Nebraska Baseball’s 5-3 comeback against Creighton is unsuccessful.

At 10, the #24 Huskers’ winning run comes to an end.

Nebraska baseball’s first game ranked since June 2021 got off to a terrible start. Unlike most spring/summer nights, they were playing in Charles Schwab Field—the infamous pitcher’s park—against the hated Creighton Bluejays, and the wind was blowing straight out to center field. In that very stadium, both clubs were using pitchers who were extremely successful.

Nebraska’s Will Walsh entered the mound after two consecutive excellent midweek performances, the last of which featured six shutout innings. Malakai Vetock, who had kept Nebraska scoreless in his previous two games against the Huskers, was the player that Creighton selected. Despite not having the best stuff, Walsh attacks the zone differently than most pitchers because he is a fly ball pitcher. That generally works well in Omaha, but in the second inning, with the wind blowing out, Walsh watched a 0-1 fastball cross the left-field fence and give the Blue Jays a quick 2-0 lead.

Nebraska mounted threats in both the 2nd and 3rd inning on Vetock, getting multiple runners on with no outs, but came away scoreless thanks to strikeouts, NU would finish the night with 14 total, and a double play by the stout Creighton defense.

Nebraska turned early to the bullpen, bringing in Ty Horn for the 3rd. Despite giving up a single and double to start his outing, an incredible relay on the double off the wall was able to gun the runner down at home trying to score from first. A sign of more incredible defensive plays to come. Two groundouts brought the inning to an end.

After another ineffective offensive output by the NU batters, Horn gave up another hit in the 4th, and pitching coach Rob Childress turned to Caleb Clark in his search for an effective pitcher. Clark hit his first batter on a full count, then was able to induce a ground ball which looked to be an inning ending double play to the SS, only Clark instinctively jumped off the mound and knocked the ball down in an awkward spot. He picked it up and threw wild to first, and it got past first baseman Ty Stone, allowing the runner on 2nd to score. Tucker Timmerman came in and gave up a 2 RBI single and it was 5-0 Creighton just like that.

Timmerman was actually able to stabilize the game after that batter, going back and forth between groundouts and strikeouts, and getting the first 1-2-3 inning for the Huskers in the 5th.

Looking for a jumpstart in the 6th, Coach Will Bolt sent Cayden Brumbaugh up in the leadoff spot as DH. He and Riley Silva hit back to back singles, and with the Jays left fielder playing almost center field, Cole Evans drove a ball down the left field line that scored Brumbaugh and gave the Huskers runners on 2nd and 3rd. Will Jesske then pinch hit for Stone, and hit a ball to the right side, letting Silva jog home and cutting the lead to 5-2.

Creighton singled twice to lead off the bottom of the 6th, and after a flyout left first base open, Coach Bolt opted to intentionally walk the Jays #2 hitter to load the bases, and set up force plays at each base and bring the double play into play. The only thing was it brought up maybe the hottest hitter in the country in Nolan Clifford, he of the .531 batting average.

Fortunately, Timmerman was able to pop Clifford up to shallow left. So shallow though that Garrett Anglim had to run much farther than he thought, catching the ball and then throwing the ball on the run. He threw it home just in case the runner took off from third. The only problem was his momentum wasnt going towards home, so his throw went over catcher Josh Caron’s head, and Timmerman backing up on the play was just able to tip it with his glove. Seeing the pandemonium mixed with no one covering home, the runner took off from third for what looked like an easy score. Only new Husker third baseman Dylan Hufft saw the same thing. The two sprinted home, and Timmerman threw his best strike of the night to Hufft, who in one motion dove, gloved the ball and tagged the runner out just before he touched home. Inning over.

In the 7th with 2 outs, Brumbaugh got the offense started again, hitting a ball that bounced in front of the center fielder, then hopped by him and ended up rolling close to the wall. That was more than enough for the speedy Brumbaugh to rocket over to third for a triple. Silva then hit a ball in front of the second baseman, who was playing deep, and beat out the throw to first base, scoring Brumbaugh and cutting the lead to 5-3. Silva was able to steal 2nd, but new Creighton pitcher and Millard West grad Mason Koch struck out Cole Evans.

Koch proved to be too formidable for the Husker offense to overcome, despite the fact that the bullpen had finally found its rhythm with Jaylen Worthley, Rans Sanders, and the incomparable Kyle Perry shutting out the Jays the rest of the way. To keep the batters completely off balance and guessing, he used the finest changeup most Husker fans had seen since Jake Meyers. The Huskers’ hopes of rallying were dashed by five strikeouts in the final 2.1 innings, and Creighton emerged victorious in the first game in what appears to be a strong series this year.

This weekend, Nebraska will host Ohio State for a three-game series in Lincoln in an attempt to resume its winning ways. This Friday, April 5th, at 6:05 CDT will be the first pitch.