The Husker hurler threw 6 scoreless and the “B-Team” bullpen crew came up big late.

Will Walsh is putting his name back in consideration for a coveted weekend starting spot for Nebraska, as we come to conference play next weekend. He looked absolutely dominant against a North Dakota State team that had come into Lincoln last year and won their first game all time against the Huskers.

Walsh was seemingly snubbed for Big Ten Player of the Week last week after accumulating 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 8 RBIs against Nicholls, and throwing a quality start against Wichita State. He’s well on his way to contending again this week. He homered last night against Omaha and tonight shut down the Bison bats throwing 87 pitches over 6 scoreless innings. Walsh had 9 Ks, including striking out the side in his final inning of work, while adding zero walks and only 1 hit batter. One of the more telling stats is NDSU having only 3 fly outs, vs 5 ground outs.

Oh, and the defense was pretty good as well…

The Husker offense didn’t have its best night on the cold Wednesday evening. They grabbed a run right away in the first inning that started with Riley Silva getting hit by a pitch. (I have that sentence ready to just copy and paste every game.) After Silva stole 2nd, his 13th of the season, NDSU starting pitcher Roman Trapani walked 3 straight Huskers, giving Garrett Anglim the RBI, and Nebraska the 1-0 lead after 1.

Another hit by pitch started a rally in the 3rd for NU, this time on DH Case Sanderson. This time the Huskers broke out the bats to bring him in. First baseman Ty Stone hit a laser to left center that just barely got cut off by the outfielders, moving Sanderson to 3rd. Garret Anglim picked up his 2nd RBI of the night, poking a ball into shallow center, letting Sanderson jog home for a 2-0 Husker lead.

The teams traded zeros until the bottom of the 7th. After Sanderson led off the inning with a walk, Bryce Hughes came in to pinch run and immediately stole 2nd. Following a Stone fly out, Anglim again hit a solid single up the middle, putting runners on the corners. Anglim took off for second base on a steal attempt, and instead of running a play to either prevent or try and catch Hughes going for home plate, the Bison seemed content giving NU the 3-0 lead, a potentially huge run in such a close game.

NDSU took that run back in the 8th, as second baseman Jake Schaffner collected his 3rd hit of the game, this one a 2 out RBI triple to the wall off of Kyle Froehlich. Jalen Worthley came in to get the final out of the inning, but that cut the lead to 3-1 Huskers. Rans Sanders came in for the final inning and as he did a few times at his previous school, picked up the save against the Bison!

Nebraska will next take on New Mexico State in their final non-conference weekend opponent of the season.