Quick Start Pushes Huskers Past Omaha

Nebraska used a six-run first inning to withstand a late Omaha rally and pick up an 8-5 win on Tuesday afternoon at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.

Nebraska (6-5) scored eight runs on 11 hits and two errors, while Omaha (4-7) totaled five runs, 10 hits and an error.

Dylan Carey led the Big Red with a 3-for-5 performance, a double and two RBI. Cole Kitchens went 2-for-4 with a double, home run and three RBI, while Mac Moyer had a 2-for-3 day with two RBI and a run scored. Case Sanderson drove in a run and had a hit, and Nico Newhan added a double and a run scored.

Cooper Katskee improved to 1-0 on the season after allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits with a career-high 10 strikeouts across six innings. Chase Olson surrendered a run in 0.1 innings of work, and Ryan Harrahill pitched 1.1 scoreless frames. J’Shawn Unger earned his first save of the season, working 1.1 innings despite allowing a run in the ninth.

Omaha opened the scoring with a two-out two-run homer to right-center field that gave the Mavericks a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

The Huskers responded in a big way in the bottom of the first, sending 10 batters to the plate and plating six runs to flip the game on its head. Moyer and Overbeek reached on back-to-back walks, while Carey doubled down the right-field line to score Moyer and pull Nebraska within a run.

Sanderson followed with an RBI groundout that brought home Overbeek to tie the game, before Kitchens put the Huskers in front for good with a two-run homer to right field that made it a 4-2 game.

Nebraska loaded the bases with a pair of hit batters and a double from Newhan, setting the table for Moyer’s two-RBI single through the left side that pushed the lead to 6-2 through the opening frame.

Kitchens doubled home Carey in the second to extend the advantage to 7-2, and Carey added an RBI single through the left side in the third, scoring Jeter Worthley, who had been hit by a pitch for a third time on the afternoon, to make it 8-2.

Omaha chipped away in the sixth with two singles and an NU error to score an unearned run, cutting the Husker lead to 8-3. The Mavs added another in the seventh on an RBI single to pull within 8-4.

Harrahill worked around trouble in the eighth, stranding three UNO baserunners to send an 8-4 lead into the ninth. After surrendering an RBI single after two walks that brought Omaha within 8-5, Unger retired the final batter to earn the save and preserve Nebraska’s win.

Nebraska returns to play tomorrow afternoon against South Dakota State. First pitch between the Huskers and Jackrabbits is set for 1:30 p.m. at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park on B1G+.