Buckeyes’ walk-off hit sends Husker softball team to its fourth loss in five games | Softball

Sam Hackenbracht slapped the game-winning hit through the left side of the infield to lift Ohio State to a 5-4 walk-off win against the Nebraska softball team Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.

Hackenbracht’s hit clinched the series for the Buckeyes, who won Friday, 6-2. After starting 13-0 in Big Ten play, Nebraska (34-13, 14-4 Big Ten) has dropped four of its past five games, and its conference title hopes are fading.

The Buckeyes (31-13, 11-8) had to work very hard for this one.

NU’s Sydney Gray tied the game a 4-4 with a solo home run in the top of the seventh inning, and NU threatened to take the lead when Billie Andrews reached base on a single.

But Lexie Handley struck out Kaylin Kinney, Andrews was caught stealing and Courtney Wallace flied out.

The Buckeyes answered in the bottom of the seventh with three straight singles, the capper being Hackenbracht’s base knock on a 1-1 pitch.

Ohio State took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning on a three-run pinch-hit homer from Kaitlyn Coffman.

Nebraska responded in the fifth. Andrews singled and Kinney homered to left-center to tie the game at 3-3. OSU regained the lead in the bottom half of the inning on Hackenbracht’s RBI single.

Wallace (13-6) took the loss after pitching the final 2 1/3 innings. Handley, who entered as a reliever, won her second game in as many days.

For the first time this season, NU coach Rhonda Revelle made some notable changes atop the lineup. Andrews, who had been struggling at the plate recently, was moved from lead-off to the seven-hole. Gray also was moved down and Peyton Glatter was moved to second behind Cam Ybarra.

The moves worked Saturday. Ybarra had two hits, Andrews had her first multi-hit game since April 10 at Michigan State and Gray homered for the 10th time this season.

But like last week at Wisconsin, NU goes into a Sunday needing to win to avoid a sweep.

Sunday’s series finale is set for 11 a.m.

Northwestern beat Iowa 4-0 on Saturday to improve to 37-7 overall and 17-2 in the Big Ten. Nebraska is now in a tie for second place with Illinois at 14-4 with four Big Ten games to go.