Nebraska’s Dylan Carey (16) throws the ball during the game against Wichita State at Haymarket Park on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Lincoln.
Nebraska’s Dylan Carey (16) throws the ball during the game against Wichita State at Haymarket Park on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Lincoln.
Southeastern Nebraska is experiencing power outages due to a mid-March blizzard. Meanwhile, Husker baseball is enjoying the warm weather in California.
Nebraska racked up a desperately needed two-game series sweep at Pepperdine after its 11-4 Wednesday win. Although the 4-16 Waves are no powerhouse, the Huskers getting the sweep was crucial to its season trajectory.
“It’s big,” head coach Wil Bolt said postgame. “You try to win every game you play.”
Here are four takeaways from Nebraska’s victory:
Huskers win with key metrics
Unlike its 33 percent strikeout rate at UCLA over the past weekend, the Huskers had a monumental improvement. They only struck out in two of its 66 at-bats (a .03 percentage) in its two games versus the Waves. In Wednesday’s win, none of Nebraska’s hitters were rung up.
“It allows us to stretch the lead,” Bolt said. “Those two-strike hits are backbreaking (and) takes the momentum away from the other team.”
Another big difference was the Huskers moving runners on base. Nebraska was 15-for-23 in advancement opportunities. Pepperdine was not even close, going 2-for-13 in its chances.
“One heartbeat with the crew offensively,” Bolt said. “The guys feed off of that.”
It helped that five Husker leadoff hitters got on base. Nebraska was only 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position, but the ability to have a .652 percentage in advancement opportunities and hit .314 at the plate speaks for itself.
“We didn’t have any three up, three down innings,” Bolt said. “I’m proud of the offense.”
The 20 runs in two games should bolster the Huskers’ confidence at the plate.
“I think from an offensive standpoint, guys are going to feel confident going into the weekend,” Bolt said.
Stone and Carey have themselves a day
The hottest commodity for Nebraska baseball has been senior first baseman Tyler Stone. The senior entered Wednesday’s contest with a four-game hitting streak.
Stone continued to excel at the plate starting with his leadoff double to start the top of the second inning. The senior even used the old ‘hidden ball trick’ on the defensive end to get the runner leading off from first base to end the bottom of the third inning.
The top of the fourth was where the first baseman would hit his second home run of the season. Junior shortstop Dylan Carey would follow Stone for back-to-back home runs to put the Huskers up 4-0.
Carey hit his second homer of the game in the top of the ninth to add more insurance for Nebraska. Stone would reach base in four of his five appearances inside the batter’s box. Carey posted three RBIs on his three total hits. The two veteran leaders were dominant.
“The thing the offense did all day was answer runs,” Bolt said. “That’s something we keep harping on.”
Small improvement from Coats
Sophomore right-handed pitcher TJ Coats took a step on the mound in his second start as a Husker. The Cloud County Community College transfer had trouble finding the strike zone with his 50 percent ball-to-strike ratio last week.
Coats hit the strike zone 59 percent of the time against the waves. He only lasted 3.2 innings, due to walking a runner and hitting another to load up the bases in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Coats allowed three hits on the 15 batters faced. The two wild pitches and two walks given up are still the concern. Although his outing was not the ideal length posted, Coats delivered three solid innings.
Blachowicz is the real deal
Freshman right-handed reliever Gavin Blachowicz took over for Coats with the bases loaded. Blachowicz allowed a hit to the first Pepperdine hitter faced, but the two runs would go to Coats’s ERA.
From there, Blachowicz was elite. The freshman pitcher got his second win of the season and gave the Huskers 2.1 innings on the mound. Of the nine Waves faced, he rang up two of them. Blachowicz’s 2.0 ERA in nine accumulated innings is reputable for a freshman.
“Blachowicz made a couple of big pitches out of the pen,” Bolt said.
Nebraska (9-11, 1-5 Big Ten) will strive to win its first Big Ten series of the season when it travels to USC for a three-game series, starting Friday night.
sports@dailynebraskan.com
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