Husker baseball ‘much more competitive’ but can’t crack Iowa’s Mazur’s complete-game gem | Baseball

Shay Schanaman was good. Adam Mazur was better.

Iowa’s flame-throwing right-hander held Nebraska hitless through four innings and allowed just a pair of singles in a complete-game effort as the Hawkeyes grabbed a 1-0 win to open the series between the teams Friday at Haymarket Park.

It was the first time Nebraska has been shut out at home since April of 2019, and the first time the Huskers have lost a 1-0 game since 2017.

But the Huskers, who at times have been overmatched by opposing pitching, had the right approach against an arm that might be the best in the Big Ten.

“This is a different game than some of the others where we’ve just been picked on at the plate and just not had much of a plan,” NU coach Will Bolt said afterward. “That’s not what happened, today. We faced a really good arm; we barreled balls up. … We were much more competitive.”

That spoke to the sizzle Mazur brought to the bump. He touched 97 miles per hour on his fastball into the eighth inning. He allowed singles to Core Jackson and Brice Matthews in the fourth and seventh innings, respectively. Nebraska didn’t put a runner in scoring position after loading the bases with two outs in the third inning.

With a steady wind blowing in from left field, Matthews and Leighton Banjoff both hit balls to the warning track and Max Anderson had a shot that was run down in the gap that, on a different day, may have flipped the result.

“I thought we honestly did a good job of squaring him up. We hit the ball hard, it was just, the wind plays a factor,” Jackson said. “I think we all actually hit him pretty good. We took good swings off him, they just didn’t fall for us today.”

The game’s only run came in the fourth inning, when Iowa’s Izaya Fullard held off on a pair of close pitches that could have sent him back to the dugout on strike three before taking a 3-2 offering from Schanaman over the wall in right field for a solo homer.

Mazur made it stand up, pitching into the eighth inning for the third consecutive start and eventually finishing off the first complete game of the season for an Iowa pitcher while lowering his ERA to 2.44.

Nebraska’s best scoring chance came in the third when NU worked a pair of walks to go with a hit batter to load the bases with two outs and the team’s top hitter, Griffin Everitt, coming to the plate.

But a strikeout ended the inning, Mazur didn’t issue another free pass, and allowed just the two singles the rest of the way.

Nebraska, which came into Friday’s game having scored 41 runs over its last three contests, suffered its first shutout anywhere since a game at Iowa last season.

“In our best games offensively, we’ve been ready to hit. On a different day, maybe there’s a ball that goes over the fence or two there because of that (approach),” Bolt said. “But (Mazur) made great pitches when he needed to.”

Iowa (25-13, 9-4) managed just seven hits. Schanaman went seven innings, allowing six hits while striking out eight and walking two. After throwing 79 pitches through the first four innings, the right-hander got through seven frames by retiring the last seven batters he faced.