Nebraska holds on to complete sweep over Penn State

The Nebraska baseball team (18-6) completed a three-game sweep of Penn State (8-16) with a 5-3 win in the final game of the series. The Huskers kept a slim lead for most of the game and were able to hang on and close out the win.

Shay Schanaman started for NU and hung up two zeros on the scoreboard in the first two innings. The junior struck out three batters in the first two innings, and gave up just one hit.

The Big Red scored first in the third inning when Joe Acker led off with a double and Spencer Schwellenbach drove him home. Penn State got one back in the bottom of the inning with two base hits and a wild pitch. It didn’t take long for Nebraska to get back on top, and in the fourth inning two errors and a base hit scored a run.

In the fifth inning, the Huskers started to pull away when Leighton Banjoff drove in two runs with a base hit. PSU cut the lead back to two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. The two teams traded runs once again in the sixth inning with Max Anderson driving one in for NU.

With a two-run lead heading into the seventh inning, the Big Red sent Jake Bunz to the mound to relieve Schanaman, and he retired the side. The lefty struck out one batter and gave up no hits to maintain the lead. Spencer Schwellenbach took over in the eighth inning and picked up where Bunz left off. The junior pitched the final two innings with no hits allowed and three strikeouts. Schwellenbach earned his fifth save of the season.

Shay Schanaman came out in this game and was strong. The defense let him down slightly, as he only allowed one earned run. Two of the runs that were scored while Schanaman was pitching came after an error. The junior gave up seven hits in six innings pitched, and he struck out five. The two pitchers out of the bullpen for Nebraska stole the show however. Jake Bunz pitched just one inning, but he allowed no base runners, retiring the side in just eight pitches. Spencer Schwellenbach closed the game out exactly how he wanted to and also allowed no baserunners with 20 total pitches thrown in the final two innings.

The offense was able to get runners on base, but it was hard for them to break the game open. In this game, the Huskers left 10 runners stranded. Of the 10, seven were left in scoring position. This team will look at the game and think about how many more runs could have been scored if they just linked together one more hit. While the offense left men stranded, they were able to drive in important runs consistently. When they needed to, NU kept the Nittany Lions at a distance by scoring in four straight innings.

The Big Red will head to East Lansing, Michigan to take on Michigan State in a three-game series. The first game is Friday at 4:05 p.m., followed by a Saturday game at 2:05 p.m. and a Sunday game at 11:05 a.m.

All three games can be heard on Husker Sports Network. As of now, the first game will be on Big Ten Network.