Huskers Hammer Out 19 Hits in 14-6 Win Over Jays

Lincoln – The Nebraska baseball team (16-10-1, 2-0-1 Big Ten) scored 10 runs in the second inning Tuesday night on their way to a 14-6 win over the Creighton Bluejays (8-15, 0-0 Big East) at Hawks Field. The Huskers held a 13-1 lead entering the top of the eighth, when the Jays put together a five-run inning.

The last time the Huskers scored 10 runs in an inning was on April 16, 2014, when they did it against Omaha, also in the second inning.

The season-high 14 runs came on a season-high 19 hits, as Angelo Altavilla, Luis Alvarado, Luke Roskam and Jesse Wilkening all had three hits on the night. Nebraska also registered its second multi-home run game in four games, as Ben Miller and Scott Schreiber each hit long balls. Miller started on the mound and earned the win, becoming the first Husker to homer and record a pitching win in the same game since Jake Meyers did it last season against Nicholls State. The victory on the mound was the first of Miller's career.

Nebraska’s 19 hits were the most by NU’s offense since the last time the Huskers played Creighton. Last season in Omaha on May 17, the Huskers recorded 22 hits on their way to a 15-2 win at TD Ameritrade Park.

After the neither team scored in the first, the Huskers blew the game open in the second with 10 runs on eight hits. Creighton starter Jeff Albrecht got the first out of the second and then reliever Ryan Tapani took over. The junior allowed the next five Huskers to reach, as he allowed two singles, hit two batters and gave up a walk. The Jays then turned the ball over to Grant Spranger, who was also unable to get an out. After giving up a single to Altavilla, Spranger had a shot at a double play on a ball hit back to him, but threw the ball into center field. Schreiber then singled before Miller made it 9-0 Huskers with a three-run homer. Creighton brought in its fourth pitcher of the inning, Jackson Vescelus, and he gave up three straight singles, including a RBI single by Roskam. Facing NU’s 14th batter of the inning, Vescelus put an end to the bleeding with a 6-4-3 double play.

Miller retired the first two batters in the top of the third, but then walked the bases loaded with two outs to create a threat for the Jays. With nowhere to put Riley Landuyt, Miller settled in and got an inning-ending pop out.

The Jays broke up the shutout in the fifth with a two-out single. Thomas Luevano reached on a one-out double and after reliever Byron Hood got a groundout, Landuyt delivered a RBI single that cut NU’s lead to 10-1. Will Robertson notched Creighton’s second double of the inning to put two runners in scoring position, but Hood was able to keep the damage to one run with an inning-ending strikeout.

Following the 10-run second inning, the Huskers went scoreless for four innings before putting up three runs in the seventh. Schreiber plated the first run of the frame when he hit an opposite-field home run on the first offering he saw from reliever Brennan Hammer. Later in the inning with two outs and the bases empty the Huskers put together a rally. Zac Repinksi and Roskam notched back-to-back singles and then Wilkening drove both in with a double off the center-field wall that pushed NU’s lead to 13-1.

With just one run on four hits through the first seven innings the Jays broke out in the eighth with five runs on six hits, cutting NU’s lead to 13-6. The Huskers got one run back in the bottom of the frame, as Roskam drove in Jeff Athey, who led off the inning with a pinch-hit double.

The Huskers will travel to Werner Park tomorrow night for a 6:35 p.m. meeting with the Omaha Mavericks before returning home this weekend for a three-game Big Ten series against the Maryland Terrapins.