Nebraska belted a ballpark-record seven home runs and clinched the series sweep with an 18-5 win against Northwestern on Sunday afternoon at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.
The seven home runs are the most by the Huskers in a single-game since crushing six in game one of a doubleheader against Southern Utah on March 6, 2001 in Cedar City, Utah.
The Huskers’ 14 extra-base hits on Sunday afternoon are the most in a game by the Big Red since tallying 14 against Creighton on May 18, 2010.
Nebraska (21-11-1, 7-2 Big Ten) scored 18 runs on 20 hits and an error, while Northwestern (5-26, 3-6 Big Ten) had five runs on eight hits.
With 35 runs on the weekend, the Huskers scored 30-plus runs in a three-game Big Ten series for the seventh time. Nebraska scored its second-most total, falling four runs short of the 39 scored vs. Purdue in the 2019 campaign.
Will Walsh improved to 2-1 after throwing five scoreless innings in his third start of the season. Walsh held the Wildcats hitless through the first four innings and gave up both hits in the fifth while recording five strikeouts and a walk. Jake Bunz, Brett Sears, Caleb Clark and Will Rizzo pitched one inning apiece to combine for four innings of relief for the NU bullpen.
Gabe Swansen led the Huskers at the plate, going 4-for-5 with two doubles, two home runs, six RBI and three runs scored. Brice Matthews went 3-for-4 with two homers, three RBI and three runs. Swansen picked up his second multi-homer game of the season, while Matthews collected his first to give Nebraska seven individual multi-home run games this season.
Max Anderson had a 3-for-3 afternoon with a pair of doubles, a home run, four RBI and two runs. Charlie Fischer went 2-for-4 with a triple, home run and three runs scored. Casey Burnham and Efry Cervantes pieced together two-hit games, while Garrett Anglim was 1-for-3 with a home run and two runs.
Nebraska began with a three-run lead on three hits in the opening frame. Anderson broke the scoreless tie with an RBI double to left-center, while Swansen smacked a two-RBI double to right to make it 3-0.
Cole Evans reached on a first-pitch double in the second, before Matthews lifted a two-run homer into the batter’s eye in center to grow the lead to five in the second. Fischer opened the third with a triple to center and scored on an RBI groundout by Josh Caron to make it 6-0 after three innings.
Matthews drilled his second homer of the day with a one-out solo shot into the berm in left field in the fourth inning, before the Huskers tacked on two more runs in the fifth. Fischer led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run to right-center, while an RBI single by Caron had Nebraska out front 9-0 through five.
The Huskers poured on five runs on five hits, including three homers to expand the lead to 14-0. Anderson cleared the bases with a three-run homer to right, and Anglim smacked a solo homer to right-center for back-to-back home runs. Swansen capped the sixth-inning scoring with his first home run of the game to right.
An RBI single by Griffin Everitt in the bottom of the seventh grew the lead to 15, before Swansen unleashed a three-run shot to center for his second homer of the game and 10th on the season.
Northwestern plated its first run of the game with a two-out solo home run down the left-field line in the top of the eighth inning.
The Wildcats had the bases loaded in the top of the ninth, and a bases-clearing double to left by Luke Tanner made it an 18-5 game.
Nebraska welcomes Creighton to Hawks Field at Haymarket Park on Tuesday, April 18. First pitch between the Huskers and Bluejays is set for 7:02 p.m. on BTN.
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