South Alabama mashes four homers, blows out Nebraska baseball in home opener

Nebraska baseball (7-4) opened its home slate with a resounding thud on Friday evening. The Huskers fell behind 6-0 early and never recovered in a wire-to-wire 11-3 defeat at the hands of South Alabama (11-3).

The loss is Nebraska’s first in a home opener in since a 14-8 loss to Cal Poly in 2018. The Huskers are now 20-2 in home openers since Haymarket Park opened in 2001. South Alabama blasted four home runs, including a three-run shot in the game’s fourth at-bat, in the eight-run victory.

“We didn’t set the tone in any area,” Nebraska head coach Will Bolt said postgame. “All the credit goes to South Alabama. They came out and they were obviously on a mission from the word go.”

Here’s how Nebraska’s loss unfolded.

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It didn’t take South Alabama long to throw the first punch. Jaguar bats roughed up Husker starter Drew Christo to the tune of three straight singles and a home-run to right to give South Alabama a 4-0 advantage. In the third, the Jaguars tacked on two more when Joseph Sullivan pulverized another Chirsto offering and sent it well over the bullpen in right.

A Husker counter came in the home half of the frame beginning with a Cayden Brumbaugh walk. A hit batter and a single up the middle loaded the bases for Tyler Stone who punched a two-RBI single to right to make it 6-2. With runners on the corners and a chance to add more runs, Josh Caron sent a slow roller back to the mound for a 1-6-3 inning-ending double play.

Will Turner’s first-pitch bomb in the fifth spelled the end for Christo and grew the Jaguar lead to 7-2.

Nebraska mounted two-out rallies in the fourth and the sixth, each sparked by a double from Rhett Stokes. But, the Huskers failed to plate runs in either instance following a Brumbaugh strikeout in the fourth and fly out from Case Sanderson in the sixth.

Jaguar starter Carson Swilling held the Huskers at bay until he was relieved in the seventh after completing 6 1/3 innings of work on 114 pitches and scattering six hits.

“Give him credit, he’s got a good fastball,” Bolt said. “He threw 114 pitches and he’s still throwing low-mid 90s. It wasn’t anything that surprised us. We knew what it was going to be. There’s some high spin to the fastball and we took some swings that were a bit underneath the ball and you saw the lazy fly balls and a whole lot didn’t change when they brought the left hander in.”

South Alabama batted around in the ninth opening with another first-pitch home run and tacking on three more runs with a pair of singles to grab a 11-2 lead. Nebraska mustered one final run in the ninth via a Bryce Hughes groundout to shortstop but a nine-run deficit proved far too much to overcome despite the Huskers’ recent heroics in the final frame.

“We’ve been playing from behind a little bit in the last three games and it caught up to us today,” Bolt said. “Not with a crooked number necessarily…Looking for a response and it looked like we were ready to climb back into the game in the third. Had a chance to set up another inning and they turn a double play. Their pitcher makes a play, gets them off the field and there weren’t a lot of threats after that.”

Nebraska was on its heels from the jump

It’s awful hard to rally from surrendering four straight hits, including a three-run bomb, in the first four at-bats of the game. Nebraska has been playing from behind for a little over a week now. It’s a dangerous way to live according to Bolt.

Yet, Friday’s game belongs in a different category. The Huskers were beat in every facet of the game from beginning to end in the series opener. It’s an effort that easily goes down as the team’s worst of the year.

“They were on their toes all night,” Bolt said. “What that looks like is a diving play at short, diving play at second, robbing a home run in right and what it looks like on our end is lazy fly balls and not making pitches to get off the field.”

In spite of that, Nebraska’s players seem confident in their ability to bounce back. Stone is among them.

“We’re going to come out tomorrow ready to fight, ready to dig in and do everything we can to win,” Stone said. “We’ll definitely be bouncing back tomorrow for sure.”

So too is reliver Rans Sanders.

“We’re just chasing something,” he said. “We all want to strive for greatness and that’s what we’re going to do. Tonight just wasn’t our night and tomorrow we’ll be better.”

To make those words become a reality, the Huskers will have to do a much better job of setting the tone on Saturday.

Rhett Stokes stands out as the lone bright spot

Stokes uncountably put together Nebraska’s most notable performance in the home opener. He finished 3-for-4 with two doubles, one of which nearly left the yard in right-center. He also handled duties at both second and third base.

“He was hitting the ball all over the park and made a couple plays defensively for us,” Bolt said. “He had a nice game right there and we’re going to need some guys to step up in some of those spots.”

As the Huskers await the full returns of Josh Overbeek and Brumbaugh, showings like that of Stokes will be a must. The bottom third of the Nebraska order featuring Gabe Swansen, Stokes and Dylan Hufft was a combined 3-for-31 (.097) for the season entering the night.

What’s next for Nebraska baseball?

Nebraska baseball resumes its series with South Alabama on Saturday with first pitch set for 2:05 p.m. at Haymarket Park. The Huskers will send right-hander Brett Sears (1-0, 1.56 ERA) to the mound to face off against the Jaguar’s Cam Hill (2-0, 1.13 ERA)

The game will be streamed on Big Ten Plus and can be heard on the Huskers Radio Network.