“Never a doubt, right?” Nebraska baseball Coach Will Bolt began his media availability following Saturday’s victory against Iowa at Haymarket Park with that. The final score was 15-11, step two in a three-game sweep of the Hawkeyes.
The question probably could’ve have applied to Sunday’s 8-6 victory, and in a different way regarding Friday night’s 10-0, eight-inning, mercy-rule blowout. That game was never in doubt.
Saturday’s, however, was in serious doubt after Iowa scored four runs in the seventh and five runs in the eighth, after trailing 7-2 after six. Nebraska, 25th-ranked, responded with one run in the seventh for an 8-6 lead before falling behind 11-8 going into the bottom of the eighth.
It was step-up time, and the Huskers did. Mac Moyer singled, Trey Fikes singled and Dylan Carey homered. Max Buettenback and Moyer drove in runs and Fikes drove in two. Tucker Timmerman got the final three outs to give Nebraska the victory.
Never a doubt, right?
Sunday’s game had some similarity. On the second pitch of the game, Iowa’s Kooper Schulte hit a home run and the Hawkeyes added a run for 2-0 lead. Nebraska responded with a run in the first, two runs in the second and two runs in the third, with home runs by Will Jesske and Jett Buck.
Iowa tied it with three runs in the fifth, but the Huskers responded with three runs in the seventh, the first two on a Carey double. Schulte hit a second home run in the eighth.
The game’s final out was a ground ball to Carey. Bolt “thought it was kind of fitting he had the equalizer at the plate and then the last ground ball was hit to him.”
Carey was 7-for-14 during the series, with three home runs and six runs-batted-in. Jesske also drove in six, with a grand slam in the third inning Saturday.
Fikes and Buettenback also hit home runs on the weekend. Buettenback and Carey led off the eighth with back-to-back home runs to end Friday night’s game.
Carson Jasa pitched seven innings, allowing only two hits, walking two and striking out nine to earn his ninth victory against one loss Friday. Reliever Colin Nowaczyk earned the Saturday and Sunday victories, his first of the season, with Tucker Timmerman getting his first save Saturday.
“We don’t win the game without him,” Bolt said of Nowaczyk Sunday. “He’s got swing-and-miss stuff.”
Nowaczyk struck out five in 2.2 innings, allowing two hits and one run, with two walks.
With the victory, Nebraska finished 15-0 in Big Ten play at Haymarket Park, five series sweeps. “We’ve played, obviously, great baseball in this ballpark, and the brand of baseball that we play, it’s relentless,” said Bolt. “And we just had some walk-off wins in this building, some 10-run-rule wins in the building, but all along the way, we’ve had a fan base that’s just been incredible.”
Official attendance Sunday was a season-high 7,948, with seats filled and the berms jammed. Total attendance for the weekend was 22,815, the third-largest for a conference series all-time at the park.
That’s among many points that seem footnotes in a busy weekend. Nebraska introduced its softball team, Big Ten tournament and regular-season champions, before the seventh, standing atop the dugouts and drawing a standing ovation. Then the Huskers scored three runs in the seventh.
Nebraska honored 10 seniors before Saturday’s game: Buck, Carey, Joshua Overbeek, Rhett Stokes, Cole Kitchens, Kevin Mannell, Caleb Clark, Grant Cleavinger, Lynden Bruegman and Jalen Worthley. Their mothers threw out first pitches on Sunday, Mother’s Day.
With the victory, the Huskers improved to 37-14, including 20-7 in the Big Ten. According live RPI, they are 15th, with Oregon State 16th. That would mean hosting an NCAA regional come the postseason.
But there’s at Creighton Tuesday, and a series at Minnesota to wrap up Big Ten play yet.
“The team you saw this weekend was more indicative of the team we’ve been all year,” Bolt said. “I’m proud of how hard our guys play together, how hard they compete.
“As long as they do that, we can all sleep at night.”
And on game day, play with never a doubt, right?
