Dylan Carey’s double to lead off the seventh inning for Nebraska baseball against Indiana Sunday drew more post-game attention than the grand slam he hit to finish the inning’s eight-run assault. Go figure.
Nebraska led 4-3 when the inning started. Indiana responded with one run in the eighth.
Final score: 24th-ranked Huskers 12, Hoosiers 4. The victory capped a three-game sweep. Nebraska won 6-5 Friday night and 12-7 Saturday, a game in which the Huskers had a seven-run seventh.
But the lead-in here is Carey’s Sunday double, which broke the Nebraska career record he shared with Coach Will Bolt. “It was cool,” Bolt said of Carey’s 57th. “It’s been a long-time coming.
“I’m glad he got to do it at home. We had an awesome crowd.”
Official attendance was 5,682, including what Carey estimated were “15 to 20” family members who would only be there for Sunday’s game. They brought signs with “57” on them.
Admittedly, said Carey, there was a little pressure as a result. “OK, I gotta get this done.”
He got it done Saturday, too, hitting a three-run home run and driving in five. Carey also drove in a run Friday night and now has a team-leading 42 runs-batted-in, with eight home runs.
Sunday’s starter, Cooper Katskee, also dealt with nerves, as reflected in the first four batters reached, the first on a walk, the next with a double, followed by two singles. Two runs scored.
The nerves were a result of the start being Katskee’s first on the weekend at Nebraska. He also played two seasons at Indiana before transferring to Miami (Ohio) and then Nebraska.
As he’s done before, however, Katskee settled in, retiring 16 of the remaining 19 he faced. The 18th, Landen Fry, hit a home run to tie the score at 3. Nebraska responded with a run in the bottom of the sixth. And then there was the eight-run explosion, with seven of the runs coming with two out.
Joshua Overbeek and Rhett Stokes, the eighth and ninth batters in the order, scored two of the runs. Overbeek also scored two of the first three runs. Overbeek was 3-for-4, with a hit-by-pitch. Stokes was 3-for-5. “I’ve got two fifth-year seniors hitting in the eight and nine hole, guys that have played a lot of baseball together, and they really sparked the lineup today,” Bolt said.
Katskee is now 4-0. Carson Jasa, Saturday’s starter, struck out 10 in 5.2 innings to notch his fifth victory in six decisions. Ty Horn, Friday night’s starter, went 5 innings and is 1-1.
“I thought we played great baseball (on the weekend),” said Bolt. “I thought we had really good starting pitching. I thought that we played really good defense, and obviously, the two-out hitting, I thought it was 10 more two-out RBI today … that’s a lot of togetherness to be able to do that.”
Nebraska committed only one error on the weekend, Indiana six.
Junior outfielder Will Jesske, who’s been sidelined by injury, got to pinch hit Sunday. Though he lined out to the third baseman, the ball was 110 mph off the bat. “He smoked that ball,” Bolt said.
He’ll soon be back in the lineup.
Next up for the Huskers is rival Creighton Tuesday night in Omaha. Gavin Blachowicz, who had been the Sunday starter, will be on the mound for Nebraska.
It’s “just another game to play well, that’s all it is,” said Bolt.
Carey’s take was different. It’s “absolutely a rivalry,” he said.
There won’t be the pressure of breaking the doubles record, however. “I don’t even know what to say. It’s just a blessing to be at Nebraska four years now,” the senior shortstop said.
