Cayden Brumbaugh turned on just the third pitch of the game to send a leadoff double to left field, and moments later he was driven in by Josh Caron for a 1-0 lead in the first inning of Nebraska baseball's series opener against College of Charleston on Thursday.
After that, it was a whole of nothing for the Huskers, who got a second straight quality start from Drew Christo (6.2 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 K, 1 BB) but still looked in danger of an 0-1 hole in the four-game road series.
Instead, a four-run ninth-inning rally sent the game to extras, and Nebraska took down Charleston, 6-5, in 10 innings as the Huskers (5-3) handed the Cougars (7-1) their first loss of the season.
Despite the positive start led by Brumbaugh and Caron, the Huskers offense swooned for seven innings against the Charleston staff. Nebraska didn't record a single hit from the second inning through the eighth, put just four runners on base via three walks and a hit batsman, saw just two of those four reach scoring position, and as a result entered the ninth facing a 5-1 deficit.
Then, the offense came alive. And, as has already been the Huskers' M.O. through eight games this year, patience and small ball is how they got the job done.
The Huskers pieced together a four-run ninth inning rally, driven by six baserunners who got on board via two singles, two walks, a hit batsman and one reaching on an error.
Ninth-inning leadoff man Clay Bradford reached on an error to jump-start the rally, followed by Gabe Swansen getting hit by the pitch and a single from Cole Evans to load the bases with no outs.
Tyler Stone and Case Sanderson reached on back-to-back walks to trim the Huskers' deficit to 5-3, and after Brumbaugh struck out it was two-hole hitter Riley Silva coming through with the game's biggest clutch moment with a first-pitch, two-RBI single that he punched through the right side to plate Evans and pinch runner Bryce Hughes.
Silva stole second to put runners at second and third with one out, but Dylan Carey and Caron both struck out to end the inning. Nebraska relievers Kyle Perry and Evan Borst, however, put the Cougar hitters down in order in the bottom half to send the game to extras.
Bradford, again, jump-started things with a leadoff ground-rule double to left-center, and Garrett Anglim laid down a sacrifice bunt to put the go-ahead run at third with one out.
"Kind of joking with Anglim that he's the best batting practice bunter we have," Bolt said Tuesday about both Anglim and the Huskers' ability to lay down sac bunts. "But we wanna see him get one down in the game. But, yeah, it's part of the game, and there's some other things that can be opened up as well with that, besides just the sacrifice – the fake bunt-steal, some of that stuff. So it's definitely a part of what we're attempting to do as a team.”
Evans followed with a high-chopping grounder to third, and Bradford beat out the ensuing throw home for a go-ahead fielder's choice RBI for Evans.
Charleston tried putting together its own rally in the bottom of the 10th with a one-out single and a two-out walk to put the tying and game-winning runs on second and first base. But Tucker Timmerman shut the door. The Huskers' true freshman – ranked in the 2023 class by Prep Baseball Report as the No. 3 right-handed pitcher and No. 6 overall prospect in the state out of Beatrice (Neb.) High School – replaced Borst and induced a ground ball right back to him on the mound on his third pitch to send the Huskers to a 1-0 series lead.
Once again, it was the small-ball philosophy that got the job done for the Huskers on Thursday, and it was a good reminder of a quote that may be used often this entire season from Bolt's preseason press conference.
“Well, I'm not real comfortable replacing two guys that hit 40 home runs," Bolt said when asked about his team's plan to replace stars Brice Matthews and Max Anderson, who broke school records last season en route to being selected in the MLB Draft. "But I said it earlier: We’re not gonna say ‘Hey, OK, these two guys are gone. These two guys step up to replace them.’ I mean, it would be great to think that that would happen, but there's a reason that those two guys are, some of the best in school history. It doesn't come around very often. So you're looking at more of a team-wide approach as to how we’re going to replace that production.
"Are we gonna hit 100 home runs? I don't really care. As long as we score runs. We’re gonna have to find a way to get on base. I feel like we've got some high on-base, low-strikeout guys on this team. We've got a little more team speed, and then we have some guys I think are gonna emerge as more power hitters than what they've maybe previously shown. So, not real comfortable replacing those guys, but I am comfortable knowing that we have a lot of guys that are willing to fulfill a role for the team.”
The Huskers will look to make it a 2-0 edge in the Charleston series on Friday as Nebraska sends RHP Brett Sears (1-0, 0.79 ERA) to the mound vs. Charleston RHP Jake Brink (2-0, 0.75 ERA). First pitch is set for 3 p.m. CT with the game available to stream live on FloBaseball and listen live on Huskers Radio Network with Dave Gustafson (play by play) and Ben McLaughlin (color) on the call.
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