Nebraska baseball swept at Ohio State as its hosting hopes slip
No. 16 Nebraska baseball (34-14, 17-7) was swept at Ohio State (24-21, 13-11) after getting crushed 10-1 in the finale on Sunday as the Buckeyes smacked seven homers.
With the defeat, NU has lost three straight for the first time this season.
Entering the series 11th in the country in RPI, Nebraska’s hopes of hosting a regional begin to fade as it currently sits 18th in the WarrenNolan Live RPI.
Despite the pitching blowup in Game 3, the Big Red finished the series with just 13 hits for a combined five runs. The only Husker with a multi-hit performance came from first baseman Case Sanderson.
“The team that (Ohio State) was all weekend was the team that we’ve been all year,” head coach Will Bolt told the Huskers Radio Network.
Here is an instant recap from the finale in Columbus, Ohio…
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Where does Nebraska go from here for Sundays?
It was a pure nightmare for Cooper Katskee (L) from the bump, with five runs surrendered off three homers.
After recording two quick outs, Katskee surrendered yet another first-inning homer to hand the Buckeyes a 1-0 lead. It marked the sixth time this season that he yielded a dinger to start the game.
Katskee responded by retiring the next seven OSU hitters. But in the fourth, the Miami (Ohio) transfer ran into a Buckeye buzzsaw.
He faced early traffic after a lead-off double and a one-out walk issued before allowing a three-run blast. Moments later, Katskee surrendered his third nuke of the game to make it 5-0.
As he issued another walk, Ohio State successfully chased Katskee after 3 1/3. It marked the fourth consecutive start in which Katskee allowed at least four runs. Do not be shocked to see another shake-up in the starting rotation next week.
“We need to have some shorter innings on the mound and on defense so we can get the offense going and vice versa,” Bolt said.
Ice-cold offense can’t find pulse
With just eight hits through the first two contests, Nebraska had its best opportunity yet in the first.
Jeter Worthley’s one-out single marked NU’s first hit in the first frame all weekend.
Out of the three-hole, Sanderson followed with another single to set up runners at the corners for Will Jesske. However, the designated hitter grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to strand Worthley just 90 feet from home plate.
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The missed opportunities carried into the second and third as NU stranded three free-pass baserunners.
Trailing 5-0 in the fifth, Drew Grego drilled a lead-off double to right-center. Interestingly enough, it was only NU’s second extra-base hit of the series. Even with a little spark, back-to-back strikeouts and a 5-3 groundout kept the Buckeye momentum roaring.
NU finally found a pulse in the seventh with Joshua Overbeek’s one-out double before Rhett Stokes brought him home to make it 7-1. But the punch came way too late.
“We’ve seen us being very, very committed to team baseball all year long,” Bolt said. “And we were just very choppy from a team approach standpoint.”
Uncharacteristic outings from top bullpen arms
Ty Horn relieved Katskee and retired the first four before he allowed the fourth OSU homer to make it 6-0. In the sixth, Horn permitted another dinger as the Buckeyes poured it on.
Without any action this weekend, the Huskers gave closer J’Shawn Unger an appearance in the seventh. And yet the Buckeye clinic remained on fire by drilling the sixth and seventh homers of the game off the Big Red to make it 10-1.
Jalen Worthley took over and recorded the final out to avoid a run-rule loss in the seventh. Ryan Harrahill worked 2/3 of the eighth in his first outing since Game 2 of the Oregon series before Colin Nowaczyk finished the inning.
Nebraska returns to the ball diamond at 6 p.m. CT on Friday for its final home series of the season in the first of three against Iowa. Watch on Nebraska Public Media or listen on the Huskers Radio Network.
