Husker Baseball Tied for First in Big Ten, Takes Series from Purdue with 4-0 Sunday Victory

The Nebraska Baseball team (3-1, 3-1 Big Ten) shut out the Purdue Boilermakers (1-3, 1-3 Big Ten) 4-0 in the Sunday series finale. Spencer Schwellenbach and Jack Steil each hit home runs for the Huskers who currently sit tied for the Big Ten lead after their first weekend of play.

The Huskers came out of the gates early on Sunday morning. Schwellenbach took Purdue starting pitcher Jett Jackson deep on a 2-1 count to get the scoring started for the Huskers.

After Nebraska starter Jake Bunz sat down the Boilers in order in the first, Nebraska was able to double the lead. Max Anderson walked to start the inning. He moved to second when Efry Cervantes sacrificed him into scoring position. Steil would get his first run batted in when he hit a double down the left field line to double the Husker lead.

Purdue threatened the Husker lead throughout the day. The Boilers loaded the bases in the third inning thanks to a pair of walks and a single. With Ben Nisle at the plate, Bunz got Nisle to swing and miss at a quality pitch to get the Huskers out of the inning.

Sayer Diedrich pitched a 1-2-3 fourth inning for the Huskers that included a pair of strikeouts. Koty Frank, a junior college transfer came in for the fifth and worked around a two out walk to pitch a scoreless fifith.

Max Schreiber came into the game in the sixth inning. He came in looking to hold the Huskers lead after taking the loss on Friday evening. He allowed a pair of singles sandwiched around a pop up. He then was able to induce an inning ending double play to get the Huskers to the seventh.

Schreiber came back out for the seventh inning. He ran into trouble once again. He gave up a single and a one out walk. Cam Wynne would be summoned from the Husker pen to get out of the jam. He got a flyball out for the second out and then allow Skyler Hunter to reach via a walk. Wynne would strand the bases loaded when Evan Albrecht looked at a breaking ball on the outside corner for strike three.

Cam Wynne has an 9/10 celebration when walking off the mound.

Jaxon Hallmark would get to pitch the eighth inning for the Huskers. He gave up back to back one out singles to bring the go ahead run to the plate. He then got Zac Fascia to ground into an inning ending 6-3 double play. The Hallmark celebration is the highlight of the series for the Huskers.

The Nebraska offense helped make the game more comfortable for the bullpen. Cervantes walked to start the ninth inning. Steil would pick up his second and third RBI’s of the game when he swatted a hanging breaking ball almost into the bleachers in left field to double the Husker lead to 4-0.

Schwellenbach got to pitch the ninth inning in a non save situation for the Huskers. Purdue looked shell shocked as Schwellenbach struck out the first two batters, hitting 97 on the radar gun. A two out single brought up Hunter who lined a ball to Cervantes who took over at short to end the game and secure the series for the Huskers.

Nebraska has to be excited about bouncing back after their opening game defeat. The Huskers got several solid pitching performances and the hitting was good enough to come back to Lincoln with a share of the Big Ten lead.

Nebraska travels to Minnesota next weekend to take on both the Ohio State Buckeyes and Iowa Hawkeyes.