Huskers Dominate No. 16 Florida State

The Husker offense erupted for 10 runs and the pitching staff surrendered just two hits in Nebraska’s 10-1 rout of No. 16 Florida State at the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series at Globe Life Field on Sunday afternoon.

Nebraska scored 10 runs on 10 hits, while Florida State totaled a run and two hits.

Dylan Carey fell a triple shy of the cycle, going 3-for-5 with a double, homer and five RBI. Jett Buck was 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Will Jesske had an RBI double, while Case Sanderson, Joshua Overbeek, Miken Miller and Drew Grego tallied one hit apiece.

Gavin Blachowicz improved to 1-0 on the season after dealing five one-hit innings. The sophomore allowed just a solo homer while striking out six and walking a pair.

Colin Nowaczyk pitched two shutout frames with four punchouts and a walk, before Cooper Katskee made his Husker debut in the bottom of the eighth. Katskee surrendered just one hit and punched out four Seminoles across a pair of scoreless innings.

The Huskers got off to a quick start, plating three runs behind a pair of hits in the top of the first inning. Mac Moyer drew a leadoff walk, and Buck lined a 2-2 pitch to the wall in left field for a double to put runners on first and second with no outs.

Sanderson walked on four pitches, before Overbeek lifted a sacrifice fly to deep left field to plate Moyer and give the Big Red a 1-0 lead. Carey blasted the first pitch he saw off the top of the wall in left-center field for a two-RBI double to stretch the lead to 3-0.

The Big Red tacked on two more runs in the third inning to extend the lead to 5-0. Consecutive singles from Buck and Sanderson put runners on first and third to begin the inning, setting up Carey’s RBI single through the left side that brought home Buck. Sanderson and Carey advanced to second and third on a double steal, followed by an RBI groundout from Kitchens that grew the lead to five.

Florida State recorded its first hit and run of the afternoon with a one-out solo homer to left-center field in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The Huskers poured in three runs on two hits in the top of the sixth inning to blow the game open at 8-0. Preston Freeman pinch-ran for Cole Kitchens after the senior was plunked on the shoulder. Freeman moved to second on a wild pitch and came around to score on Jesske’s RBI double to left field. Miller laced an RBI single to center, scoring Jesske from second base. Back-to-back walks to Grego and Moyer loaded the bases, before Buck lifted a sacrifice fly to center field that plated Miller and made it an 8-0 game.

Nowaczyk retired the Seminoles in order with three consecutive strikeouts in the bottom of the sixth, while Carey’s two-run, inside-the-park homer off the wall in right-center field enlarged the NU lead to 10-1 in the top of the seventh.

Nowaczyk worked around a walk in the seventh, and Katskee sat down the Seminoles in order in the eighth inning to keep FSU at one hit going into the bottom of the ninth.

Katskee surrendered a leadoff single and hit a batter to put runners on first and second with no outs for FSU in the bottom of the ninth. The right-hander retired the next three batters to clinch Nebraska’s 10-1 win over the Seminoles on Sunday afternoon.

Nebraska returns to play next weekend, as the Huskers venture south for a three-game series at No. 9 Auburn on Friday-Sunday, Feb. 27-March 1.