Post by nu5ncbigred on May 26, 2024 1:07:05 GMT -5
Husker baseball completes climb to Sunday's title game
Battered on Tuesday, the Huskers rallied to win four in a row and now will play Penn State for a championship.
Brian Christopherson3 hrs
(Photo: Husker Athletics)
Gabe Swansen had just delivered a cannon that even the wind couldn't stop. His stylish bat flip about the no-doubter home run was representative on multiple fronts.
No one has flipped the story of his season more than Swansen this week, delivering time and time again when it matters most. Along the way, Nebraska baseball flipped the sour and surly story that was starting to be written on Tuesday. Just flipped that upside down and into the trash can.
The revised script reads that the Huskers (38-20) are in the Big Ten Tournament Championship game on Sunday against Penn State, after taking down Indiana 10-4 on Saturday evening several hours after beating the Hoosiers 4-2 in the morning. The title game is set for 10 a.m., moved up from its originally scheduled afternoon time due to weather concerns.
"We haven't gotten our butts kicked very often but we did the very first day of this tournament. You show up the next day with a job to do," said Husker head coach Will Bolt. "You can't get emotional about wins or losses. You've got to show up. Baseball doesn't lend itself to care about your feelings even a little bit. So you just show up and compete. I'm proud of our guys for getting here. But we have a job to do tomorrow. And that's just come and play with fire and intensity. That's what I'm going to ask them to do."
Four wins in four days. And No. 44 – Swansen – delivered four hits in two of those wins. One of those performances was in Saturday's nightcap before 10,869 fans at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
Swansen's bomb in the bottom of the fifth inning, a 2-run homer, made it 6-1 and gave the Huskers a firm grip on a game that would never be in doubt from that point forward. Just as clutch was Joshua Overbeek, who finished with 4 RBI, including a double that cleared the bases in the second inning to make it 3-0.
"I really wasn't looking for much, just an opportunity to pick up my teammates who had set up the bases for me," Overbeek said. "It put me in a good spot and I look to put my teammates in a good spot as well."
Overbeek would double again to centerfield in the bottom of the sixth to make it 7-1.
Nebraska's pitching held up its end of the bargain too. Drew Christo started and had a gritty – yeah, that's the word – five innings in which he allowed only one run despite Indiana consistently having traffic on the bases. A key moment came as early as the bottom of the first when Christo got out of the inning unscathed after the bases were loaded.
The Hoosiers left 12 men on base.
"It just felt like he was ready for the moment today, to give him the ball," Bolt said of Christo, who had also been up throwing in the second inning of the first game in the bullpen. He threw a lot of pitches in the pen. He got hot more than once to possibly pitch in Game 1, including in the ninth inning. "For him to do that, to throw that many pitches, to get hot to go in a high-leverage situation, and then go back to the hotel and take a shower and come back and be able to start the game. We were kind of just hoping for an opener situation to be honest."
You know, maybe a couple innings. But he was still hitting 93 to 94 in the fifth inning on his way to throwing 81 pitches.
"It was maybe one of the more impressive things I've ever seen coaching college baseball and I'm not overstating that," Bolt said. "That was incredible what he did for the team."
Nebraska, meanwhile, continues to collect extra base hits like your great aunt does coupons. With 17 doubles this week, NU has now set a Big Ten Tournament record in that category. The Huskers also played long ball in a way Indiana could not. While some deep Hoosiers hits died a few feet from the fence, Nebraska received homers from Swansen, Josh Caron and Ben Columbus.
"You got to slug to get crooked numbers ... and today wasn't a great day to hit," Bolt said. "But what you're seeing from our offense is taking more committed swings. When I say committed swings, you may swing and miss early in the count. You may make some mistakes by being aggressive. But when we're in that frame of mind we can slug and I think we've got guys that can do it all up and down the lineup."
Caron was a menace to Indiana at the plate in both games, finishing 2-for-4 with four RBI in the first contest Saturday, including two home runs that traveled a combined total of 865 feet. His first was a three-run shot that was tracked at 433 feet and 112 mph off the bat in the third inning to give Nebraska a 3-1 lead.
He would later park one 432 feet to the left field concourse in the eighth inning to make it 4-2. When he unloaded another in the late game, it gave him five homers for the week.
"We haven't really done anything different. We just stuck to our process, and trusted our preparation up to this point," Caron said. "Having kind of the safety net of knowing we're going to play next week is also good so we're playing freely right now. We still definitely want to get after it tomorrow and finish the job."
"I think that's a testament to who this team is to beat a team twice, a good Indiana team is hard enough as it is," Overbeek added. "But to do it with a time gab in between just shows how focused the boys are and how hooked up we are."
Mind you, the joyful day of Husker baseball doesn't happen if Will Walsh didn't shut the Hoosiers down in Game 1 Saturday.
Walsh threw a complete game in that 4-2 win, throwing 121 pitches, allowing just two earned runs on six hits, while issuing only one walk. While Indiana did bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning, the pitcher finished his day in style. His fifth strikeout of the day sealed the deal.
In the night's action Nebraska's four pitchers would combine for eight strikeouts and not burn out too many arms in the process.
So it's on to Sunday in what has been an a tournament of unlikelihoods. Penn State arrived as the 8 seed in the 8-team field, but hasn't lost a game in Omaha, defeating Michigan 7-6 in 10 innings on Saturday in the game sandwiched between the two Husker wins.
And Nebraska? Well, let's just say many on the outside probably weren't expecting the Huskers to be playing Sunday when they lost 15-2 on Tuesday.
Long ago it seems.
"Last night wasn't fun obviously," Nebraska's ace Ryan Sears said the day after that initial loss to the Buckeyes. "But in baseball you got a chance to play almost every day. As soon as we woke up this morning I think a lot of the guys did really good of just flushing it and realizing we had a job to do."
Finish the job Sunday and free championship hats come with it.
Battered on Tuesday, the Huskers rallied to win four in a row and now will play Penn State for a championship.
Brian Christopherson3 hrs
(Photo: Husker Athletics)
Gabe Swansen had just delivered a cannon that even the wind couldn't stop. His stylish bat flip about the no-doubter home run was representative on multiple fronts.
No one has flipped the story of his season more than Swansen this week, delivering time and time again when it matters most. Along the way, Nebraska baseball flipped the sour and surly story that was starting to be written on Tuesday. Just flipped that upside down and into the trash can.
The revised script reads that the Huskers (38-20) are in the Big Ten Tournament Championship game on Sunday against Penn State, after taking down Indiana 10-4 on Saturday evening several hours after beating the Hoosiers 4-2 in the morning. The title game is set for 10 a.m., moved up from its originally scheduled afternoon time due to weather concerns.
"We haven't gotten our butts kicked very often but we did the very first day of this tournament. You show up the next day with a job to do," said Husker head coach Will Bolt. "You can't get emotional about wins or losses. You've got to show up. Baseball doesn't lend itself to care about your feelings even a little bit. So you just show up and compete. I'm proud of our guys for getting here. But we have a job to do tomorrow. And that's just come and play with fire and intensity. That's what I'm going to ask them to do."
Four wins in four days. And No. 44 – Swansen – delivered four hits in two of those wins. One of those performances was in Saturday's nightcap before 10,869 fans at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
Swansen's bomb in the bottom of the fifth inning, a 2-run homer, made it 6-1 and gave the Huskers a firm grip on a game that would never be in doubt from that point forward. Just as clutch was Joshua Overbeek, who finished with 4 RBI, including a double that cleared the bases in the second inning to make it 3-0.
"I really wasn't looking for much, just an opportunity to pick up my teammates who had set up the bases for me," Overbeek said. "It put me in a good spot and I look to put my teammates in a good spot as well."
Overbeek would double again to centerfield in the bottom of the sixth to make it 7-1.
Nebraska's pitching held up its end of the bargain too. Drew Christo started and had a gritty – yeah, that's the word – five innings in which he allowed only one run despite Indiana consistently having traffic on the bases. A key moment came as early as the bottom of the first when Christo got out of the inning unscathed after the bases were loaded.
The Hoosiers left 12 men on base.
"It just felt like he was ready for the moment today, to give him the ball," Bolt said of Christo, who had also been up throwing in the second inning of the first game in the bullpen. He threw a lot of pitches in the pen. He got hot more than once to possibly pitch in Game 1, including in the ninth inning. "For him to do that, to throw that many pitches, to get hot to go in a high-leverage situation, and then go back to the hotel and take a shower and come back and be able to start the game. We were kind of just hoping for an opener situation to be honest."
You know, maybe a couple innings. But he was still hitting 93 to 94 in the fifth inning on his way to throwing 81 pitches.
"It was maybe one of the more impressive things I've ever seen coaching college baseball and I'm not overstating that," Bolt said. "That was incredible what he did for the team."
Nebraska, meanwhile, continues to collect extra base hits like your great aunt does coupons. With 17 doubles this week, NU has now set a Big Ten Tournament record in that category. The Huskers also played long ball in a way Indiana could not. While some deep Hoosiers hits died a few feet from the fence, Nebraska received homers from Swansen, Josh Caron and Ben Columbus.
"You got to slug to get crooked numbers ... and today wasn't a great day to hit," Bolt said. "But what you're seeing from our offense is taking more committed swings. When I say committed swings, you may swing and miss early in the count. You may make some mistakes by being aggressive. But when we're in that frame of mind we can slug and I think we've got guys that can do it all up and down the lineup."
Caron was a menace to Indiana at the plate in both games, finishing 2-for-4 with four RBI in the first contest Saturday, including two home runs that traveled a combined total of 865 feet. His first was a three-run shot that was tracked at 433 feet and 112 mph off the bat in the third inning to give Nebraska a 3-1 lead.
He would later park one 432 feet to the left field concourse in the eighth inning to make it 4-2. When he unloaded another in the late game, it gave him five homers for the week.
"We haven't really done anything different. We just stuck to our process, and trusted our preparation up to this point," Caron said. "Having kind of the safety net of knowing we're going to play next week is also good so we're playing freely right now. We still definitely want to get after it tomorrow and finish the job."
"I think that's a testament to who this team is to beat a team twice, a good Indiana team is hard enough as it is," Overbeek added. "But to do it with a time gab in between just shows how focused the boys are and how hooked up we are."
Mind you, the joyful day of Husker baseball doesn't happen if Will Walsh didn't shut the Hoosiers down in Game 1 Saturday.
Walsh threw a complete game in that 4-2 win, throwing 121 pitches, allowing just two earned runs on six hits, while issuing only one walk. While Indiana did bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning, the pitcher finished his day in style. His fifth strikeout of the day sealed the deal.
In the night's action Nebraska's four pitchers would combine for eight strikeouts and not burn out too many arms in the process.
So it's on to Sunday in what has been an a tournament of unlikelihoods. Penn State arrived as the 8 seed in the 8-team field, but hasn't lost a game in Omaha, defeating Michigan 7-6 in 10 innings on Saturday in the game sandwiched between the two Husker wins.
And Nebraska? Well, let's just say many on the outside probably weren't expecting the Huskers to be playing Sunday when they lost 15-2 on Tuesday.
Long ago it seems.
"Last night wasn't fun obviously," Nebraska's ace Ryan Sears said the day after that initial loss to the Buckeyes. "But in baseball you got a chance to play almost every day. As soon as we woke up this morning I think a lot of the guys did really good of just flushing it and realizing we had a job to do."
Finish the job Sunday and free championship hats come with it.
