Nebraska baseball (4-1) handed Ohio State (3-3) their third loss of the season in a 10-4 rout of the Buckeyes.
Cade Povich got his second start of the season where he looked much more like the pitcher that the coaching staff had talked about. The junior started off strong with two strikeouts in the first inning and two more in the second. Before he could retire the side in the second inning, Mitchell Okuley sent one over the right field wall to give Ohio State a temporary lead.
In the bottom of the second the Husker bats started rolling. With two runners in scoring position and no outs, Joe Acker hit one up the middle and gave the Big Red a lead that they would hold for the rest of the game.
The hits didn’t stop there, and with two more runners in scoring position Max Anderson stepped up to the plate and homered to straightaway center field to extend the lead to four.
Spencer Schwellenbach chipped in during the fourth inning with a double that scored one run. Following that, a wild pitch and a passed ball allowed Schwellenbach to make his way home and put NU even further ahead.
While the Husker offense was working, Povich was grinding things out on defense. Although he had a lapse and gave up a two-run homerun in the fifth, Povich went to work on the Buckeyes and struck out 12 batters in his six innings pitched.
After Povich, Nebraska used two pitchers to finish out the game, the first being Braxton Bragg. The sophomore came into the game in the top of the seventh inning and pitched 1.1 innings giving up just one hit for no runs.
In the eight, Jaxon Hallmark stepped into the batters box and found his groove, sending one opposite field for a solo homerun and giving NU one more insurance run.
Caleb Feekin was sent in to close out the game for the Big Red and the sophomore gave up one hit and one run, while striking out one batter. His close gave Cade Povich his first win of the season and moved the Huskers to 4-1 on the season.
The Nebraska bats were once again rolling. It started early in the first inning with two base hits, but NU was not able to convert those baserunners into runs. The second inning was a different story.
A leadoff walk setup for a Jack Steil double that put both runners in scoring position. This time Joe Acker would not leave them stranded as he hit a single up the middle that scored both runners. A base hit bunt from Cam Chick in the next at-bat then allowed Max Anderson to step up to the plate with two runners on, and he sent one over the center field wall to make it 5-1 to the Huskers.
Nebraska only had one inning in this game where they didn’t have a hit. More importantly, after leaving three runners stranded in the first inning, they only left four stranded the rest of the game.
Overall, NU combined for 11 hits that tallied up 10 runs. Not many games will be lost if the offense is producing numbers like that.
Last Friday, in the season opening game, Cade Povich was the starter. Before the game it was clear that he was the best arm according to the coaching staff, but what was seen on the field was a different story. The junior pitched just three innings, gave up three runs and walked four batters.
The Cade Povich against Ohio State was more like what was expected. In his first two innings, he had already struck out four Buckeyes. However, there was a short lapse in the second inning where Ohio State hit a solo home run, but Povich bounced back.
In the third inning, the junior struck out all three batters followed by two more in the fourth. Another short lapse allowed Ohio State to go yard again, this time a two-run home run.
These short struggles didn’t faze Povich as he still finished his day with 12 strikeouts, a career high. Starts like this on Friday are what the coaching staff were alluding to when they talked about Povich being the best arm on the team, and the junior will look to continue this into the future.
Nebraska will take on Iowa tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. followed by a double-header on Sunday against Ohio State first, and Iowa second.
All of these games will be livestreamed on BTN+ and heard on Husker Sports Network.
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