Four storylines to watch as Nebraska baseball prepares for the Big Ten Tournament

In less than 24 hours, Nebraska baseball will begin postseason play in Omaha at Charles Schwab Field. The Huskers (16-8) are the No. 2 seed after finishing two games behind Illinois (18-6) in the Big Ten standings.

Head coach Will Bolt’s squad is 34-19, one victory ahead of where his 2023 team finished at 33-23-1. Nebraska is in great position to secure an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament at No. 31 in the RPI. The Huskers’ first-round draw of Ohio State (No. 62) as well as a potential meeting with Indiana in the second round (No. 60) represent opportunities to further build that resume.

Nebraska opens tournament play against the Buckeyes (28-24) at 2 p.m. CT on Tuesday afternoon. All games of the tournament will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

Here are four storylines to monitor throughout a critical week for the Huskers.

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1. Pitching depth must carry Nebraska

Nebraska has the best pitching staff in the Big Ten.

The Huskers team ERA of 4.37 is the high-water mark in the conference. It’s an improvement from last year’s 4.64 showing and much better than the next-best number in the 2024 Big Ten (Purdue, 5.06). NU also leads the conference in WHIP (1.26), walks (152) and BB/9 (2.9) while finishing second in saves (17).

Of course, so much the Huskers potential success comes down to Brett Sears and Mason McConnaughey. Sears, who owns the lowest ERA in the conference (2.05) and will be likely named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year when awards are announced Tuesday morning, will be asked to do a lot coming off short rest should he start Tuesday’s game.

Sears tossed 94 pitches in 6 2/3 innings during Nebraska’s 2-1 win over Michigan State last Thursday. That’s roughly five days rest. In his last outing against Ohio State, Sears pitched a complete-game shutout with 10 strikeouts and two hits allowed in a 3-0 Husker win.

Meanwhile, Mason McConnaughey closed out the regular season with the Big Ten’s third-lowest ERA (3.10).

If Nebraska is going to make a run and win this tournament, under no circumstance should the offense fail to give these two arms the run support they need to secure a win. The victorious team in each of the first two rounds gets a day off as well.

Rob Childress‘ pitching staff is likely positioned to do that better than any of the other teams in the field.

2. Can the Huskers hit their stride?

Since winning 10 consecutive games over the final two weeks in March, Nebraska has not managed a winning streak longer than four games.

The Huskers don’t necessarily need to win five in a row this week. But, finding a way to go on a run in this tournament will be a major source of confidence come NCAA Regionals next weekend.

A boost from the bats would be a fantastic sign as well. Nebraska’s 363 total runs (6.84 per game) is 10th in the Big Ten. Some of that falls on the Huskers inability to stay healthy all year. Josh Overbeek’s hand injury in the opening weekend of the year led immediately into Cayden Brumbaugh’s first hang-up, Tyler Stone’s hamstring snag and Brumbaugh’s second hand injury.

Two of those three are about as close to healthy as you can get. Brumbaugh didn’t play in the series opener at Michigan State but closed the series 3-for-8 with an RBI and two walks in the final two games.

Nebraska has posted scores under their season average in seven of the last eight games. Projected Buckeye starter Landon Beidelchies allowed three earned runs the last time he faced the Huskers. He has surrendered that or more in four of his last six starts.

3. One true night game at most

Nebraska has plenty of advantages as the No. 2 seed. Game times and potential crowd sizes is not one of them.

Barring a loss in the opening round, the Huskers will play in no true night games this week. NU would play at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday in an elimination game should it drop the opener to Ohio State. A 5:00 p.m. elimination game on Saturday, with a spot in the championship on the line, is also a possibility.

Over 8,000 people watched the Huskers second-round loss to Maryland last season and more than 5,000 saw a 4-0 win over Michigan State. Both games were at night. Make it to the weekend and time of day will be mostly irrelevant. Nebraska’s season finale against the Terps on Saturday afternoon drew over 9,000.

Husker fans will still undoubtedly make the trip to Omaha and show out all week long. Still, the support at 2:00 p.m. on a Tuesday will likely not be as large as if Nebraska had claimed the No. 1 seed and played in the 6:00 p.m. slot in each of their first two games.

4. Analyzing the rest of the field

This year’s Big Ten Tournament feels completely wide open.

Illinois’ offense is the most dynamic and powerful in the league. The Fighting Illini obliterated its program record with 103 home runs (and counting) this season. Illinois has two of the Big Ten’s top three home run hitters in Ryan Moerman (18) and Drake Westcott (16).

Head coach Dan Hartleb’s Fighting Illini went 5-1 against their side of the bracket with a sweep of opening-round foe Penn State.

Iowa represents a serious candidate for a deep push this weekend. The Big Ten’s preseason top team has had a disappointing season at 31-21, but with Brody Brecht and Cade Obermueller on the hill the Hawkeyes will be extremely dangerous in their first two games. Brecht is the conference’s strikeout leader (118) and threw just 37 pitches against Florida International this past weekend.

Even without the injured Kyle Huckstorf (.311) and Sam Peterson (.333) in the lineup, Iowa’s offense has proven to be capable of doing serious damage.

Penn State represents the field’s Cinderella under first-year skipper Mike Gambino, who took Boston College to a regional last year. The Nittany Lions entered last weekend at 9-12 in conference before sweeping defending champion Maryland on the road to secure their spot.