Huskers power hitting leads to series win over Michigan

In the first game of a doubleheader on Friday, the Nebraska Cornhuskers (28-19, 15-8 Big Ten) took care of business against the Michigan Wolverines (37-16, 15-7 Big Ten) in a tightly contested regular-season championship race by a score of 7-0.

On a windy day at Haymarket Park, it looked like you could forget about any sort of explosive offense from the two teams. That was the case for about five and a half innings as the defining plays of the game came in the sixth for the Huskers.

With Nebraska leading 1-0, Alex Henwood found himself in another similar situation he was in just last night. With runners on first and second, Henwood landed a beautiful bunt down the third base line, causing an errant throw to be made by Michigan third baseman Blake Nelson. The error on Nelson allowed pinch-runner Keegan Watson to score and give the Huskers a tiny bit of breathing room.

The real sparks flew just two batters later when Jaxon Hallmark blasted a three-run home run to deep left field to extend the Nebraska lead to five. Later in the inning, right-fielder Aaron Palensky turned on a pitch and shot another ball over the left field fence for the 6-0 lead.

Nebraska would be able to muster up another run in eighth off of a wild pitch to give us the final score in the first game of the doubleheader, 7-0.

Over the past two series, the Nebraska bats have certainly come alive. Heading into the series against Arizona State, the Huskers had only 22 home runs as a team. Since then, Nebraska has hit a total of seven home runs over the span of five games.

In Game 1 on Friday, Jaxon Hallmark and Aaron Palensky each had a home run, accounting for four of Nebraska's seven runs on the afternoon. Hallmark thinks he's starting to hit a nice stride heading into the final few games of the season but admits he's not done improving. "I feel like I'm seeing the ball better," Hallmark said. "I've still got some stuff that I need to do to get back to where I want to be but I think I'm starting to come up a little bit."

When talking about how he has changed things, Hallmark said it's all about how he's tackling the at-bat. "I think it's having a better approach," Hallmark explained. "I'm not just trying to come up and smoke a ball to left field every time. I'm trying to hit the ball to right field, I'm trying to work all parts of the field."

The pitching staff for the Huskers put on a clinic at Haymarket Park on Friday afternoon spanning from their starter to their closer. Between Nate Fisher, Robbie Palkert and Max Schreiber, the Nebraska pitchers combined for only two hits on the day while striking out 10 Wolverine batters and not allowing a single run.

The strong performance from the pitching staff held the game in check for Nebraska up until the crucial sixth inning. Fisher started the game for Nebraska and was happy with getting the series win today but knows there is still work left to be done. "It's definitely big but, I mean, we're not done. We want another one. We haven't finished business yet but it's big and we're in a good spot.

"We're in playoff baseball right now so I was just trying to take the rock and just do my job and find ways to win."

Sophomore Jaxon Hallmark knows how big it was to have Fisher shutting the Wolverines down for 6.0 innings and praises the senior for his performance. "He's a dog. He's a dog. The ball was handed to him, he had to do something sweet and he did something sweet."

As for Fisher's response to Hallmark's comments: "I'll take that image, that's fine. I can be a dog if they want me to be a dog."

Nebraska will return to action later tonight to finish up the series against Michigan at Hawks Field. First pitch is set for roughly 8:00 PM and will be broadcasted live on BTN and can be heard on the Husker Sports Network.

Reece Eddins (6-2, 3.86 ERA) will be taking the mound for Nebraska and will face off against Jeff Criswell (5-1, 2.20 ERA) of the Wolverines.