Nebraska recorded its first ranked sweep since 2015 with a 16-6 run-rule victory over No. 12 USC in front of a crowd of 7,510 fans on Sunday afternoon at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.
This weekend’s sweep of the 12th-ranked Trojans set a program record for the largest attendance for a Big Ten home series with 21,383 fans, which is the fifth-most all-time conference series since Haymarket Park opened in 2002.
Nebraska (31-9, 15-3 Big Ten) scored 16 runs on 14 hits and two errors, while USC (30-11, 13-8 Big Ten) tallied six runs on 10 hits and two errors.
The Husker offense scored 30-plus runs in a three-game Big Ten series for the 12th time since joining the conference after erupting for 36 runs against the nation’s fifth-best pitching staff this weekend. The 36 runs are tied for second-most with the 2023 series against Minnesota and only trail the 39 runs scored against Purdue in 2019.
Dylan Carey fell a triple shy of the cycle with a 4-for-5 day at the plate with a double, a homer, two RBI and a pair of runs scored. Drew Grego finished 2-for-5 with a homer and two RBI, and Mac Moyer homered and drove in four runs on a 2-for-5 afternoon. Case Sanderson went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two walks, and Trey Fikes doubled and scored twice with two hits.
Jeter Worthley tripled and scored two times, and Rhett Stokes scored a team-high three runs with one hit.
Gavin Blachowicz surrendered five runs, four earned, on four hits and four walks across two innings. Ty Horn improved to 2-1 on the season with five stellar innings in relief, allowing just one run on six hits with four punchouts in five innings. Caleb Clark tossed a scoreless eighth inning with a strikeout.
USC took a 1-0 lead in the first with an unearned run on an RBI single through the left side with two outs, capitalizing on an errant throw on a failed pickoff attempt earlier in the inning.
Nebraska answered with a pair of runs behind three hits in the bottom of the first to grab a 2-1 lead. Worthley tripled to center before Sanderson and Carey ripped back-to-back RBI doubles to give the Huskers an early lead through the opening frame.
The Trojans answered emphatically in the second with back-to-back homers, as a three-run shot followed by a solo homer had USC out front 5-2 after two innings.
Carey blasted a one-out solo homer into the berm in left field to cut the deficit to 5-3 in the bottom of the third.
The Husker offense poured in four runs on two hits and an error in the bottom of the fourth to take a two-run lead. Moyer launched a three-run homer to right to put the Big Red back in front, and a wild pitch later scored Je. Worthley to push the lead to 7-5.
A solo homer to begin the top of the fifth brought the Trojans within a run, but the Huskers responded with two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to stretch the lead to 9-6. Joshua Overbeek and Stokes reached to begin the inning with runners on first and scored.
Fikes dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move the pair to second and third, while a wild pitch brought home Overbeek from third. An errant throw on the wild pitch allowed Stokes to race home from second and gave the Huskers a three-run advantage after five innings.
The Big Red broke the game open in the sixth, sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring six runs on three hits. Grego’s grand slam to right-center highlighted the inning, with Moyer and Worthley each adding RBI on a fielder’s choice and a sacrifice bunt to cap the six-run frame and push the lead to 15-6.
Sanderson added an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to clinch Nebraska’s 16-6 run-rule victory and series sweep of the 12th-ranked Trojans on Sunday afternoon.
Nebraska heads south for a midweek tilt at No. 18 Kansas on Tuesday, April 21 in Lawrence, Kan.