A pitchers duel transitioned into an offensive onslaught against each team’s bullpen.

Two aces for 2 teams on different sides of the Big Ten Conference standings went to work on Friday night in Piscataway, New Jersey. The reigning conference and national pitcher of the week, Nebraska’s Brett Sears, and Rutgers’ Justin Sinibaldi pitched masterfully in their starts, allowing the occasional baserunner, but not letting things compound into run scoring opportunities.

The game went into the 6th inning a scoreless tie. Then the weather changed, and while the wind had been gusting all game, a sideways rain began to fall in the top of the 6th as Cayden Brumbaugh hit a 1 out double, forcing Sinibaldi into the stretch facing right into the sideways rain. After Josh Overbeek walked, and both runners advanced on a wild pitch, Cole Evans hit a sacrifice fly for the games first run. Following a hit by pitch and passsed ball, Josh Caron smoked a solid single up the middle, plating 2 runners and giving NU a. 3-0 Lead.

Sears ran into his own problems in the 6th as well, where after 19.1 straight scoreless innings, Rutgers finally broke through. With runners on 2nd and 3rd following a single and double, Ty Doucette hit a 2 RBI single into center field, bringing Rutgers back within a run at 3-2.

That would end the day for Sears, with yet another quality start in the books, Sinibaldi came back out for the 7th, and Nebraska put runners on 2nd and 3rd again, and Josh Overbeek hit a hard grounder to the short stop deep in the hole between short and 3rd, but Josh Kuroda-Grauer threw a laser to first base, beating Overbeek by a step and keeping the Huskers off the board.

With the game now squarely in the hands of the bullpens, Nebraska added to its lead. Josh Caron hit a 2 out single in the 8th, and was followed by a 4 pitch walk to Gabe Swansen. Then Will Walsh took a 1-0 pitch and sent it deep over the left field wall, putting Nebraska up 6-2.

Jaylen Worthley had come in for Nebraska and hung a zero in the 7th, but gave up a single off a 2-2 count to lead off the 8th. Evan Borst took over on the mound at that point and induced 2 quick fly outs. Rutgers’ third baseman Tony Santa Maria was able to work a 3-2 count on a couple of questionable calls by the umpire, and ended up walking. The next batter hit a single right over the second baseman to plate a run, cutting the lead to 6-3.

Nebraka has had a 3-headed closer of late, with Kyle Perry being the choice when a left handed pitcher was needed. He came in for the bottom of the 9th, and after getting an out on his first pitch, gave up back to back singles, then walked the bases loaded on yet another full count. Another closer, Casey Daiss entered for Perry and the current front runner for Big Ten Player for the year, Kuroda-Grauer stepped up to the plate for the Scarlet Knights. He hammered a 0-1 pitch into the right-center gap, scoring 2 and cutting the lead to 1.

Nebraska intentionally walked Doucette, who had been hot all night to re-load the bases and bring the force back into play. Daiss got Santat Maria down in the count 0-2 but gave up a fluttering ball that was only 67 mph off the bat, but was able to just barely clear Rhett Stokes at second base and tie the game. Daiss got the next two outs, but the damage was done. The game went to extra innings.

After a scoreless 10th inning, Husker short stop Dylan Carey led off the 11th with a stand up double, his team leading 11th of the season. Then Riley Silva, Nebraska’s best bunter, popped up the first pitch he attempted to bunt right to the pitcher for an out. Stokes then hit a lazy pop up to the short stop, and Josh Overbeek struck out, wasting the perfect opportunity to take the lead.

Nebraska turned to the last of its 3-headed closers, Rans Sanders for the 11th inning. He gave up a lead off single to the speedy Kuroda-Grauer, then a 4 pitch walk again to Doucette. He rallied to strike out Santa Maria on a strange bunt attempt with 2 strikes. A productive ground out to 3rd base moved both runners over. Then on an 0-2 count, Rutgers left fielder Johnny Volpe hit a ball up the middle just out of reach of Dylan Carey, and the Knights celebrated a 7-6 win under the lights.

What Happened?

One thing coach Will Bolt like to keep track of for both pitchers and hitters is “3-2 wins”. That means a batter reaching base off of a 3-2 count, and a pitcher keeping a batter with a 3-2 count off the basepaths. Nebraska didn’t fair well in that department tonight.

As I tried to emphasize above, Rutgers did nearly all of their damage with 2 strikes on batters, when they should be a little defensive at the plate, not hitting the ball all over the park. That could mean Husker pitchers were getting too much of the plate when they should have been nibbling on the edges, or it could have meant that the pitchers just didn’t have much movement on their pitches tonight.

The three headed closer that has been so effective of late for Nebraska really faltered tonight. None of the 3 did particularly well, other than Daiss out for his 2nd inning of work in the 10th. Really only Worthley was effective out of the pen. I’m not one to question Rob Childress often, but I thought both Worthley and Sears were pulled an inning too early. I granted they may have been trying to go easy on Sears after his extended outing to get the shutout last week, but Worthley was looking pretty effective out there when he was taken out, but with how effective the bullpen as a whole has been this year, everyone has had a short leash since someone else with a hot hand is always ready to replace them.

The Husker will have to shake this off quickly and battle back to try and even the series tomorrow as the teams will face off again in Piscataway at 2pm CDT. Mason McConnaughey will be making the start for the Huskers, and Rutgers will be putting Jake Marshall out for his first weekend start of the season.