked up right where he left off, which is a good thing for us.”
Katskee was the MAC Pitcher of the Year and a third-team ABCA/Rawlings All-American.
In addition to his four pitches, what makes Katskee successful is “the stature of him on the mound, just the way he carries himself, his confidence; that’s unbelievable, and I think our entire pitching staff does (the same),” Kitchens said. “It’s not just him.”
Katskee’s earned-run-average is now 1.69, and he has yet to walk a batter in 10.2 innings, with 16 strikeouts. He was slated to get his first start in the third game of Nebraska’s season-opening series in Arizona, but didn’t because of health issues. His performance Tuesday put him back in the conversation for weekend starters. The situation is “week-to-week,” said Bolt.
Because he pitched Tuesday, Katskee won’t be a candidate to start this weekend, when Nebraska, 6-5, is scheduled to open Big Ten play against Michigan State at Haymarket Park.
First up is a game there against South Dakota State Wednesday.
Next for Omaha, 4-7, is this weekend’s Gopher Tournament in Minneapolis.
