Buettenback and Nebraska baseball defeat Indiana 6-5 in yet another gritty win
Nebraska baseball (20-6, 6-1) notched its 20th win of the season in the series opener against Indiana (10-15, 3-7) 6-5 at Haymarket Park on Friday night.
Max Buettenback launched a home no-doubt home run in the second inning to get NU on the board. He finished with 1-for-2 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch to keep his mid-season resurgence going.
Ty Horn worked into the sixth inning for the second start in a row. The junior struck out six and walked three. J’Shawn Unger closed it out in two dynamic innings of work.
Here is an instant recap of another gritty win for the Huskers….
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Buettenback’s blast plays complement to Horn
The Huskers have waited for Horn to deliver a quality outing from start to finish, and they got one Friday. The junior started in dominant fashion, striking out two in a 1-2-3 top of the first. Hoosier starter Reagan Rivera has been up and down since arriving in Bloomington. The Coppin State transfer gave a little bit of everything in another shaky start.
After Horn delivered another scoreless inning in the second, the Husker bats got to work. Jett Buck reached on an error by the third baseman before Buettenback put NU on the board with a home run. The junior was out on his front foot but still smashed a ball over 100 mph into the Hoosier bullpen to grab a 2-0 lead after two innings.
The Huskers went back to work immediately in the third inning. As the game hit the hour mark, coach Will Bolt rolled the dice with small ball to manufacture a run.
Mac Moyer reached on a single before Jeter Worthley moved him over with a bunt. Dylan Carey then drove in the center fielder on a hit-and-run RBI single. Carey reached third on two wild pitches and scored on an induced balk to make it 4-0 after three innings.
Nebraska continued to pour it on in the fourth while Horn kept IU scoreless. After Buettenback walked, Moyer reached on another Indiana error, this time by the shortstop. Worthley walked to load the bases with two outs and knock Rivera out of the game. Michael Sarhatt entered and hit the first batter he faced to bring another Husker across, stretching the lead to 5-0.
Wild final four innings end in a Nebraska win
The speedy pace of the game came to a halt in the second half. Horn worked his shutout into the sixth inning but was removed before recording an out with two runners on base. The bullpen immediately faltered.
Caleb Clark entered and quickly allowed two runs following a wild pitch, a hit batter, and an RBI single. Tucker Timmerman then entered and surrendered two more runs on a single, shrinking the lead to 5-4. The offense responded in the bottom of the sixth when Case Sanderson was hit by a pitch for his second RBI of the night.
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Indiana grabbed another run off of Timmerman after a groundout scored a leadoff triple. The Huskers went down quietly in the bottom half before J’Shawn Unger entered for the eighth. He worked a clean inning, making the last out himself, to keep the lead at one. The Huskers went scoreless in the home half which left the heart of the order for IU in the ninth.
Unger made quick work of the Hoosiers in the ninth. He had two outs in two pitches after 1-3, and 4-3 ground outs. He finished it out by swording the Hoosier clean-up hitter to end it 6-5.
Bullpen struggles again as the season story continues
Horn left the game with two runners on but no runs allowed, finally flashing the dominant starting performance Bolt and his staff have been waiting to unlock. When Clark entered, however, the “flip-a-coin” trend for the Nebraska bullpen continued.
Clark is one of several Husker relievers who seem to be a different pitcher every time out. Friday marked the eighth game this season in which the bullpen allowed at least four runs. Despite wins Sunday and Tuesday, the unit combined to allow 13 runs over that span.
That inconsistency remains a primary concern as Big Ten play intensifies. Preseason optimism surrounding arms like Kevin Mannell and Clark has been met with mixed results. Clark allowed his first run of conference play against the Hoosiers, and Timmerman followed suit but all season, it seems as though fans are forced to hold their breath the moment the starter departs.
While Ryan Harrahill and Chase Olson have been as advertised, the bullpen must find consistent depth. With matchups against Oregon and USC looming, the Huskers likely need a more reliable combination of arms to balance out all the quality starts they are getting from their starters, but more importantly to close out games.
