Nebraska wins in extra innings over Michigan State to take the series

The Nebraska baseball team (20-7) took their seventh straight series win after beating Michigan State (12-17) 9-6 in 12 innings. The Huskers made history with a series win here as they have never won seven straight series.

The offense got it going early with a big first couple innings. In the top of the first, a couple of walks and a hit batter loaded the bases for Max Anderson to drive in the first run. The next at-bat, Luke Roskam drove in another with a base hit. Two more walks drove in a third run and NU had an early lead. In the second, the Big Red doubled their lead with two base hits and a double.

Shay Schanaman was the starter today and he got out of the first inning with no hits or runs allowed, then headed into the second with a 6-0 lead. In the bottom of the second inning, Schanaman loaded the bases with two walks and a hit batter. Back-to-back singles cut the Nebraska lead to just three runs, and the starter got out of the inning with a double play.

In the bottom of the third inning, Schanaman continued to struggle and a walk and error put two runners on. A double drove in two runs, followed by a sacrifice fly that tied the game.

After the first three innings, the scoreboard went blank for the rest of the game. In to pitch for the Huskers was Koty Frank and he was able to lock things up with just three hits allowed for no runs. Following the second inning, NU had no hits until the eighth inning when Griffin Everitt doubled. He wasn’t driven in, and the two teams headed to extra innings.

Max Anderson led off the 10th inning with a triple, but the Big Red weren’t able to drive him in. It took until the 12th inning for Nebraska to score, when they put three on the board. Max Anderson drove in one, and Efry Cervantes drove in two to give the Huskers a three run lead.

Spencer Schwellenbach was pitching for the Huskers to close the game after coming in before the ninth inning. The junior allowed just four hits in four innings pitched, but more importantly he didn’t allow the Spartans to score, giving NU the win.

There were many times when Michigan State could have taken this game, but Nebraska found a way to put them away. In the 10th inning, MSU had runners on second and third with two outs, but Schwellenbach got a ground ball to second that was handled well to put the inning to bed. In the 11th, with a runner on second, the Spartans hit a single up the middle and the runner took off for home. A perfectly placed throw from Jaxon Hallmark ended the inning and gave the Huskers another chance.

NU took advantage of that extra chance, and in the top of the 12th, with a runner on second, Max Anderson hit a base hit to take the lead, and later Efry Cervantes tacked on two insurance runs. It wasn’t pretty from the Big Red, but it goes down as a win.

Spencer Schwellenbach has been used as a closer this season, and only once had he gone more than one inning. In this game, the junior pitched four innings in his home state of Michigan and allowed just four hits for no runs. This performance was crucial for Nebraska, as they needed someone to keep the scoreboard clean and give them more chances to win this game.

Not only did Schwellenbach impress from the mound, but he got on base four times and scored three of those. He will be looked at more and more this year as a leader on this team.

Following this series, the Huskers are headed back home to play three games against Rutgers. The series starts on Friday at 6:30 p.m., followed by a 4:00 p.m. start time on Saturday and a noon start time on Sunday.

All three games can be streamed on BTN+ and heard on Husker Sports Network.