- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,133,116
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images
J’Shawn Unger gets his 9th save of the season today against Illinois | Nebraska Athletics
After a slow start last night, the Cornhusker offense did not waste much time finding its groove today. The bottom half of the lineup teed off on Illini righty starter Mitch Dye in the second inning, putting three runs up on the score board and Nebraska never looked back.
Jett Buck led it off with a single and moved to second when Illini third baseman Kyle Schupman bobbled a grounder hit by Joshua Overbeek. With two on and no outs, Drew Grego drove in the first run of the game with a single of his own.
Rhett Stokes loaded the bases as he stroked the third single of the inning. Up came Trey Fikes, who hit a little nubber that the pitcher had to go to first with. That scored Overbeek. Back to the top of the order, Mac Moyer drove a ground ball deep to the second baseman for a 4-3 out, but scored Drew Grego. That put Nebraska up 3-0 after their second at-bat.
The Scarlet and Cream scored three more in the third inning, thanks in large part to Dye walking Case Sanderson and hitting Will Jesske to start it off. Overbeek drove both of them in two batters later. Grego followed with his second single and then Stokes drove in Overbeek on a ground ball out. Nebraska would have scored at least another run in the inning had Illinois shortstop J.R. Nelson made a brilliant play to rob Fikes of an RBI hit.
Big Red fans got a ride on the Carson Jasa roller coaster today. The Colorado flame-thrower dazzled in the first two innings with five strikeouts. He did walk and hit a batter, which is kind of to be expected. However, at that point he dominated and it looked like a long day for Illinois batters.
In the third and fourth innings, Jasa found it more difficult to find the strike zone. The Illini scored one in the third and one in the fourth. It could have been far worse as they loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth, but a fortunate ground ball to Overbeek at third resulted in a double play to get the Cornhuskers out of the inning. Jasa walked three batters in that inning.
Nebraska drove starter Mitch Dye from the game in the fourth and scored two unearned runs, though they left the bases loaded. They also had something cooking in the fifth getting the first two runners on base but were not able to convert any runs.
Going to the bottom of the fifth, Nebraska held an 8-2 lead. Jasa gave up a lead-off single and then hit his second batter of the game. He was missing big on some pitches, but survived to induce ground balls that his infielders turned into outs and did not surrender any additional runs.
Illinois relievers were able to keep Nebraska off the board in the sixth and seventh innings. Tucker Timmerman came on in the sixth in relief of Jasa. He sat them down in order thanks to an inning ending double play that he started, making a great snag of a sharp hit grounder. Dylan Carey was also brilliant on that play making a difficult catch and still getting off a good throw.
The Illini got back in the game off Timmerman in the bottom of the seventh. After a lead-off fly out, Overbeek made his second fielding error of the series on a ball hit right at him. That was costly as Illinois scored three runs after that. A.J. Putty and Schupman singled and Timmerman appeared to get rattled. He threw a wild pitch, walked a batter, and hit a batter before he was pulled for J’Shawn Unger, who got them out of the inning with no further damage.
Since Illinois showed they could put runs on the board last night, it was huge that Nebraska added a run in the eighth and three more in the ninth. Sanderson scored on a Jett Buck sacrifice fly in the eighth. In the top of the ninth, Moyer, Carey, and Sanderson went back-to-back-to-back with doubles, and scored the final run on an RBI single from Overbeek.
Unger faced four batters in the eighth and four in the ninth, and surprisingly did not have a strike out. He didn’t have his best stuff either, but found a way to get ground balls and let his defense do their job. After getting Nelson to ground out to end the game, he had his ninth save of the season. Ball game! Nebraska 12, Illinois 5.
Carson Jasa got the win today (8-1), thanks in large part to the offensive onslaught and some very solid defense behind him. He gave up three hits and had five strikeouts. However, he also had six walks and hit two batters. He was good enough to win, but it was hard for him today as he just wasn’t as sharp as he has been in his last few outings.
It was not a clean game either as both teams committed two errors a piece. In each case runs scored after they took place. At the same time, big plays were made by both teams, including some very timely double plays.
While nearly all of the faces were the same as the past few games, Coach Will Bolt did make a few interesting adjustments in the batting order today. Dylan Carey was moved up to the second spot and Will Jesske, once again the designated hitter, was in the cleanup spot. Trey Fikes got the start behind the plate for Jeter Worthley, though today was different because Worthley has been the designated hitter when that happened before.
Dylan Carey has seen a steady diet of breaking pitches low in the zone thus far this weekend. He had a hit yesterday, but was O’fer today until he ripped that double in the ninth inning. Teams have figured him out and he is going to need to be a little more patient at the plate. Coach Bolt had a chat with him right before that double and basically told him that he was trying too hard.
Nebraska tied up the series today and the teams will be back at it tomorrow at 1:00 to decide it on Championship Sunday. After today’s offensive performance, the Big Red has to be confident going into the rubber game. The pitching has not been sharp thus far on the trip, so let’s hope Gavin Blachowicz turns that around when he takes the mound tomorrow.
Notes:
- Mac Moyer has extended his on-base streak to 42 games, reaching today on a walk, a bunt base hit, a single, and a double.
- Four Cornhuskers had three hits: Moyer, Sanderson, Jesske, and Overbeek.
- Trey Fikes is actually Larry Eugene Fikes III. How do you get “Trey” out of that? This was his eighth start of the season for the redshirt catcher.
- Nebraska had at least one hit in every inning today.
- It is worthy of mention again – Dylan Carey played brilliant in the field today. He made throwing on the run look easy and had some moves turning double plays that a ballerina would be jealous of. For not getting drafted last season, the young man has definitely raised his stock this season.
Continue reading...
