You couldn’t ask for better weather for Senior Day at Haymarket Park to celebrate eleven players who have worn the scarlet and cream for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Temperatures in the low-80’s and barely a breeze was nearly the perfect setting to honor these players and families.
After the preliminaries it was time to play ball! After an incredibly difficult loss last night, it did not get any easier for the Big Red as they faced righthander Connor Foley, sporting a 4-1 record. More important, Indiana is 9-1 in games that Foley starts. Many wondered how the Big Red would respond tonight.
Well, it didn’t take long to get things started. Just as he did last night, Devin Taylor started off the game with a home run over the leftfield fence to quickly put Indiana in the lead 1-0. However, the feel-good vibe of the Cornhusker faithful was not extinguished as they got behind started Mason McConnaughey to encourage him forward.
Two web gems happened early in the game with Dylan Carey going deep into the hole to field the ball and then set his feet to get enough on his throw to first to nip Brock Tibbitts at first. Then in the bottom of the second, Ben Columbus had a swinging bunt that dribbled toward third base. Pitcher Connor Foley channeled his inner shortstop with his throw on the run to get Columbus.
Like Brett Sears did last night, McConnaughey settled in and took command of the game, putting the Hoosiers down in order in the second, third and fourth innings, waiting for the Cornhusker offense to find their groove. In fact, Big Mac got stronger each inning and after four innings, he had recorded seven strikeouts.
Finding that offensive groove was proving difficult, as could be seen in the bottom of the third when Riley Silva led off the inning with a double on a hit the third baseman had deflect off his glove. Foley then struck out Joshua Overbeek, Cayden Brumbaugh, and Case Sanderson. Someone needs to wake up the bats!
After McConnaughey sat the Hoosiers down in order in the fourth, with a couple of strikeouts, the third inning basically repeated itself as Josh Caron led off with a walk and then Foley struck out Stone, Columbus and Evans. Folks, we have a good old-fashioned pitching duel here at Haymarket Park!
Big Mac sat Indiana down 1-2-3 for the fourth consecutive inning, and then the Cornhuskers had their biggest threat of the game in the bottom of the fifth. Overbeek got the second hit for the team with two outs and stole second base. Brumbaugh followed with a walk. The two of them advanced to second and third on a wild pitch to put two runners in scoring position. They were stranded as Foley once again rose to the occasion and struck out Sanderson to end the threat. After five innings, Indiana still held a 1-0 lead.
With number nine batter Jasen Oliver leading off the sixth inning breaking McConnaughey’s no-one-on-base streak by working a walk, the dangerous Devin Taylor came to the plate. Big Mac had to be careful and walked Taylor as well. That brought Coach Rob Childress out for a conversation, and he chose to leave the righthander in. That faith would be repaid in short-order.
Josh Pyne executed an excellent sacrifice bunt to move both Hoosier runners into scoring position. This became one of those big moments that come about in big games. With the coaching staff showing confidence in him, Mason McConnaughey was up for the moment. Nick Mitchell hit a grounder to first baseman Tyler Strong, who stared Oliver back to third before stepping on the bag for the second out of the inning. Then Big Mac struck out cleanup hitter Tyler Cerny to the roar of the red-clad fans who had poured into the ballpark tonight.
Nebraska finally got on the scoreboard in their half of the sixth against a new Indiana pitcher. After throwing 96 pitches and keeping the Big Red off the board, Connor Foley was pulled for another righthander, Drew Buhr. After Josh Caron grounded out to short, mighty Tyler Stone poked a home run over the bullpen wall to tie the game. After six innings, the game was tied 1-1.
Most likely because of the concern they currently have for the bullpen, the Nebraska coaching staff opted to keep riding the right arm of McConnaughey into the seventh inning. After giving up a lead-off single, the sophomore out of Topeka showed his moxie by continuing to go after Indiana batters and navigating a good hitting lineup. He punctuated his efforts with a strikeout of Oliver for the third out, setting off another roar from the partisan crowd.
Perhaps feeding off the effort of Big Mac and the energy of the fans, Dylan Carey started things off in the bottom of the seventh with a home run smash off the wall of the building beyond the leftfield wall. That no-doubter put the Big Red up 2-1.
Hoping to get one more inning of magic, McConnaughey took the mound for the eighth inning, which was concerning because he would face the top of the order and they would be seeing him for the fourth time. It started out fine as Taylor flew out harmlessly to Silva in centerfield. Then the magic started to fade a little bit as a fastball rode up and in, hitting Josh Pyne on the hand. McConnaughey then walked Mitchell before Cerny hit a moon-shot that bounced off the top of the wall in center just beyond Riley Silva’s glove. The double scored Pyne to tie the game 2-2.
One thing about Nebraska baseball fans is that they appreciate effort and when Mason McConnaughey made the walk to the dugout after Coach Childress made the motion to the bullpen, everyone wearing red were on their feet. The young man had put in a warrior-like performance and the crowd showed their appreciation.
In came sophomore lefty Caleb Clark, who finally seems to be developing a mindset to match his arm talent. With runners on second and third base, and the infield pulled in, Clark struck out designated hitter Drew Brenczewski and then out raced Tibbitts to receive a toss from Tyler Stone for out number three at first base. What a big moment for the kid from Canada!
With one out in their half of the inning, Josh Caron worked a nine-pitch walk. Indiana started playing musical pitchers at that point, bringing in a lefty to throw to Stone. That worked out as Stone grounded out to first base. Nebraska then sent pinch-hitter Gabe Swansen to hit for Ben Columbus. Coach Mercer countered by bringing in a righthander, Julian Tonghini to face him. That worked out for the Cornhuskers as Swansen was hit on his elbow guard by a pitch that came too far inside. Cole Evans then hit one off the fist that was easily caught by the shortstop in shallow leftfield. Going to the ninth, all tied at two a piece!
Caleb Clark came out strong in the top of the ninth, working around a base hit with a couple of lazy flyballs to Silva in centerfield. With two out and one on base, everyone in the ballpark then took a deep breath as lead-off man Devin Taylor brought his .355 batting average to the plate. Clark fanned him, causing the biggest roar of the night.
With one out in the Cornhusker ninth, Riley Silva hit a grounder into no-man’s land between third, short, and the mound, and beat it out. Nebraska had their fastest runner on base with Joshua Overbeek coming up. Silva stole second in the at-bat, but Overbeek went down swinging. Cayden Brumbaugh did the same. Free baseball!
As electric as he can be, Clark is still a work-in-progress. He hit a batter with one out in the ninth and then walked one with two outs. Out came Rob Childress with runners on first and second to share some words of wisdom. Whatever he said worked as the lefty looked like he was injected with some confidence and went right after Tibbitts. On a 2-2 pitch, Tibbitts grounded out to Brumbaugh to end the inning.
Garrett Anglim, a defensive replacement for Sanderson in the previous inning put a charge in the stadium leading off with a double that just skipped over first base and rolled into the rightfield corner. The Hoosiers intentionally walked Caron, which was the smart thing to do at this point. Tyler Stone then chased a pitch down and in, striking out for the first out of the inning. Tonghini then dug deep himself and struck out Gabe Swansen. Two on and two out. Bottom of the tenth.
Think back to when you were a kid. Cole Evans did! He absolutely crushed the first pitch he saw well over the wall in centerfield. Bedlam! Ball game! An explosion of noise and a happy bunch of Cornhuskers swarming to the plate to celebrate with the senior from Grand Island who just made a dream come true! Nebraska 5, Indiana 2.
There is no doubt that Nebraska needed this win. They really needed this win. The series is tied. There’s another game to be played tomorrow and the team still has it goals alive.
The forecast sounds a little iffy for Sunday. For that reason, they moved the start time up to 11:00 a.m. Neither team has named a started, so fasten your seatbelt. Who knows what to expect!
Notes:
· Eleven seniors were honored before the game tonight: Ben Columbus, Cole Evans, Garrett Anglim, Kyle Perry (again!), Clay Bradford, Bryce Hughes, Kyle Froehlich, Bobby Olsen, Will Walsh, Brett Sears, and Rans Sanders. Three of them have only been at Nebraska this year and one has been her for 18 years and went through their second Senior Day (just joking Kyle!).
· The double Riley Silva had in the third inning was originally recorded as an error. Apparently, all of these cameras in the ballpark are being used by the official scorekeeper as well.
· The final line score for Mason McConnaughey tonight was 7.1 innings giving up two runs on five hits, along with 10 strikeouts. He threw a total of 101 pitches and dropped his ERA down to 3.09. He slowed down one of the hottest hitting and most explosive teams in the Big Ten Conference.
· The attendance for tonight’s game was 6786, the largest of the season so far. They were into the game from the start and kept the energy throughout. When gloom and doom people fire off shots at the state of the baseball program at Nebraska, maybe they should come talk to one of the 6786 people in the stands tonight.
· Between the fourth and fifth inning the promotions staff holds Dash for Cash. A one-hundred-dollar bill is in an envelope and a blindfolded person is given something like thirty-seconds to find it on the grass down the third base line. More often than not there’s more than $100 because if the envelope is not found, the money stays and another $100 is added. My 83-year-old dad loves this! He’s the only one in his section standing to watch this, and because of his angle he can’t really see it, but boy he gets excited when they find the envelope! It’s kind of fun watching him from the vantage point of the press box, especially when he’s turning around and smiling to everyone around him when there’s a winner. It’s almost like he won it!
