Kaminska Deals Gem, Bats Come Alive in 18-0 Rout

Jace Kaminska pitched seven scoreless innings, and the Huskers slugged four-plus homers for the seventh time this season in an 18-0 rout vs. Minnesota on Saturday afternoon in front of a season-high crowd of 6,712 at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.

Nebraska (23-16-1, 8-6 Big Ten) totaled 18 runs on 19 hits, while Minnesota (12-29, 5-9) was limited to no runs on five hits and two errors.

Kaminska moved to 6-3 after dealing his fourth quality start of the season. The Wichita State transfer scattered five hits across seven shutout innings while striking out a season-high seven and walking none. Kyle Perry struck out the side in the eighth for a scoreless inning, while JC Gutierrez struck out a pair in a scoreless ninth for the Huskers.

Max Anderson led the Big Red at the plate, going 4-for-6 with two homers, four RBI and three runs. Brice Matthews was 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI, three runs and a pair of walks. Josh Caron had a 2-for-5 day with a double, a home run, three RBI and two runs. Charlie Fischer and Ben Columbus tallied two-hit performances, while Gabe Swansen was 1-for-3 with a home run, three RBI and a trio of runs.

Matthews and Burnham led off the bottom of the first on back-to-back walks, before Matthews plated the game’s first run after a fielding error by the Gophers’ third baseman.

Both teams retired the side in the second for the only scoreless inning in the game on Saturday afternoon.

Anderson doubled the lead for the Huskers in the third with a two-out solo home run that landed just shy of the videoboard in right field. Nebraska tacked on another run in the fourth on Matthews’ RBI double down the left-field line after a walk to Cole Evans.

Kaminska worked around a two-out single and picked up three strikeouts in the fifth to silence the Gopher Bats, before Swansen smacked a two-run homer into the Minnesota bullpen to grow the lead to 5-0.

The Huskers grew the lead to nine with four runs on four hits in the sixth inning. Burnham’s RBI single joined with a designed double-steal play made it a seven-run lead, before Fischer’s RBI double to left-center scored NU’s eighth run of the day. Fischer later came around to score after Dylan Carey reached on a Gopher error.

NU nearly doubled its lead in the seventh after pouring in eight runs on six hits. An RBI groundout from Burnham, followed by Anderson’s second home run of the game gave the Huskers a dozen runs. Consecutive two-out RBI singles from Carey and Columbus expanded the lead to 14, while Caron capped the offensive outburst in the eighth with a three-run homer to left.

Sartori began the bottom of the eighth with a double off the wall in center and later came around to score on Anderson’s RBI single to right.

Gutierrez toed the rubber in the ninth and retired the side with two strikeouts to clinch the shutout victory over the Gophers on Saturday.

Nebraska and Minnesota wrap up the series tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.