Nebraska baseball falls in the ninth to No. 21 Texas Tech

Nebraska baseball (1-1) suffered its first defeat of the 2024 season on Saturday evening after a ninth-inning collapse powered No. 21 Texas Tech (1-1) to a 6-3 victory.

The Red Raiders’ rally spoiled the Huskers’ bid for a 2-0 start and a victory over a ranked opponent for the first time since downing then-No. 7 Vanderbilt in March of last year. Josh Overbeek’s 4-for-5 afternoon led the way for Nebraska at the plate after the third baseman went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on Friday.

Left-hander Will Walsh finished the day 1/3 of an inning from a quality start and allowed three earned runs in 5 2/3 innings of work.

“I thought we did a lot of things right tonight,” Nebraska head coach Will Bolt said. “We played good defense. We made some big pitches. We just didn’t get the big hit. The timely hitting piece was the one piece that was missing and if you get all three of those you usually win the game. We were only able to get two tonight and they were able to get three.”

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Back-to-back singles in the second inning spelled trouble for Nebraska starter Walsh. Texas Tech freshman TJ Pompey made the left-hander pay by smoking a pitch off third base and then Overbeek’s cap as he wen to make the play. The ball caromed into the Red Raider dugout plating a run and a subsequent sacrifice fly made it 2-0 Texas Tech.

The Huskers drew three walks from Texas Tech’s Zane Petty in the home half but only managed to scratch across one run in the inning off a Garrett Anglim groundout. After the Red Raiders got a run back to make it 3-1 in the top of the third, Nebraska made another push in the bottom of the third.

Cayden Brumbaugh worked a leadoff walk which brought an end to Petty’s afternoon. Texas Tech went to freshman Mac Heuer out of the bullpen and Overbeek quickly tallied his second hit of the game. Heuer plunked Dylan Carey to load the bases but Josh Caron ground into a 5-3 double play which made it 3-2. Tyler Stone’s strikeout left Carey at second and officially spoiled the Huskers’ threat.

Nebraska engineered the tying run with a two-out rally in the fifth initiated by Overbeek’s third single of the afternoon. The Cisco College transfer stole second and moved to third on a throwing error before Carey tallied his third two-out RBI with a single that evened the ledger at 3-3.

The Huskers were turned away without a run in the next three innings with runners in scoring position and Texas Tech countered in a big way in the ninth. After a strikeout to start the inning, reliever Mason McConnaughey issued Nebraska’s first walk of the season. That was followed by a swinging bunt single back to the mound and an infield hit to second base off Jalen Worthley scored the go-ahead run.

Another Red Raider single tacked on a second run before a walk loaded the bases and Worthley surrendered the Huskers third walk to make it 6-3. In the home half, Nebraska put runners on the corners via Overbeek’s fourth hit of the afternoon but a fly out to left sealed the Huskers’ first loss of the season.

The Rob Childress Effect

It’s still early, but Nebraska is already seeing plenty of returns from the efforts of pitching coach Rob Childress.

Things were a bit shaky for Walsh in the first two innings but the southpaw rallied and gave the Huskers everything they could have asked for against a ranked opponent. The 4.76 ERA he will carry into next weekend is almost a little deceptive because of how Texas Tech was able to plate its runs.

Next came the second freshman in as many days that Nebraska called first out of the pen. Ty Horn is a great matchup mix to follow Walsh just because of the sudden bump in fastball velocity that he brings to the table. The change of pace worked to the Huskers’ advantage and the right-hander faced six batters over 1 2/3 innings while collecting two punchouts.

Childress played matchups in the eighth after Horn gave up a leadoff double. Jackson Brockett, an arm that could easily be a weekend starter, stepped in and played his part perfectly against fellow left Gavin Cash. Then McConnaughey entered and closed out the inning with a groundout against a right-handed bat.

In the ninth, Nebraska played the matchups again with a lefty against Worthley and the Red Raiders were able to create some magic off weak contact.

“There’s some guys that we have trust in that have good stuff,” Bolt said. “You’re seeing guys hold their velocity between 92-94. That’s what we’ve seen in the preseason. So they’re not out there timid and that tells me they’re ready to go mentally. A lot of positive signs there. There’s no moral victories but I thought we played awfully well.”

The fact that the Huskers didn’t give up their first walk of the year until they were 17 1/3 innings deep is nothings short of impressive. Apart from the way things turned out in the final frame, Nebraska’s arms were on point again. That’s a great sign for what’s to come especially compared to where the team was at in San Diego at this time last year.

“We dominated the game honestly for eight innings,” Nebraska head coach Will Bolt said. “I know we played from behind a little bit early but they didn’t hit a lot of balls hard. There were a couple of balls that fell in front of our outfielders and some swinging bunts. I thought Walsh managed the game beautifully I thought and up toward the very end I thought out bullpen did a nice job getting some stops.”

Huskers fail to capitalize with runners in scoring position

Nebraska loaded the bases twice, had leadoff runners aboard in the seventh and eighth and came away from those four situations with two runs. The Huskers also left runners stranded in scoring position in the seventh and eighth innings. As a unit, Nebraska’s bats went a combined 1-for-12 (.083) with runners in scoring position.

That’s about as rough as it can get.

The Huskers just couldn’t manage some of the clutch hits that gave them the win over Baylor on Friday. The only breakthrough the team had was Carey’s game-tying single in the fifth. Nebraska had a chance to blow the game open in the second and third with the bases juiced and couldn’t capitalize.

Of course, the bright side is that the Huskers generated a ton of hard contact all afternoon. A Will Jesske groundout to second in the eighth inning would have been a potentially game-winning RBI single if not for an excellent defensive play from Texas Tech. It just seemed like it wasn’t Nebraska’s night at the dish.

“Silva lined out with, I believe runners at second and third also, he hit a ball right on the screws with runners in scoring position,” Bolt said. “End of the day, you’ve got to cash in better than 1-for-12 (with runners in scoring position) when you’re not getting extra-base hits.”

What’s next for Nebraska baseball?

Nebraska baseball concludes its weekend in Arlington at the Shriners Children’s College Showdown by renewing another Big 12 rivalry with Oklahoma. First pitch is slated for 10:30 a.m. CT.

Left-hander Caleb Clark will get the ball for the Huskers in his first start of his sophomore season. The Sooners have yet to officially announce a Sunday starter. The game can be streamed on FloSports and heard on the Huskers Radio Network.