Mason McConnaughey shines in Nebraska baseball's 11-5 win over Omaha

Nebraska baseball (14-5) cruised to a 11-5 defeat of in-state rival Omaha (3-16) in the teams’ only scheduled meeting of the season on Tuesday night.

The Huskers, who lost two-of-three games to the Mavericks in 2023, outhit Omaha 6-1 with runners in scoring position and got a major boost from right-handed pitcher Mason McConnaughey. He collected his second win of the year in the first start of his Nebraska career and didn’t allow an earned run in five innings of work against Omaha.

His nine punchouts in that span marked a season high for any Husker arm.

“McConnaughey set the tone on the mound,” Nebraska head coach Will Bolt said. “His first career start, for him to come out and do what he did and for us to score early in that game, I thought the mindset was awesome.”

Here’s how Nebraska dispatched a major midweek stumbling block for head coach Bolt’s 2022 and 2023 squads.

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It didn’t take Nebraska long to grab a stranglehold on the Mavericks.

Omaha starting pitcher Tyler Mattingley exited the first inning due to a leg injury after throwing just nine pitches. Cole Evans capitalized on walks of Riley Silva and Josh Overbeek by driving the duo in with a RBI single to right. Nebraska added to its lead an inning later with a run via a wild pitch that made it 3-0.

RBI singles from Overbeek and Case Sanderson plated a pair for the Huskers in the fourth. Will Walsh crushed his third home run in as many games during the fifth and Dylan Carey followed with a two-out double that added another. Josh Caron became the sixth Husker to record a RBI with a single in the sixth which stretched the NU lead to 8-0.

McConnaughey cut through the Maverick order like a hot knife through butter in his first career Husker start. The sophomore posted 93 strikeouts in 68 1/3 innings as a freshman starter at Cloud County Community College last year.

“The main goal was just trying to fill up the zone here,” McConnaughey said. “Throw multiple pitches for a strike, changing speeds and really trying to hone in on that fastball on the glove side. Then getting to the breaking ball which is kinda the puttaway pitch and just commanding that.”

That’s the curve for McConnaughey. His catcher agreed.

“Mac did a great job tonight,” Caron said. “He was on attack. There were a lot of times during that outing that things could have got a little sideways and he just steadied the ship and that allowed the offense to run away with it.”

The Mavericks made their push in the seventh and quickly got after reliever Tucker Timmerman in his second inning of work. A fielder’s choice sandwiched between singles followed by a two-out HBP and bases-clearing double down the left-field line cut Nebraska’s lead in half at 8-4.

Two wild pitches and a throwing error allowed Omaha to scratch across a run and draw within three. Then the Huskers landed a heavy counter in the eighth.

A pair of errors at shortstop, a two-RBI double from Caron and an infield single off the glove of reliever Luke Gainer added up to a 11-5 Nebraska advantage. Casey Daiss stepped in for the Huskers in the ninth and put together a no-nonsense 1-2-3 inning to clinch the win.

McConnaughey makes push for Sunday job

It’s hard not to think McConnaughey did enough against Omaha to get a shot at the Sunday slot in Nebraska’s rotation. He is now the only Husker not named Brett Sears to log a start of five innings or longer with five or more strikeouts.

“Absolutely,” Bolt said of McConnaughey’s chances to crack the weekend rotation. “He was pretty dominant tonight. He threw strikes and he put guys away when he had two strikes. Yeah, he looked like a starter to me tonight.”

McConnaughey is the first to admit he struggled this fall. Bolt said his stuff was the same five months ago but the belief in that stuff at the Division-I level wasn’t there yet. That changed at the start of the spring.

“This spring I said, ‘Man, I can really tell a difference in your mound presence this spring,'” Bolt said. “He goes, ‘Coach, that’s the only thing I’ve been focused on is my mound presence and attack on the mound.’ He’s a big, imposing, physical guy. So, when he’s got his shoulders back and he’s working fast, it suffocates the hitter. That’s what I’m seeing from him.”

McConnaughey believes his mentality is key.

“The game of baseball, it’s crazy because you have to have a short memory,” McConnaughey said. “You always have to go out and compete and a new day is a new day. So, I think that was the mindset that I belong here and to go out and compete with my brothers each day because I know they trust me and I trust them 100%.”

With a 1.65 ERA in 16 1/3 innings this year and two wins under his belt, it’s abundantly clear he belongs.

What’s next for Nebraska baseball?

Nebraska resumes its midweek slate on Wednesday evening with a bout with North Dakota State. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. CT and the Huskers are slated to start southpaw Will Walsh (5.50 ERA). Then NU continues its homestand against New Mexico State with a three-game weekend series beginning on Friday at 6:05 p.m. CT.

All four games will be streamed on Big Ten Plus and can be heard on the Huskers Radio Network.