Jesske, Blachowicz Lead Huskers Past GCU

Will Jesske’s early home run and a strong outing from Gavin Blachowicz led Nebraska to a 9-1 win against Grand Canyon on Sunday night at Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz.

Nebraska (3-0) recorded nine runs on 14 hits, while GCU totaled a run, four hits and an error.

Jesske had a 3-for-3 night with a homer, two runs driven in and three runs scored. Jett Buck drove in three runs with a 2-for-4 performance, while Joshua Overbeek was 2-for-4 with two RBI.

Case Sanderson and Dylan Carey had a double and two hits apiece, and Miken Miller, Max Buettenback and Devin Nunez recorded one hit each.

Gavin Blachowicz had a career outing in his first career start, pitching a career-high 4.2 innings with a career-high five punchouts. The sophomore surrendered one run on two hits and a pair of walks.

Chase Olson improved to 1-0 on the season after dealing 1.1 scoreless frames with three strikeouts in his Husker debut. J’Shawn Unger threw two shutout innings with two strikeouts and a walk, while Jace Ziola entered the ninth and tossed a scoreless inning in his Husker debut.

Jesske broke the scoreless deadlock in the top of the third with a 405-foot solo blast beyond the GCU bullpen in left field to give the Huskers a 1-0 lead.

The Husker offense added three more runs in the fourth inning to stretch the lead to 4-0. Buettenback was hit by the pitch to start the inning, and Nunez ripped a single back up the middle and advanced to second on the throw to put runners on second and third with one out.

A wild pitch allowed Nunez to jog on home from third base, while an RBI single up the middle off the bat of Jesske plated the Big Red’s second run in the inning. Buck lifted a sacrifice fly to deep left field to score Jesske and make it a 4-0 game.

The GCU offense threatened for the first time in the bottom of the fourth inning, picking up their first hit of the evening with consecutive singles to open the inning. A walk loaded the bases for the Lopes with no outs, before a sacrifice fly to deep left field plated GCU’s first run of the evening.

Blachowicz struck out the next two batters to strand the two baserunners and keep NU’s lead at 4-1 through four innings.

Holding a 4-1 lead after the seventh, the NU offense erupted for five runs on five hits in the top of eighth to blow the game open at 9-1.

A leadoff walk to Mac Moyer, followed by Jesske’s third hit of the night had runners on first and second with no outs. An errant throw on a failed pickoff attempt moved the duo to second and third, setting up Buck’s two-RBI single through the left side.

Sanderson followed Buck with a ground-rule double, while Overbeek laced a two-RBI single through the left side to make it an 8-1 game. Carey capped the scoring with a first-pitch RBI double to left field that brought home Overbeek.

Unger worked around a leadoff walk in the bottom of the eighth, and Ziola kept the Lopes off the board in the bottom of the ninth to preserve Nebraska’s 9-1 victory.

Nebraska wraps up opening weekend action in Arizona tomorrow afternoon, as the Huskers take on Stanford at Salt Rivers Field at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, Ariz. First pitch between the Big Red and Cardinal is set for 2 p.m. CT on MLB.com.