Nebraska opened its weekend series with a 5-4 win over South Alabama at Stanky Field on Friday night in Mobile, Ala. Following a leadoff homer in the bottom of the fifth, the NU pitching staff combined to hold the Jaguars hitless over the final five innings.
Nebraska (1-3-1) scored five runs on six hits and committed an error, while South Alabama (4-2) totaled four runs on two hits and an error.
Max Anderson went 2-for-3 with an RBI and was intentionally walked twice. Casey Burnham was 1-for-2 with a double, three runs and a walk. Ben Columbus was held hitless, but drove in a career-high three runs, while Garrett Anglim had a solo homer. Dylan Carey and Josh Caron tallied one hit each.
Emmett Olson improved to 1-1 on the season after pitching 5.1 two-hit innings, while allowing four runs, two earned, with five strikeouts and a pair of walks. Shay Schanaman tossed 2.1 shutout innings in relief and struck out four Jaguars. Jalen Worthley recorded the final out in the eighth, while Kyle Perry threw a scoreless ninth to collect the first save of his career.
Anglim opened the scoring in the second, launching a 1-0 pitch over the wall in left-center for his first homer on the season to give the Huskers a 1-0 lead.
A two-out throwing error by Matthews extended the inning in the bottom of the second, which resulted in a pair of unearned runs on JG Bell’s two-RBI single into left field.
Nebraska grabbed the lead back with two runs on a pair of hits in the third to take its second one-run lead on the night. Burnham blooped a double down the left-field line, beating the relay throw at second. Carey was plunked on the first pitch he faced to place runners on first and second with one out.
Anderson ripped an RBI single up the middle to score Burnham, while Columbus followed with an RBI groundout to plate Carey. Olson picked up a pair of strikeouts and a groundout in the bottom half of the third to maintain Nebraska’s 3-2 lead.
Burnham led off the fifth with a four-pitch walk, and Carey reached on a single to right to put runners on first and second with no out. A groundout by Anderson moved the pair over to second and third, while Columbus’ second RBI groundout of the night brought home Burnham to double the lead to 4-2.
South Alabama got the run back quickly in the fifth with Colson Lawrence’s solo homer to left-center to begin the bottom half of the inning.
Matthews reached on a one-out walk in the sixth and later advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw at first. The Big Red manufactured its fifth run of the game when Columbus was hit by pitch with the bases loaded to bring home Burnham.
Two hit batters and a walk loaded the bases with two outs for the Jaguars in the sixth, while a wild pitch brought South Alabama within 5-4 after six innings.
Both teams went down in order in the seventh, while the Jaguars threatened with the bases loaded in the eighth inning. Worthley inherited a runners on first and second situation with two outs and plunked the first batter he faced to load the bases. The Lincoln native fought back to induce a fly out to right to get out of the jam with no harm.
Josh Caron opened the ninth with a double down the left-field line but the Huskers couldn’t get an insurance run, as the next three Huskers were retired via strikeout.
The Jaguars started the bottom of the ninth with a hit batter and a sacrifice bunt, placing the tying run at second with one out, but Perry escaped the jam without allowing a run to clinch the 5-4 series-opening win.
Game two of this weekend’s series between the Huskers and Jaguars is set for 3 p.m. tomorrow at Stanky Field in Mobile, Ala. Tomorrow’s game can be seen on ESPN+, while fans can listen to Greg Sharpe and Ben McLaughlin on the Huskers Radio Network.
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