No. 25 Nebraska Sweeps Iowa, Caps Perfect 15-0 Home Big Ten Slate
Dylan Carey doubled home two runs in a three-run seventh inning as No. 25 Nebraska swept Iowa with an 8-6 win in front of a season-high crowd of 7,948 on Sunday afternoon at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.
This weekend’s sweep of the Hawkeyes drew a series attendance of 22,815 fans, which is third-largest conference series all-time at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park and the most since 2006.
Nebraska (37-14, 20-7 Big Ten) scored eight runs on 12 hits, while Iowa (29-21, 12-15 Big Ten) tallied six runs on eight hits and two errors.
Carey went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI, and Jett Buck homered and drove in a run on a 2-for-5 afternoon. Will Jesske homered and finished 1-for-4 with an RBI, Drew Grego added two hits and an RBI, and Case Sanderson was 2-for-4. Rhett Stokes, Trey Fikes and Mac Moyer recorded one hit each.
Gavin Blachowicz started and allowed two runs over four innings with six strikeouts. Chase Olson and Ryan Harrahill combined to pitch an inning, while Colin Nowaczyk improved to 2-1 on the season after striking out five and allowing one run in 2.2 innings. Tucker Timmerman earned his first save, closing out the final 1.1 innings without allowing a run.
Iowa grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first after a leadoff homer and one-out RBI single through the right side, but Nebraska answered with five runs over the first three innings to hold a three-run lead through three innings.
Overbeek drew a walk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, while a sacrifice fly from Moyer and a 360-foot solo blast into the left-field berm off the bat of Jesske had the Huskers up 3-2 in the second.
The Huskers extended the lead to 5-2 in the third inning with a solo homer from Buck and an RBI single to center field by Stokes.
The Hawkeyes battled back with three runs in the fifth after a hit batter with the bases loaded and a two-RBI single up the middle locked the game at five after five innings.
The Big Red broke it open in the seventh with three runs on a pair of hits and an error. Carey’s two-RBI double to right-center highlighted the three-run frame, and an RBI single through the left side from Grego pushed the lead to 8-5.
Iowa got one of the runs back in the top of the eighth with a two-out solo homer, but Timmerman kept the Hawkeyes off the board in the final 1.1 innings to clinch Nebraska’s 8-6 win on Sunday afternoon.
Nebraska returns to action on Tuesday, May 12 at Creighton. First pitch between the Huskers and Bluejays is set for 6 p.m. at Charles Schwab Field.