Where to begin? With the end of Tuesday night’s Nebraska baseball win over Creighton at Haymarket Park, of course. The No. 25 Huskers edged the Bluejays for the second time this season, the final 5-4.
Nebraska beat Creighton in the first meeting in Omaha 6-5, in case you’ve forgotten. They’re scheduled to play a third time in Omaha May 12.
Tuesday night’s victory, which got a bit chippy late in the game, was the Huskers’ first against the Bluejays in Lincoln since 2017. Creighton had won six in a row at Haymarket Park and 13 of the last 17 against Nebraska. The series win was also Nebraska’s first since 2017.
Now consider of the game’s particulars…
- Creighton came to town on a four-game winning streak, while the Huskers had lost three of their last four to drop out of the D1 Baseball and Baseball America Top 25. They’re ranked 22nd by Perfect Game, 24th in the NCBWA poll and 25th in the USA Today/Coaches Top 25.
- The Bluejays got off to a fast start. The first four batters had hits, including a two-run home run by Nate McHugh. A sacrifice fly by Teddy Deters finished the three-run first. Nick Venteicher hit a one-out home run in the second to increase the lead to 4-0.
- McHugh’s home run was his seventh, Venteicher’s his second.
- Nebraska responded with two runs in the bottom of the second, on a Drew Grego home run, and added three in the third on consecutive RBI singles by Grego, Joshua Overbeek and Rhett Stokes, the bottom three in the batting order. Those three had five of the Huskers’ seven hits. The home run was Grego’s fifth.
- Following Sunday’s loss at Oregon, Coach Will Bolt said the bottom of the order needed to be productive, which it was. Grego and Overbeek were 2-for-4, Stokes 1-for-3. Grego also made a catch that might have been a home run, crashing into the right-field fence. Isaac Wachsmann hit the ball. He was 2-for-4, as was McHugh. Creighton had nine hits.
- Jett Buck and Jeter Worthley had Nebraska’s other hits, both singles. They each stole a base.
- Mac Moyer’s 16-game hitting streak was snapped but he extended his on-base streak to 36 games with a third-inning walk. He was hit by a pitch in the ninth.
- What started out as if it would be a high-scoring affair finished the opposite. The final six innings were scoreless. Creighton had only two hits, Nebraska three. All were singles.
- The Bluejays used seven pitchers, with the second, Evan Stratton, taking the loss. Stratton, who gave up three runs on three hits and three walks in .2 innings, is now 2-1.
- Nebraska used five pitchers. Tucker Timmerman, also the second the Huskers used, went two innings, allowing three hits and one run, to earn the victory, his third with one loss. J’Shawn Unger recorded his eighth save. In what might be considered a surprise, Ty Horn, who has been Nebraska’s Friday starter, came on before Unger, pitching three innings, allowing only one hit and striking out two, without allowing a walk but hitting a batter.
- Horn went into the game 1-1 with 4.68 ERA, allowing 41 hits in 42.1 innings.
- The Huskers are 29-8 going into a weekend series at Haymarket Park against 12th-ranked USC, a series with NCAA Regional-host implications. Creighton drops to 18-16. The Bluejays travel to Plymouth Meeting, Penn., for a three-game series against 12-20 Villanova.
- Official attendance Tuesday night was 6,148.
So there you have it, the end, another one-run victory for Nebraska, snapping a couple of streaks.
