Senior Cole Evans came through in the clutch, hitting a three-run walk-off home run on Senior Night to give the Huskers a 5-2 win in 10 innings vs. Indiana on Saturday night at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.
Evans’ walk-off homer is the first for the Huskers since Steven Reveles vs. Loyola Marymount on March 11, 2016. Nebraska (31-18, 13-7 Big Ten) scored five runs on seven hits, while Indiana (28-20-1, 13-7 Big Ten) had two runs on six hits.
Evans finished 1-for-5 but ended the game with a three-run homer, his fifth of the season. Tyler Stone and Dylan Carey each launched solo homers for the Big Red. Riley Silva added a pair of hits, while Garrett Anglim and Joshua Overbeek also recorded a knock each.
Mason McConnaughey set career highs with 7.1 innings pitched and 10 strikeouts, allowing five hits while walking just three batters. The right-hander became the third Husker this season to post a 10-strikeout effort, joining Brett Sears and Jackson Brockett. Caleb Clark earned his first win of the season with 2.2 relief innings, retiring eight of 11 batters faced.
Devin Taylor began play with a leadoff homer for the second consecutive game this weekend to give the Hoosiers a quick 1-0 lead in the first.
McConnaughey retired 14 straight at one point across the first five frames. Indiana threatened with a pair of walks and a sacrifice bunt in the sixth, but the sophomore retired the next two Hoosiers to keep it a 1-0 game heading into the bottom of the sixth.
Stone deadlocked at the game at one after smacking a 2-2 pitch for a 339-foot solo homer to right in the sixth inning.
The Huskers grabbed their first lead of the night in the bottom of the seventh when Carey drilled a towering 398-foot solo home run into the berm in left field to give the Big Red the 2-1 advantage through seven innings.
Indiana had a pair of baserunners in the eighth after a hit batter and a full-count walk with one out. The Hoosiers tied the game at two with a first-pitch double off the wall in center. Clark replaced McConnaughey on the mound with runners on second and third and retired the next two Hoosiers to preserve the tie.
Clark worked around a pair of baserunners in the 10th to keep Indiana off the board and send the game into the bottom of the 10th tied at two runs apiece.
Anglim opened the action by ripping a double down the right-field line to place the go-ahead run at second with no outs. An intentional walk to Josh Caron put runners on first and second without an out.
Following a pair of strikeouts, the Husker offense was down to its final out. Evans stepped to the plate and launched the first pitch he saw 415 feet into the batter’s eye landscaping in center to give the Huskers a 5-2 walk-off victory on Saturday night.
Nebraska and Indiana conclude the weekend series tomorrow at 11 a.m. at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.
