Nebraska traveled to Iowa City to take on the Hawkeyes in a three-game series last weekend. Iowa came into the series sitting at top of the Big Ten and Nebraska came in sitting near the bottom. It was not our best outing, with Iowa winning two of the three games. However, we were able to salvage the series by winning game three. Let’s look at what happened.
Game One
Game one was a pitchers’ duel the entire game. The only run of the game came off of a solo homer from Iowa in the bottom of the second. This came after two outs which ultimately won them the game. Iowa won by a score of 1-0.
This was a very quiet game from our Huskers with it being a pitchers’ duel and defensive battle. Pitcher Will Walsh had a pretty productive day, only allowing two hits, four strikeouts, and one walk. He did this in seven innings, which is a pretty good day overall. Unfortunately, our offense just couldn’t get anything going. We only had three total hits and got on third base only once. It was not a very good start to the series.
Game Two
Game two was a lot different than game one with a lot more offense and defense. Iowa struck first with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Nebraska quickly answered with two runs in the top of the second. This included a two-run homer which gave us the lead. Iowa got a solo homer in the bottom of the third, bringing them within one. In the top of the fourth, the Big Red added more runs off of a three-run homer. This brought our lead to three. The Hawkeyes got a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth bringing the score 5-4 Huskers. Nebraska’s final run of the game came off of a solo home run in the top of the seventh. Iowa added another run in the bottom of the seventh before exploding in the eighth. They plated six runs in the bottom of the eighth including a three-run home run. The Hawkeyes won game two 11-6.
This game started out pretty good for our Huskers, but unfortunately, we just couldn’t get it done. Offensively, we had a good day, totaling six hits. We also had a lot of home runs, which was nice to see. As for the defense, we were pretty productive up until the eighth inning. The Hawkeyes six spot in the top of the eighth really hurt us. Nebraska gave a lot of free passes in this inning which came back to bite us. Overall, both teams gave multiple free passes, but unfortunately Iowa was able to overcome this, and we weren’t. This win gave Iowa the weekend series.
Game Three
Game three went a lot better than the previous two did for our Huskers. Iowa struck first with one run in the bottom of the second. Nebraska tied the game in the top of the third with a solo homer. In the top of the fourth, Nebraska took the lead off of two solo home runs. We lead 3-1. The Hawkeyes responded in the bottom of the fourth with two runs tying the game at three. It was a quiet few innings before Iowa got the go ahead run in the bottom of the seventh. The Huskers quickly took back the lead in the top of the eighth getting two runs across then adding one more in the ninth. Nebraska won 6-4.
This was a much better game for the Huskers with us showing our ability to close out games. As for our offense, we had a good game totaling seven hits. However, we did have 10 total strikeouts which is an area we will need to improve in. Although we had a lot of strikeouts, we also had a number of home runs, which was nice to see. As for our defense, pitchers, and Bullpen, we had a pretty good game. The Big Red didn’t allow the Hawkeyes powerful offense to take over the game. Although the defense had four total errors, we managed to work around that ultimately helped us salvage the series.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, this wasn’t a great series for the Huskers. Offensively, we saw positive signs at times, however, we were unable to maintain our ability to get big hits and games one and two. Fortunately, game three went a lot better, and our offense was more consistent minus the 10 strikeouts, but I think we can fix this. Defensively, we did a good job for the majority of the series. Our pitchers were pretty consistent throughout the weekend besides the eighth inning in game two when we allowed Iowa to get a six spot. This is something that we cannot allow to happen if we want to win games. One thing that I was impressed with was the amount of home runs we saw this weekend from Nebraska. In games two and three, we hit a lot of homers and showed how powerful our offense can be. I hope we continue to see this for the rest of the season. One thing I think we need to work on is minimizing the number of free passes we give the opposing team. Nebraska’s pitchers gave Iowa offense multiple free passes this weekend which helped them win the series. This is an issue we’ve seen a lot this season and will need to be cleaned up quickly with us being over halfway through the season. I hope we can fix this soon and get back on track. Next, we return home and will stay in state to face our in-state rival, the Creighton Bluejays. The game will be at Creighton on Tuesday night with first pitch starting at six.
GBR
