Rally in Ninth Drops Huskers
Nebraska scored the tying run in the bottom of the eighth, but Northwestern answered with a pair of runs in the ninth to give the Wildcats a 9-7 win on Friday night at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.
Nebraska (17-21, 5-11 Big Ten) scored seven runs on 12 hits and an error, while Northwestern (17-18, 8-8 Big Ten) had nine runs, nine hits and an error.
Tyler Stone and Joshua Overbeek led the Huskers at the plate on Friday night. Stone was 3-for-5 a home run, two doubles and two RBI, while Overbeek went 2-for-3 with a pair of homers and four RBI.
Cayden Brumbaugh had a three-hit night with two doubles and Max Buettenback homered, followed by Robby Bolin, Gabe Swansen and Will Jesske with one hit each.
Will Walsh allowed six runs on six hits in three innings. Drew Christo limited the Wildcats to a run on two hits with three walks and two strikeouts in three innings.
Casey Daiss fell to 1-1 on the season, surrendering a run in 2.1 innings of work. Luke Broderick recorded the final two outs, allowing one run on a hit and two walks.
Northwestern opened the scoring on Friday night with a one-out solo homer into the right-center field berm in the top of the first.
The Huskers responded with back-to-back solo homers on consecutive pitches from Buettenback and Stone to grab a 2-1 lead through the opening frame.
The Wildcats recorded back-to-back homers of their own in the top of the second to take a 4-2 lead with a two-run homer, followed by a solo shot.
Nebraska got one of the runs back in the bottom of the second to trim the deficit in half. A leadoff single from Bolin and double into the right-center gap by Swansen had runners on second and third with no outs. Overbeek lifted a sacrifice fly to deep left to bring home Bolin and make it a 4-3 game.
A leadoff walk to open the third inning set up a two-run homer for the Wildcats, extending Northwestern’s lead to 6-3.
A pair of doubles in the bottom of the third allowed the Huskers to get one of the two runs back. Brumbaugh doubled to right field to begin the bottom of the third, while Stone snuck an RBI double inside the left-field line to plate Brumbaugh and bring the Big Red within 6-4.
Northwestern opened the fourth inning with a solo shot into the Wildcats’ bullpen to stretch the lead back to three.
Swansen was plunked on a 3-2 pitch in the first at-bat in the bottom of the fourth, setting the table for Overbeek’s two-run homer to right field that had the Huskers within a run through four innings.
Christo and Daiss combined to blank the Wildcats in the fifth, sixth and seventh frames, while the NU offense threatened in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of baserunners in scoring position. The Huskers had runners on second and third with two outs, but a swinging strikeout to end the inning kept Northwestern’s lead at 7-6 after seven innings.
Overbeek locked the game at seven in the bottom of the eighth with a two-out solo homer into the left-field berm.
The Wildcats had runners on first and second with one out after a pair of walks, while an intentional walk with two outs loaded the bases for the visitors. Down to their final strike in the inning, Northwestern grabbed the lead with a two-RBI single to right field.
Brumbaugh opened the bottom of the ninth with a double down the right-field line but was tagged out after passing the bag. Stone lifted a two-out double down the right-field line to bring the tying run to the plate, but a swinging strikeout to end the game preserved Northwestern’s 9-7 win on Friday night.
Nebraska and Northwestern conclude the weekend series with a doubleheader Saturday afternoon at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park. First pitch of Saturday’s doubleheader is set for 1:02 p.m., followed by the series finale approximately 45 minutes after game one.