No. 20 Huskers Blank Illinois Behind Blachowicz Gem to Claim Series

Gavin Blachowicz and Ty Horn combined to shut out Illinois on six hits as No. 20 Nebraska claimed the weekend series with a 3-0 win on Sunday afternoon at Illinois Field in Champaign, Ill.

Nebraska (33-11, 17-4 Big Ten) scored three runs on nine hits and no errors, while Illinois (21-21, 9-12 Big Ten) was held scoreless on six hits and no errors.

Rhett Stokes and Jeter Worthley each drove in a run, with Worthley’s solo home run in the seventh providing the key insurance run on his first career homer. Case Sanderson went 2-for-3 with a double and was hit by pitch twice, and Mac Moyer finished 1-for-4 with a triple and a walk. Dylan Carey tallied a double, and Trey Fikes, Jett Buck and Drew Grego recorded a hit each.

Blachowicz was outstanding in his 6.1 innings of work, allowing no runs on six hits with four strikeouts to pick up the win and improve to 4-1. Horn closed it out with two punchouts across 2.2 scoreless innings to earn his first save of the season.

Nebraska grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second when Buck singled and came around to score on Stokes’ RBI double to right.

Blachowicz worked around a pair of singles in the third and sixth innings to keep the Illini off the board and maintain Nebraska’s 1-0 lead through six innings.

Worthley added an insurance run in the top of the seventh with a 389-foot solo blast to left field for his first career home run, extending the Big Red’s lead to 2-0.

The Husker offense tacked on another run in the ninth for good measure when Moyer lined a one-out triple to left-center field and scored on a wild pitch, making it a 3-0 game to give Horn enough cushion to close the door.

Horn retired the final eight Illinois batters in order to seal the series win for the Huskers.

Nebraska returns home for a midweek matchup against Kansas State at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park on Tuesday, April 28.