No Magic Tonight, Kansas Beats Cornhuskers 9-7

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Tucker Timmerman made his first start of the season and went four innings. | Nebraska Athletics

Coming into this one, a battle between top-20 ranked teams, one had to figure that both teams would come out throwing punches.  After their game a couple of weeks back, one would hope that would be figuratively, not literally.

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Tucker Timmerman took the mound for his first start since Penn State last season.  The boy from Beatrice has been a utility knife this season and is one of those from the bullpen with a circle around his name for important duty as the season goes on.

Making the start tonight at DH, Will Jesske laced a one out double in the second inning and scored two batters later on B1G Freshman of the Week and Co-Player of the Week Drew Grego’s single. Nebraska up 1-0.

Kansas answered back quick in the bottom of the inning as the first three batters went single, double, double.  The second double was by Tyson Owens, which drove in two runs.  Owens scored two batters later on a Josh Dykhoff ground out.  After two innings, KU was up 3-1.

Nebraska jumped back on top the next half-inning when Mac Moyer started it off with a single and stole second base.  He moved to third on a Jeter Worthley ground out to shortstop.  Case Sanderson drew a walk and then Dylan Carey drove in Moyer with a single.

Jett Buck hit a deep flyball to right field to score Sanderson and then Will Jesske got his second hit of the game, a single, to score Carey.  The Cornhuskers were back on top 4-3.  

Toby Scheidt came in to relieve Kansas starter Kannon Carr after Jesske’s single and for the most part shut down the Cornhusker offense through the sixth inning.  Riane Ritter did the same in the seventh, sitting down Worthley, Sanderson, and Carey.

Meanwhile, Tucker Timmerman rebounded from the three-run second and kept Kansas off the board in the 3rd and 4th innings, and Jalen Worthley came in and did the same in the fifth, though he had to work around a bit of trouble.

Interestingly the coaching staff went to Ty Horn for the bottom of the sixth.  He had thrown twice over the weekend, but perhaps they thought pitching back in his home state would give him an adrenaline boost.  That was not to be.

After stating off with a strike out, Horn gave up a home run to Owens to tie the game.  After Daniel Osoria reached on a Dylan Carey error, Dykhoff launched a two-run dinger.  Just that quick, Kansas was back on top 6-4.  Horn was pulled for Caleb Clark who got out of the inning.

KU brought in their top set-up man in the top of the seventh, Riane Ritter, who sat down the Cornhuskers in order.  His teammates then put three more on the board in the bottom of the seventh off Caleb Clark and J’Shawn Unger, including a solo home run by Augusto Mungarrieta of the righty closer from Blair.

The Big Red got a break in the top of the eighth inning when Riane Ritter gifted them three free bases, hitting Buck and Jesske on a total of three pitches, and then walking Joshua Overbeek.  Grego then lined a single to score Buck, loading the bases again with no outs.

Rhett Stokes, who has found himself involved in quite a bit of the drama that last few weeks, hit a shot to the third baseman, who started a 5-4-3 double-play.  It did score Jesske.  Moyer then laced a single to score Overbeek, but the inning was ended when the centerfielder rounded first aggressively and was tagged out in a run-down.  Nebraska had cut the lead to 9-7.

Kevin Mannell took the mound for the Cornhuskers in the bottom of the eighth, and after starting the inning off walking the nine-hole hitter, got the next three batters out to keep the boys within two runs.

Boede Rahe, the big Jayhawk closer had finished off the eighth inning and was set to face off against Nebraska’s 2-3-4 batters.  He got Worthley to ground out to shortstop before Sanderson roped a double.  That brought up Carey, who struck out swinging, as did Jett Buck to end the game.  Kansas swept the Cornhuskers this year with a 9-7 win.

Nebraska will set out for the first to two consecutive conference road trips this weekend in Champagne against the Illinois Illini.  Friday’s game will start at 6:00, most likely with Cooper Katskee taking the mound.

Notes:

  • Tonight’s game set an attendance record at Hoglund Park with 2574 in the stands.  According to the radio announcers, there was a big, rowdy contingent of students that brought a lot of energy to the Jayhawks.
  • One can second guess putting Ty Horn in the game tonight as he pitched twice over the weekend.  They are still in the early stages of this change and need to find out what he is capable of and how much rest he needs.  He only had his hard stuff tonight and he challenged them to hit it . . . and they did.
  • Even though there was a loud group of students at the game tonight, it appears that the chippiness and trash talking that took place a couple of weeks ago from the Kansas dugout was tempered tonight.  

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