Nebraska baseball remains in the race for the Big Ten Conference tournament field.
The Huskers hosted Iowa for a three-game series, dropping games one and three 1-0 and 5-3, respectively, while taking game two 12-1. Now 18-24 on the season and 6-8 in the league, Nebraska is sitting ninth in the Big Ten with the top eight teams making the conference tournament.
Game one on Friday was a pitchers’ duel.
While Nebraska’s Shay Schanaman threw seven strong innings, giving up just one run and scattering six hits, and Tyler Martin closed out the final two innings of scoreless baseball, Iowa’s pitcher had just a bit more. Adam Mazur threw a complete game, giving up just two hits and no runs while striking out six.
The lone rune in the game came from a home run in the fourth inning.
Nebraska’s two hits were from Brice Matthews and Core Jackson. Strong winds due to oncoming storms prevented multiple possible hits from either landing in play or leaving the park entirely.
Saturday’s game two was moved to Sunday to create a double-header. The first game on Sunday was all Nebraska from the get-go.
Emmett Olson struck out the first three Hawkeye hitters while Nebraska tacked on four runs in the bottom of inning. NU added two more in the second and six in the third to take a 12-1 lead.
That scored stuck through seven innings, where a run-rule was in effect, ending the game.
Olson pitched the complete game, striking out seven and giving up one earned run on four hits.
The star of the game was outfielder Garrett Anglim. The redshirt freshman out of Papillion-La Vista hit his first career home run in the first inning. His next two at bats also resulted in home runs, putting Anglim in rare Husker territory. He’s just the fourth NU player to hit three homers in a game, and the first since Dan Johnson did so in 2001.
The second game of the double-header, and final game of the series, was back to being a barn burner.
After Koty Frank gave up three runs over four innings of work, Braxton Bragg took over and kept the Hawkeyes off the board through the ninth inning. In that time, Nebraska tied the game at 3-3 to set up extra innings.
But the 10th was no good for the home team.
Back-to-back singles and a wild pitch put Iowa runners on second and third with no outs. After loading the bases with an intentional walk, Iowa took the lead on a sacrifice fly.
Tyler Martin then replaced Bragg but promptly gave up a single to bring another run across.
Down 5-3, the Huskers started the bottom of the 10th with a Cam Chick single. But a strikeout followed by a double play ended the game.
Chick led the Husker hitters with three in the game.
Nebraska has some extended rest with no midweek games on tap this week. Next up is a weekend road trip to Minnesota.