Huskers Rout Wildcats in Seven Innings

Nebraska run-ruled Northwestern in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader with a 14-4 win in seven innings at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.

Nebraska (18-21, 6-11 Big Ten) scored 14 runs on 11 hits, while Northwestern (17-19, 8-9 Big Ten) scored four runs on seven hits.

Max Buettenback was 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and a pair of runs scored. Cayden Brumbaugh drove in a run and went 2-for-3 with a double and two runs. Gabe Swansen had a 1-for-2 afternoon with a grand slam.

Joshua Overbeek and Will Jesske had one hit and two RBI each, while Cael Frost, Tyler Stone, Robby Bolin and Dylan Carey tallied one hit apiece.

Ty Horn improved to 1-4 on the season after allowing three runs on five hits across five innings. The sophomore struck out six Wildcats and issued two walks. Tucker Timmerman pitched the final two innings, surrendering one run on two hits with a pair of strikeouts and a walk.

The Husker offense went to work early, plating five runs on five hits to take a five-run lead after the opening inning. A pair of one-out singles from Brumbaugh and Buettenback and a walk to Stone loaded the bases for the Big Red.

Swansen cleared the bases with Nebraska’s first grand slam of the season, drilling an 0-2 pitch 362 feet to right. Bolin followed the homer with a single through the right side, before Carey’s sacrifice bunt advanced Bolin to second base. Overbeek added to the lead with a first-pitch RBI single through the right side that plated Bolin from second and made it 5-0 through the first.

Brumbaugh’s one-out double down the left-field line in the bottom of the second set up Buettenback’s two-run blast to right field that grew the lead to seven.

Horn allowed his first hit of the afternoon with a one-out double in the top of the fourth inning. The Wildcats followed their first hit of the day with an RBI single to left-center field that plated Northwestern’s first run of the afternoon.

Nebraska immediately got the run back in the bottom of the fourth to keep the lead at seven after four innings. Frost led off the inning by reaching first base on a wild pitch on strike three and later came around to score on Stone’s one-out RBI single to left field.

The Wildcats opened the fifth inning with a leadoff single and double to put runners on second and third with no outs. A one-out two-RBI single up the middle brought Northwestern within 8-3.

The Huskers responded with three runs on three hits in the bottom of the fifth to expand the lead to 11-3. Bolin worked a leadoff walk and moved to second on a wild pitch, while a second wild pitch in the inning brought him home from third. NU tacked on two more in the inning with Jesske’s RBI double down the left-field line, followed by an RBI single to right-center field from Frost.

Northwestern had runners on first and second with two outs after a double and a walk, while an RBI single through the right side plated the Wildcats’ final run of the game in the top of the sixth.

Nebraska manufactured three runs without a hit in the bottom of the sixth to grow the lead to 14-4. Two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases to begin the inning, while two consecutive walks plated two runs before the first out of the inning.

A sacrifice fly to deep right from Brumbaugh allowed Carey to score from third and extended the Huskers’ lead to 10.

Timmerman retired the Wildcats in order in the seventh inning to conclude Nebraska’s run-rule victory in seven innings.