Nebraska Baseball Weekend Preview: at Northwestern

Nebraska Cornhuskers (17-5) @ Northwestern Wildcats (10-12)

Location: Rocky and Berenice Miller Park, Evanston, IL

Dates: March 29th-31st

Times (all CDT): Friday @ 3pm, Saturday @ 1pm, Sunday @ 1pm

Head Coaches: Will Bolt (5th season, 114-80-1) & Ben Greenspan (1st season, 10-12)

TV/Stream: B1G+

Radio: Huskers Radio Network, Huskers.com, Huskers App

It has been a wild past few years for the Northwestern Wildcats. They had a hard time fielding teams during 2021, as Covid went through the team multiple times, wiping out their roster. Coach Spencer Allen, who also had to miss a few series, stepped down and they announced their pitching coach Josh Reynolds would take over the program as interim coach for the entirety of the 2022 season. All he did was take a team in shambles and get them to a 24-27 record.

That wasn’t good enough for the Northwestern brass though, and they did not retain him and hired Jim Foster from Army. It wasn’t long and ANY northwestern baseball player of note abandoned ship to the transfer portal. Then came the 3 assistant coaches resigning midseason because of the culture of the team. Not only was it a holdover from the previous NW staff that resigned, but two guys who came with Foster jumped ship. Thats how bad it got. Needless to say, Foster was fired during the offseason after going 10-40 and destroying that team’s culture. The only reason it was not big news was because 3 days earlier Northwestern had fired their football coach amid a scandal as well.

Enter Ben Greenspan, longtime assistant to Tracy Smith at Arizona State and Michigan. He was named the top recruiter in the country at one point, after pulling in 2 top classes to ASU. He’s not really used gift yet to bring in any big recruits, but has picked up a couple of big transfers, and it has done a lot of good, as they have already equaled their win total from last year.

Pitching Probables

Game 1: RHP Brett Sears (4-0, 1.14 ERA) vs. LHP Nolan Morr (1-3, 6.39 ERA)

Game 2: RHP Drew Christo (1-1, 4.13 ERA) vs. RHP Kyle Potthoff (2-0, 2.28 ERA)

Game 3: RHP Mason McConnaughey (2-2, 1.65 ERA) vs. TBD

“This train gon’ keep on rolling…” Brett Sears is just on a roll like few Huskers have been on on in recent memory. Last weeks 8 shutout innings against NMSU means its been 14 innings since he’s been scored on. He’s leading the Big Ten conference in ERA and opponents batting average. It’s crazy talk, but he’s putting up Komine numbers so far.

Drew Christo pitched well in 4.1 pressure packed innings against New Mexico State. The cold weather kept the game close and the Husker pitching staff responded, getting the 2-1 victory. In fact, with the 4.1 shutout innings Christo pitched it has been 23.1 innings since a team has scored on a Husker starting pitcher (including Sears and Walsh).

With the cancellation of last Sundays game due to cold, Mason McConnaughey is still looking for his first opportunity to be a weekend starter. He’s not been scored on in his last 5 outings, including his midweek start against Omaha, in which he went 5 innings and struck out 9 Maverick batters.

Northwestern turns to Nolan Morr to start the series. He was a reliever for the Wildcats last year and rarely went for more than an inning. This season he has a 6.39 ERA and has struggled in most of his starts. In 4 starts in March, he didn’t have a quality start and in 1 relief appearance, he gave up 4 earned runs in just 0.2 innings. On Saturday, Missouri grad transfer Kyle Potthoff is having a great one-off year for the wildcats. He’s leading the team with a 2.28 ERA, and batters are only hitting .212 against him.

Scouting Report

The Wildcats turnaround has started on the defensive side. They have committed the fewest errors in the conference. Thats fortunate for the pitchers who are struggling enough as it is. Granted the pitching is far better than last year, just being in the bottom third of the league, and not in last place in ERA by multiple runs.

Last year’s Friday night ace, Matt McClure has transitioned to the bullpen. He is one of the most used arms and most effective despite having a 5.40 ERA. One option to start on Sunday’s game is Luke Benneche. He’s been used in both roles this season, and has the second best ERA on the team at 4.50, but he is prone to walks, tied for a team worst with 14.

The offense has improved as well. From dead last by a mile in 2023 to just below average for 2024. Cather/1B Bennett Markinson is the catalyst on offense, He leads the team with a .360 batting average and 18 RBIs, both numbers better than last years already. Though they don’t have a lot of power, first baseman Trent Liolios provides some pop. He also has 18 RBIs and is tied for the team lead with 3 home runs despite hitting only .222

Series History

The Huskers own a 17-12 record all time against the Wildcats. The teams met last year in Lincoln, and as you can imagine with what we’ve discussed about the state of the program, Nebraska swept them. In fact, since Northwestern took the series lead briefly, Nebraska has reeled off 6 straight.