Nebraska downs Indiana 4-2 in home finale, collects key series win

What a difference 48 hours can make. For Nebraska baseball, that looked like the smiles and good vibes of a series win following the shock of a gut-punch 10-5 loss to Indiana on Friday.

The Huskers returned the favor to the Hoosiers on Saturday on Cole Evans’ 10th-inning walk-off home run and returned to the park Sunday for a critical rubber match. Head coach Will Bolt’s squad found a way to grind out a 4-2 victory and claim the weekend 2-1.

Drew Christo’s four innings of scoreless relief made all the difference.

“That’s the perfect way to end the season here at Haymarket,” Christo said. “I think that game really embodied what this team is trying to have been about this whole year. Fight and resilience. Just being gamers. Staying in the moment and I think that was on full display today so, a great way to go out.”

In total, 19,522 fans watched the Huskers final home series at Haymarket Park this weekend. The 11:00 a.m. Mother’s Day matinee drew 6,193. Bolt said composure was key in a series that had a playoff feel.

“We’re not a perfect team,” Bolt said. “There’s no perfect teams out there. But, you’ve just gotta compete and you’ve gotta fight and you gotta make big pitches when you need ’em, you’ve gotta make big plays when you’ve gotta have ’em, and if you’re 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position and you need one hit to win, that’s what you’ve gotta do.”

Here’s more on a win that puts Nebraska at 32-18 on the year and 14-7 in Big Ten play.

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After mounting failed scoring threats in each of the first two innings, Nebraska’s bats broke through in the third.

Rhett Stokes reached on a fielding error at third and moved into scoring position via a balk before Case Sanderson doubled to left to drive in the game’s first run. A Josh Caron single put runners on the corners and a wild pitch allowed a run to score as Nebraska took a 2-0 lead.

“I didn’t really know,” Sanderson said of his RBI knock. “Off the bat I was just running and I end up looking, peaking, everyone was cheering and I saw the ball over the fence so I was like, ‘Maybe it went out?’ But, I guess not. It felt good.”

Indiana began to chip away in the fifth and halved the Huskers’ advantage off the bat of Jasen Oliver who deposited a ball in left for his second homer of the weekend. Brockett gave up a second solo blast an inning later to cleanup man Tyler Cerny. He exited in the top of the sixth in a 2-2 game.

Brockett’s first weekend start of the season featured two earned runs over five innings with three strikeouts.

It didn’t take long for Nebraska to pull back in front. With one out, Caron reached on a throwing error, the Hoosiers’ third of the game, and moved to second base. Indiana elected to intentionally walk Tyler Stone with two down and that brought Cole Evans to the dish. He promptly doubled to left and put the Huskers back on top 3-2.

Drew Christo took the ball from Brockett in the sixth, and after allowing a leadoff single, settled in to five straight. Then an error at first and a two-out single in the seventh spelled the potential for trouble. But, Stone responded and made a over-the-shoulder catch in foul ground for the final out of the frame.

Nebraska tacked on some insurance in the home half with a RBI single from Caron that made it 4-2. That’s all Christo needed. He sat the Hoosiers down 1-2-3 in the eighth and ninth and struck out Devin Taylor looking for the final out.

“He wanted the ball there in the ninth inning and it showed,” Bolt said. “He was super impressive. Couldn’t be prouder of him and Brockett, both.”

Unlikely heroes spark a big-time bounce back

The sudden rise of Jackson Brockett and Caleb Clark along with the resurgence of Christo could not come at a better time for Nebraska.

Over his last three outings, Brockett has pitched 17 innings and allowed three earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts. That’s an ERA of 1.59 and a WHIP of 0.58. Christo has surrendered two earned in his last three appearances (both at Minnesota). That follows a stretch where he coughed up an earned run in nine of his previous 10 outings and in six of those nine Christo allowed multiple runs to the opposition.

“Baseball is a tough game,” Bolt said of Brockett and Christo. “You’re gonna have ups and downs regardless of how talented you are. Both of those guys are super talented. They’ve been part of two teams as freshmen and sophomores that fell short of where they wanted to go. They’ve been great teammates through it all and they embody everything about Husker baseball.”

Clark received similar high praise from Nebraska’s skipper.

The Canadian southpaw has allowed three earned runs in his last five appearances totaling 11 1/3 innings. Two of those runs came on a two-run homer against Minnesota last week. In that time, he has 11 strikeouts to four walks. Clark’s 2 2/3s of relief into extra’s on Saturday represented a major reason why the Huskers turned the tide in the series, and he was rewarded with his first win of the year.

Come postseason, when pitching depth becomes incredibly important, sudden pops like this are a great sign.

“What we’ve seen is where we’ve had to make too many moves, trying to be too perfect at the end of the game, it’s come back to bite us,” Bolt said. “So when you’ve got guys who can give you length like Christo who’s more stretched out, Brockett’s stretched out, Clark is stretched out and (Jalen Worthley) has been in that mold for the most of the year. When those guys are all rolling and confident, it definitely helps out the staff.”

What’s next for Nebraska baseball?

Nebraska closes out the regular season on the road at Michigan State next week. The series begins Thursday at 5:05 p.m. CT, continues at the same time Friday and concludes Saturday with first pitch set for 12:05 p.m. CT. All three games can be heard on the Huskers Radio Network and streamed on Big Ten Plus.