Nebraska baseball sweeps Nicholls in doubleheader, crushing them 17-1 in game two

On3 imageby:Abby Barmore03/17/23

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Nebraska baseball (10-5-1) swept Nicholls (11-9) in a doubleheader on Friday at Kansas State’s Tointon Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. The Huskers won the first game 2-1 behind starting pitcher Emmett Olson‘s seven strikeouts.

Their pitchers and batters teamed up in game two to win 17-1 by tallying 17 hits and the bullpen allowing three hits. Starting pitcher Jace Kaminska allowed three hits, one run and struck out three Colonels in his five innings. Nebraska had four home runs, including a grand slam from Brice Matthews.

Here are the summaries for both games:

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Game One: 2-1 Huskers

Game one was a battle of the pitchers as both pitched the entire game. Left-handed pitcher Emmett Olson led Nebraska with five hits, three in the final inning, and earned seven strikeouts in seven innings. The junior now has a 3-1 record on the year.

Nicholls’ left-handed pitcher Tyler Theriot allowed seven hits, two runs and recorded three strikeouts in his six innings. Theriot and his defense retired 10 straight Husker batters during the game.

Olson retired the first three batters he faced, including striking out two.

The Huskers kept up the momentum by hitting three straight singles in the bottom of the first. Cole Evans scored with help from Max Anderson and Charlie Fischer. Anderson and Fischer were left stranded as Josh Caron and Gabe Swansen were called out on grounders.

Olson allowed his first hit in the top of the second as McCrae Kendrick hit a single to Max Anderson at second base on a full count. Nebraska baseball retired the other three Nicholls batters in the inning with two strikeouts.

Theriot settled in wonderfully, retiring 10 straight Nebraska batters. Swansen broke up the streak as he was walked in the bottom of the fourth. But Carey continued it as he flied out to end the inning.

Nebraska’s defense wasn’t as efficient but was pretty close in the top innings. Olson went 1-2-3 in the top of the third.

He hit Xane Washington with a pitch in the top of the 4th. However, after Olson struck out Edgar Alvarez, Felix hit a grounder to Matthews who turned it into a double play to end the inning with one three batters seen.

Olson faced seven batters in the home halves of the fifth and six innings. He struck out one batter and gave up one hit. Nebraska’s defense took care of the rest, getting six quick outs.

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Nebraska broke through after Theriot retired 10 straight batters, ending in the fourth. In the bottom of the fifth, Efry Cervantes was hit in the knee by a pitch to start the inning. Casey Burnham bunted to get Luke Sartori, Cervantes’ pinch runner, to second. Matthews and Evans both put the bat on the ball to get Sartori home. However, Sartori was tagged out at home as Evans hit close to the third baseman.

The Huskers scored their much-needed insurance run in the bottom of the sixth. Caron, Swansen and Carey notched three straight singles. Carey’s single rocketed through the right side, senting Caron home to make it 2-0. Swansen was called out in the process.

Nicholls took advantage of a tired Olson. After Alvarez grounded out to first, the Colonels slugged three straight singles. They got more than one runner on base for the first time in the game. Gerardo Villarreal earned the Colonels’ only RBI on a sacrifice fly to get Felix home.

Olson was determined to finish the game and go out on top. He threw three straight strikes to retire Amundson and end the game.

Game Two: 17-1 Huskers

Right-handed pitcher Jace Kaminska started off his outing by retiring all three batters in the top of the first, striking out one batter.

Righty Devin Desandro didn’t have as much luck as he gave up three hits and two runs in the first inning. His defense wasn’t any help as they committed two errors to give up the two unearned runs. On the first error, the second baseman threw to Kendrick at first and the ball rolled away from Kendrick without much effort from the first baseman. Evans ran home.

Later on, Caron singled through the left side to get home Fischer who was on second thanks to a throwing error by the pitcher trying to pick him off. Nebraska baseball ended inning No. 1 up 2-0 over Nicholls.

Felix started the second inning for Nicholls with a lead-off single. Matthews threw the ball into the dugout of an error to advance Felix to second. He was stranded there as Nebraska retired the next three batters.

Carey hit the day’s first double in the bottom of the second. He advanced to third on a wild pitch. After Burnham struck out swinging, Matthews hit it hard at the shortstop glove and Coddou couldn’t grab it, earning an error and allowing Carey to score.

Evans grounded out to end the inning with Nebraska up 3-0.

Kaminska went to work to start the third. He and his defense sat down three straight batters in the top of the third.

The Colonels brought in right-handed pitcher Chase Gearing after Desandro gave up three runs, four hits and had three strikeouts in two innings. Gearing pitched a weird inning in the third. He gave up a home run to Anderson, his first batter. Anderson’s hit was just hard enough to get caught in the wind above the field and was carried out of the right field fence.

Fischer and Caron both hit singles. Then Gearing seemed to dial in and struck out two Husker batters. He then walked Carey and struck out Burnham to leave the bases loaded.

Kaminska struggled in the top of the fifth. He walked Cain then gave up a single to Villarreal. Pinch hitter Jaden Collura singled to right center to load the bases with one out. After Matthews and Swansen nearly collided in left field for out two, Cain scored on a wild pitch.

Gearing’s day was done after one inning. Nicholls brought in righty Nico Saltaformaggio. The Huskers loved him as he walked his first three batters to load the bases.

Right-handed pitcher Cade Evans took the mound next. He gave up an RBI single to Columbus and a 2 RBI single to Carey that dropped into center field. It didn’t get better after that for Evans as he hit Burnham and walked Cole Evans. Matthews flied out to right field but allowed Columbus to score.

Anderson singled down the right-field line for two runs then Fischer notched a sacrifice fly for another RBI. Nebraska baseball finished the inning leading Nicholls 11-1 and scored seven runs in the fifth.

After a quick 1-2-3 inning from right-handed pitcher Jackson Brockett.

Nebraska went back to work at the plate. With the bases loaded, one batter was walked and another hit by a pitch, Matthews crushed a home run against the wind into left field for a grand slam.

Anderson refused to show mercy as he crushed his second home run of the afternoon to right field. Nebraska ended the sixth inning with five runs after a seven-run fifth inning.

Nebraska made many changes to into lineup after going up 16-1 in the sixth. Efry Cervantes went to third, Blake Mozley to second and Carey moved to shortstop. Daniel Young went to left field and Swansen moved over to right. The Huskers made changes to their batting lineup as well throughout the rest of the game.

Brockett finished his game with no hits and one strikeout in two innings. Left-handed pitcher Jake Bunz came in for him at the top of the eighth to retire all three batters in the inning.

The Huskers would not let up as Cervantes hit the fourth homer of the game in the bottom of the eighth. Just like Anderson, he took advantage of the jetstream above Tointon Family Stadium. Everitt and Will Walsh got on base for NU but Mozley was grounded out at first to end the inning.

Right-handed pitcher Will Rizzo took over for Bunz after just one inning. Rizzo threw six pitches to record one strikeout and help retire two more batters in the final inning.

Nebraska’s pitching staff gave up three hits in game two, seven in the first game and two total runs in 16 total innings.

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Pitching staff lockdown:

Nebraska’s pitching staff was on fire, from top to bottom on Friday.

Olson started the day off pitching all seven innings in the first game. He gave up five hits, one run and struck out seven batters, one shy of his season-high. The junior’s seven innings were a season-high. He threw 96 pitches, which was a season-high.

Things got dicey for Olson in the top of the seventh but he pulled out one more strikeout for the win.

Kaminska started and pitched five innings for Nebraska in game two. He gave up one run, three hits and struck out three batters.

Head Coach Will Bolt was impressed with Jackson Brockett who pitched the two innings after Kaminska. Brockett had one strikeout and gave up no hits against the six batters he faced.

“To be a good staff and a good pitcher in general, you’ve got to get ahead, you’ve got to be on attack and get ahead and not feel for it,” Bolt said. “Brockett did a great job of that coming out of the pin. He’s a guy we were going to start him (yesterday). He got bumped from the start, came out ready to go, throwing strikes and getting ahead.”

Will Rizzo pitched the last three outs of the game and had one strikeout.

“Rizzo, that was great to see there, landing some sliders,” Bolt said. “We’re going to need those guys. We’re going to need some guys to come out of that bullpen with some attitude, with some attack and to make sure there is no doubt when they let go of the baseball.”

After a poor bullpen outing against Omaha, all five pitchers on Friday did really well.

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