Nebraska baseball evens Rutgers series, blasts the Scarlet Knights 16-1

Nebraska baseball left no doubt in its series-evening win over Rutgers on Saturday afternoon. The Huskers’ mashed three home runs and totaled 13 hits in a 16-1 clobbering of the Scarlet Knights.

The victory snapped a three-game skid as Nebraska exorcised some of its demons from Friday’s 11-inning walk-off loss. The Huskers scored in five of nine innings with five-run eruptions in the third and eighth frames. NU collected its first Quad 1 victory of the season and moved to 23-9 overall and 6-2 in Big Ten play.

“An unbelievable response today by our guys,” head coach Will Bolt said postgame on the Huskers Radio Network. “It’s not easy to do, man. That was a tough, tough loss last night. Make no mistake about it. So to show up today and show the resilience that we showed, to me it shows we have a really strong group of leaders on our team.”

Here’s more on Nebraska’s dominant showing in Piscataway.

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Nebraska’s five-run third inning set the tone.

A hit batter, Rutgers error and a walk loaded the bases for Cole Evans. One run scored on a wild pitch before the Huskers’ right fielder deposited a bloop single down the right-field line to clear the bases and tack on two more.

The exclamation point came off the bat of freshman Case Sanderson. His second home run in as many weeks was a two-run shot and Nebraska quickly had a commanding lead.

Another Husker run crossed in the fourth via a passed ball before NU brought in three more in the fifth highlighted by a Ben Columbus ground-rule double that plated a pair. Gabe Swansen’s two-RBI double down the left-field line brought in two and Nebraska’s advantage ballooned to 11-0.

“The thing I was proud of today is that when we got the lead we didn’t sit on the lead, we stretched the lead,” Bolt said. “Even during our winning streak we’d get off to a lead and then we would kinda sit on it for a bit and then we’d have to use all of our bullpen guys.”

Meanwhile, McConnaughey followed a quality start at Ohio State last weekend with another dynamic pitching performance. The sophomore worked seven scoreless innings scattering six hits and striking out nine. McConnaughey was only challenged once. Three straight Scarlet Knight hits loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth, then righty logged consecutive strikeouts and rolled up a ground ball to third to escape the jam.

Most importantly, McConnaughey went 4-for-4 in shutdown inning opportunities. Two of his shutdown frames were 1-2-3 innings. Nebraska did not hold Rutgers off the board after scoring a single time on Friday.

Back-to-back jacks blew the game open in the eighth.

Columbus launched his second home run of the week, this time a three-run blast, to straight-away center. Then Dylan Carey stepped into the box and went yard, too.

“Lumbo has been a little dinged up too,” Bolt said. “A couple weeks ago his legs were not feeling great. He’s had some things he’s gone through this year that haven’t allowed him to be at his best but it looks like he’s healthy right now and he’s swinging the bat great. It’s another left-handed hitter for us that we really need to get going.”

Leading 16-0, Nebraska turned to reliver Ty Horn in the eighth. He gave up the Scarlet Knights’ first run but limited the damage and Caleb Clark closed the ninth with three straight strikeouts.

Nebraska’s dominate win sets up a critical Sunday rubber match on the Big Ten Network.

“Great response today and you go into a road series on Sunday with a chance to win the series and you’ll take it,” Bolt said. “We need to come out tomorrow and put together all three phases again like we did today: pitching, defense and timely hitting.”

Mason McConnaughey shoves for a fourth consecutive start

Nebraska’s offensive output shouldn’t overshadow a dominant showing from McConnaughey. He picked up his fourth win of the season and pitched seven scoreless innings while scattering six hits and striking out nine without issuing a walk.

He has allowed six earned runs over 24 innings in his last four starts. That equates to a 2.25 ERA. In that same stretch he has tallied 29 strikeouts and allowed seven total free passes.

“He was suffocating the strike zone,” Bolt said of McConnaughey’s outing. “He was really commanding the fastball. He had them worried about the inner half of the dish because the ball had some wiggle to it today, some arm-side run. Then he could get the other side of the plate going with a fastball away and a slider. Then the changeup to the left, he had all three working.”

Bolt thought McConnaughey’s work to escape a jam in the sixth was the most impressive.

“He had a chance to give up a crooked number there when the game was already out of hand,” Bolt said. “But, he made pitches, we made plays and I couldn’t be prouder of Mason.”

It seems Nebraska has a 1-2 punch in the starting rotation that certainly rivals its 2021 pitching staff of Chance Hroch and soon-to-be Major Leaguer Cade Povich.

What’s next for Nebraska baseball?

Nebraska and Rutgers will play the series finale tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. CT. Drew Christo (4.84 ERA) is in line to start looking to respond to a recent run of rough outings. He’ll duel Scarlet Knight sophomore right-hander and 2023 freshman All-American Christian Coppola (6.38 ERA).

Fans can listen to the game on the Huskers Radio Network or watch on the Big Ten Network. Sunday marks the Huskers’ first nationally-televised contest of the season.