The Nebraska baseball team (20-10) will head to Piscataway, New Jersey to play in a four-game pod series against Indiana (20-9) and Rutgers (17-13). The Huskers will be in action starting Saturday with one game against the Hoosiers, followed by a double-header against each team on Sunday and a final game on Monday against the Scarlet Knights.
Last weekend was the first weekend that NU left with more losses than wins in a series this season. It was also the first time this season that they had been swept, and the first time since 2009 that they had been swept at home. In that year, Missouri came to Lincoln and won all three games at Hawks Field.
The three games against Rutgers started poorly when, on Friday, the Big Red had a 3-2 lead heading into the eighth inning and it slipped away. The Nebraska bullpen allowed four runs in the eighth inning and three in the ninth and fell 9-4. On Saturday the Huskers once again had a lead, this time they got up 5-0 in the first four innings, but RU scored six in the final five innings to win 6-5. Sunday’s game was not one that NU will want to remember. The Big Red recorded just three hits and were shut out 6-0.
With Rutgers and Nebraska coming off the same series, they will be familiar with one another when they face off two more times. Indiana on the other hand, the Huskers have not seen this year. The Hoosiers are on top of the Big Ten, tied with Michigan just a .5 game ahead of NU. Last weekend, Indiana topped Iowa in a three-game series 2-1. The Hoosiers fell in game one 6-5, but bounced back with a 12-6 win in game two and a 12-8 win in game three. The Hoosiers have won nine of their last 11 games with a three-game sweep over Minnesota and series wins over Illinois and Northwestern.
Saturday, 2:00 p.m. vs. Indiana: LHP Cade Povich (4-1, 3.16 ERA) vs. TBA
Sunday, 10:00 a.m. vs. Indiana: TBA vs RHP Gabe Bierman (4-2, 2.51 ERA)
Sunday, 2:00 p.m. vs. Rutgers: TBA vs. Brent Teller (3-2, 3.35 ERA)
Monday, 10:00 a.m. vs. Rutgers: TBA vs. TBA
***All four games can be streamed on BTN+ and heard on Husker Sports Network.
Bounce back time
The Big Red played the worst series last weekend that they have this year, and they will look to bounce back this weekend. Although they suffered a series sweep to Rutgers, Nebraska will have the opportunity to redeem themselves with two games against the Scarlet Knights this weekend. On top of that, the Huskers still only sit half of a game back from both Indiana and Michigan at the top of the conference, so they have the opportunity to make this weekend a big one.
Pitching changes
This series is the first series that NU hasn’t announced who the starters are for each game.
“We know that Cade is going to throw the first game and from there we’re going to kind of maybe mix and match the order,” Bolt said. “For Monday’s game, it will just be TBA. We’ll just kind of keep it open-ended. I don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into not using a guy the first three games that could help us win.”
With a chance of new pitchers in the starting lineup and Monday possibly being a bullpen day, the Big Red will look to rely on many different pitchers to get the job done this weekend.
Back to the basics
In the series against Rutgers, Nebraska struggled to convert on things that they have excelled at this season. The Husker bullpen struggled to keep runs from scoring in both of the first two games, and that has not been the case most of this year. On top of that, NU struck out multiple times in this series and the series prior when trying to lay down sacrifice bunts. The Big Red still leads the conference in sacrifice bunts, but they will look to convert more often when they need to.
Indiana
***The Hoosiers threw a combined no-hitter against Northwestern. McCade Brown and Braydon Tucker allowed no hits for the first time for Indiana since 1984.
***The Hoosiers have worked their way into the national rankings this week. Perfect Game has them at No. 17, Baseball America has them at No. 23 and D1Baseball ranks them at No. 24.
***Indiana ranks second in the nation in hits allowed per game, allowing an average of just 6.37 runs per game.
Rutgers
***The Scarlet Knights are coming off a three-game sweep over the Huskers. They will look to continue that streak.
***Brent Teller, who started on Sunday last week, won Big Ten Pitcher of the Week. Teller will pitch against NU again this weekend.
***RU is coming off series wins against two ranked teams. Before beating No. 23 Nebraska, the Scarlet Knights beat No. 23 Michigan.
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