Nebraska baseball cruised to a 22-2 victory in 12 innings against Cloud County Community College at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park on Saturday afternoon.
The Huskers scored 22 runs on 17 hits, while the Thunderbirds tallied two runs on eight hits and five errors.
Caleb Clark dazzled in the shortened start, allowing just one hit with four strikeouts in two innings. Tucker Timmerman surrendered a run on a pair of hits in two innings of relief. Ty Horn and Ryan Harrahill threw one scoreless inning each, while Rans Sanders gave up an unearned run in one inning. Austin Berggren, Brooks Kneifl, Carson Jasa, Evan Borst and Casey Daiss each pitched one inning to combine for five scoreless innings for the NU bullpen.
The Husker pitching staff combined for 15 strikeouts and surrendered just three free passes, with one walk and two hit batters.
Dylan Carey led Nebraska at the plate, going 3-for-6 with two doubles, a home run, five RBI and four runs scored. Riley Silva had a 2-for-4 day with a double and a run scored. Tyler Stone and Ben Columbus launched three-run homers, while Hayden Lewis slammed a two-run shot and Cole Evans had a solo blast.
The Husker offense went to work early in the open inning, plating four runs on two hits and a pair of Thunderbird errors. Carey reached on a two-out fielding error and later came around to score on a play that included an infield single by Case Sanderson and a throwing error by the Cloud County pitcher to break the scoreless tie.
Gabe Swansen drew a full-count walk to put runners on first and second, while Stone blasted a 414-foot three-run homer into the batter’s eye in center to stretch the lead to four in the first inning.
Cloud County plated its first run of the afternoon behind a pair of singles in the third. Back-to-back one-out singles and a hit batter loaded the bases, before a sacrifice fly lifted to right field made it a 4-1 game after three.
The Huskers responded with three runs on a pair of hits in the fourth to extend the lead to 7-1. Stone and Garrett Anglim drew consecutive two-out walks, before Columbus unleashed a 370-foot three-run homer inside the foul pole down the right-field line.
The Thunderbirds doubled their run production on the day with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh to cut the Husker lead to 7-2.
Nebraska answered with five runs on four hits in the bottom of the seventh to enlarge the lead to 12-2. Anglim led off the inning with a single through the left side, while Columbus drew a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs. Dylan Hufft’s RBI groundout to third plated Anglim, followed by Cayden Brumbaugh’s RBI single through the left side that scored Columbus. Silva followed Brumbaugh with a single to center, setting up Carey’s 349-foot three-run blast into the left-field berm.
The Huskers tacked on four runs on two hits and an error, highlighted by Lewis’ 391-foot two-run blast to right-center that grew that lead to 14 after nine innings.
The NU offense tallied a pair of three-run innings in the 11th and 12th to clinch the 22-2 victory. The BIg Red were led by Carey’s two-RBI double down the left-field line and an RB single from Aaron Manias in the 11th, before Evans led off the 12th with a 404-foot solo homer to left. A wild pitch plated NU’s 21st run of the day, while Rhett Stokes wrapped up the scoring with an RBI single to left field.