Courtesy Nebraska Athletics
Nebraska baseball worked late Friday night and into Saturday morning to win its Big Ten quarterfinal game over Michigan 6-4 at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. The game, which was scheduled for a 5 p.m. first pitch Friday night, was delayed six hours and nearly didn’t happen at all due to the lengths of prior games and rain in the Omaha area. The game prior to the Cornhuskers (42-14) and Wolverines (34-24), UCLA against Purdue, needed to conclude by 10:20 p.m. to allow for the Nebraska/Michigan game to start by 11 p.m., or else it couldn’t start until the following morning. At 10:19 p.m., UCLA clinched a 4-3 victory with a bottom of the ninth sacrifice fly.
Once NU’s game started, Case Sanderson took over. He roped a two-run triple down the right field line in the bottom of the first to give the Huskers a 2-0 lead. Sanderson also gave Nebraska the lead for good with an RBI single to right in the bottom of the seventh. A second run scored on an error on the play, putting the Huskers ahead, 6-4, the final margin. For the game, Sanderson was 3-for-4 with three RBI with a double and a triple.
After Sanderson’s two-run, first-inning double, the Wolverines tied the game with two in the top of the fourth. Nebraska answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run single by Rhett Stokes. Michigan tied the game again with two runs in the top of the seventh, only to see the Huskers take the lead back on Sanderson’s RBI single.
Nebraska now awaits the winner of Saturday morning’s Oregon/Washington matchup in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. First pitch is slated for 6 p.m., with pregame coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m. on KLIN.