Nebraska baseball dropped Game 1 on Friday of a three-game home series against South Alabama, suffering its worst margin of defeat (11-3) of the young season by allowing four home runs to the Jaguars.
Game 2 on Saturday was, well, pretty much the exact opposite of that.
The Huskers put together the dictionary definition of a “bounce back game” on Saturday, answering the Jags’ four Friday homers with four home runs of their own in Game 2 to back up yet another gem from top starter Brett Sears and take the win, 13-2. Nebraska’s big day on both sides has set the table for a series-deciding Game 3 on Sunday (12:05 p.m. CT) as the Huskers will look to clinch their third consecutive series victory to begin the year.
Sears drove the bus in the Huskers’ Game 2 win with a fourth consecutive quality start. He allowed two earned runs on just four hits with no walks allowed and seven strikeouts across eight strong innings of work. He apparently appreciated the nickname Inside Nebraska gave him last week and is evidently doing his best to make sure that nickname sticks as “Seven Sears” has now fired exactly seven strikeouts in all four of his starts.
He got the job done with eye-popping efficiency, using just 88 total pitches to move his record to 2-0 this year.
Sears has been one of the best pitchers in college baseball so far this season. He now has 28 strikeouts, is allowing just a .119 opponent batting average and has surrendered just five total earned runs and two walks across 25.1 innings in his four starts. He entered Saturday’s game as one of just five starting pitchers in Division I this season with 17-plus innings pitched, 21-plus strikeouts, three or fewer earned runs and less than three walks.
Sears’ Saturday counterpart – South Alabama LHP Cam Hill – had been cruising early this season as well, having allowed just four runs (two earned) on 12 hits with 13 strikeouts and just two walks across 16 innings in his first three starts. The Huskers, however, knocked around the southpaw, tuning him up for seven runs (all earned) on eight hits and one walk across Hill’s five innings pitched.
Perhaps most impressive of all the Huskers’ offensive stats on Saturday?
It may not be the 13 total runs or the four homers. It may not be the 16 team hits or the .421 team batting average.
Arguably the most impressive was the Huskers’ zero strikeouts over the first five innings against Hill. He’s not necessarily a “strikeout pitcher” but the Huskers’ ability to avoid the punchouts helped them build a 6-1 lead through five. They finished with four strikeouts at the plate with two of them coming in the bottom of the eighth after having built a 13-2 lead.
The Huskers (8-4) have now won seven of their past nine games dating back to the Feb. 22 series opener against Grand Canyon while the Jags (11-4) have now been winners in seven of their last 11 games since Feb. 21.
Sears struck out the side to start the game and soon had a 6-0 cushion to work with.
The Husker offense, which limped its way throughout all of Game 1 in the team’s home opener Friday, opened the scoring with a two-run second inning, followed by two runs apiece in the third and fourth frames.
In the second inning, Case Sanderson worked the count full with two outs – including holding up on a check swing with two strikes – before knocking an RBI single to plate Josh Caron, who recorded the Huskers’ first hit of the day with a one-out double. Garrett Anglim singled, and Rhett Stokes then kept his hot bat going with an RBI single for an early 2-0 lead.
Stokes, the Huskers’ 9-hole hitter, went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a run scored in Game 1, and he followed with a second consecutive 3-for-4 day at the plate with three RBI and a run scored in Game 2.
In the third, Caron sent Nebraska’s first homer of the day over the right field wall for a two-out, two-run bomb after Tyler Stone had drawn a two-out walk. Stokes then came through in the fourth with an RBI groundout, and Anglim doubled before coming around on Riley Silva’s RBI single.
Stokes has had eight at-bats in the first two games of the series, and the only unproductive at-bat came in his first one on Friday with an inning-ending fielder’s choice. (So that’s seven straight productive AB’s for all of you math aficionados out there.)
That 6-0 lead was more than enough offense for Sears. The righty went three up, three down in five of his eight innings. After the Jags’ powered a leadoff double and an RBI single for their first run in the fifth inning, Sears retired nine batters in a row on just 26 pitches.
Stokes added an RBI on a bunt single in the sixth, and Stone powered a two-run homer followed by Cole Evans’ solo shot six pitches later for a commanding 10-1 lead. Sears finished it out with three straight outs after allowing a leadoff solo homer in the eighth, but he punctuated his performance with, naturally, a swinging strikeout for lucky number seven.
Clay Bradford joined the round tripper party with a pinch-hit three-run bomb in the eighth.
Nebraska entered the series ranked No. 6 nationally in the RPI rankings. Will Bolt’s club reached that ranking after having gone 7-1 on the road and 1-2 in neutral games to start the season. The Jaguars, meanwhile, captured their first road win of the season during their first road game of the year on Friday and bounced back from having surrendered a one-run lead in the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s 7-5 loss to New Orleans.
Things are all set now for Game 3, which gets underway on Sunday with first pitch slated for 12:05 p.m. CT. The pitching matchup features Nebraska RHP Ty Horn (1-0, 1.35 ERA) vs. RHP Cade Carlson (0-1, 6.55 ERA) as Horn is set to make his first career start as a true freshman.
The series-clinching matchup will be available to stream live on B1G+ and listen live on Huskers Radio Network.
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