Baseball Continues Best Start Since 1986 With Win Over #24 Cornhuskers

Omaha, Neb. — The Creighton Baseball team continued its best start since 1986 with a 5-3 win over Nebraska on Tuesday night at Charles Schwab Field Omaha. The triumph was Creighton’s ninth victory in its last 11 meetings against the Cornhuskers and snapped a 10-game NU winning streak this season that was its longest since 2015.

Creighton is now 21-4 on the year, its best 25-game start since 1986, while Nebraska dropped to 20-6.

Creighton wasted no time in taking a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning on Hogan Helligo’s first home run of the year, a 376-foot drive to left that also scored Will MacLean on the play, and the Bluejays would never trail.

The Husker defense helped Creighton extend its lead to 5-0 in the fourth inning. Ben North singled with one out to end Ty Horn’s evening. Reliever Caleb Clark plunked Kyle Hess to put a pair of runners on, then threw away a comebacker to the mound that saw North circle the bases. The error proved costly when Nolan Sailors went the opposite way to drive home a pair and make it 5-0.

Nebraska offense didn’t dent the scoreboard until the sixth inning. Pinch-hitter Cayden Brumbaugh and Riley Silva both singled to end Tommy Lambs evening before Parker Primeaux’s lone pitch of the night was doubled to left to end the CU shutout bid. CU skipper Ed Servais went back to his bullpen, where set-up specialist Shane Curtin got a ground out, strikeout and punch out to strand a pair of runners and keep CU’s lead at three (5-2).

The Jays squandered a golden opportunity to add some insurance runs in the home half of the sixth, loading the bases for red-hot Clifford with just one out. But Clifford flew out to left for the second out and left fielder Garrett Anglim’s toss home deflected off both the pitcher and catcher’s gloves before Timmerman picked it up and threw to charging third baseman Dylan Hufft for the out.

Nebraska continued its comeback with some two-out magic in the seventh inning. Brumbaugh tripled on a ball to the gap that skipped past the Bluejay outfielders, then scored on an infield single by Riley Silva to trim CU’s lead to 5-3 and force the Bluejays to bring in closer Mason Koch. Koch ended the threat with a strike out of Evans.

After mowing down the Huskers in order in the eighth, Koch walked Clay Bradford with two outs in the ninth before striking out Brumbaugh as the tying run in the ninth.

Ben North led the Bluejay offense with three hits, while Sailors had two hits and a walk and drove in a pair. Lamb improved to 3-0 with two innings of relief, and Koch retired seven of the eight men he faced to notch his team-leading third save of the season. Malakai Vetock’s first career start was a brilliant one, as the junior right-hander threw three scoreless innings before being lifted after 44 pitches. Vetock escaped jams in both the second and third innings where NU had two on with no one out before failing to score.

Making his first start inside Charles Schwab Field Omaha since hurling a four-hit shutout in the 2023 Big Ten Tournament, Will Walsh (3-1) suffered his first loss of the season after surrendering Helligso’s blast. Both Brumbaugh and Silva had two hits for the Huskers.

Creighton is back in action on Wednesday night at 6 pm when it hosts North Dakota State.

NOTES: Creighton entered the game with an RPI of 39, while Nebraska was 10th … The combined win percentage entering the game (.816) was the best for a Creighton vs. Nebraska meeting since April 5, 2005, when the teams were a combined 47-10 (.825) … Nolan Clifford extended his hitting streak to 14 with a single to start the third inning … Nolan Sailors has reached base in 23 straight games … No. 24 Nebraska was playing its first game as a ranked team since 2021 … Cayden Brumbaugh reached base for the 18th straight game for NU … The teams combined to use 13 pitchers (Nebraska 8, Creighton 5) … Nebraska 10- game win streak, the second-longest active streak in the country and the program’s best since 2015, was snapped… Despite the loss, Nebraska is still off to its best 26-game start since opening 21-4-1 in 2008. .. Creighton has now won six of the last seven meetings, and nine of the past 11, against Nebraska … Ed Servais improved to 4-1 against teams coached by Will Bolt … Creighton has won its last seven games against Nebraska when scoring five runs or more … Creighton improved to 514-14 under Ed Servais when leading after eight innings, including a 158-1 mark inside Charles Schwab Field Omaha.

More to come…