Case Sanderson Goes Roy Hobbs in the Bottom of the 10th to Defeat Sparty 5-4

The only thing missing to Nebraska’s last hit of the game tonight was light bulbs exploding and French horns celebrating a home run that every young boy dreams about hitting.  Case Sanderson pulled the Cornhuskers to a hard-earned victory with two outs in the bottom of the tenth inning with a towering home run with one of the most incredible swings fans have ever seen in Haymarket Park.

Before the fireworks finale, Nebraska’s Big Ten opener had to wait two hours to get started with threatening weather in the area, and then those fans that stuck around got extra baseball as Michigan State came up big in the top of the ninth with a three-run homer to tie it up at 4-4 and Nebraska did not answer in the bottom of the frame.

Nebraska’s Ty Horn and Sparty’s Aidan Donovan locked horns in a good old-fashioned pitcher’s duel.  When the dust cleared, Donovan went six full innings and Horn went seven, both of them throwing 101 pitches.  Neither of them had their A-game, but both of them showed tremendous fight and grit.

Nebraska took the lead in the bottom of the 2^nd innings when Jett Buck found his swing again with a single.  After he stole a base, Devin Nunez drove him in on a single of his own to put the first run on the board.

The Spartans bot their first run in the fifth with two outs when Khamaree Thomas got his second hit of the game, advanced to second base on a wild pitch and then scored on an RBI single by Randy Seymour.  Tie ball game, 1-1.

The Big Red answered an inning later in the sixth when Buck hit a shot that just cleared the right-center field wall for a home run.  Nebraska up 2-1.

Nebraska extended their lead with runs in the seventh and eighth.  Jeter Worthley got his third hit of the game and advanced to second on a throwing error.  Up came Mac Moyer at the top of the lineup who drove him home with a single of his own.  The Cornhuskers were up 3-1

With Kevin Mannell on the mound for Nebraska, Michigan State brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the 8^th inning with Khamaree Thomas on first and one out.  With Ryan McKay at the plate, Thomas surprisingly took off to second and was thrown out by Worthley.  Worthley almost got him in the 5^th inning trying to steal and this one evened the score in a big situation.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Case Sanderson led off with a double and then scored two batters later on a single by Rhett Stokes, who had come in as a replacement for Buck.  At this point, up 4-1, all Nebraska needed was closer Kevin Mannell to get through the ninth.

Mannell had sat the Spartans down in order in the previous inning, but he ran into big trouble in the ninth.  Nick Williams worked a walk to lead things off, followed by a base hit by Adam Broski.  Mannell was struggling with control of his breaking pitches and going deep in the count.  He paid for it in a big way when he left a slider over the plate that Isaac Sturgess blasted over the right field wall.  MSU tied it up at 4-4.  That was the end of the road for Mannell.  

J’Shawn Unger came in with the weight of the world on his shoulders and ended the Sparty threat with two strike outs and a ground out, though Big Red fans had heart palpations when Cole Van Ameyde ripped a triple with two outs and stood 90-feet away from the lead until Unger got his second K. 

Nebraska went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.  Unger returned for the tenth inning and despite giving up a one-out double to Ryan McKay was able to keep the boys from East Lansing for scoring the go-ahead run.

You’d like to think that with Joshua Overbeek and Dylan Carey the first two batters in the Nebraska tenth good things were going to happen.  However, Spartan reliever JD Greeley was up to the challenge, striking out Overbeek and seeing his leftfielder Nick Williams make a great catch to rob Carey of at least a double.  

Two outs and Case Sanderson came to the plate having a single and a double already in the game.  On a 2-1 pitch from Greeley Case Sanderson hit a Kyle Schwarberesque home run that probably broke a windshield in the parking lot.  As his teammates mobbed him at home plate, Nebraska had pulled off a 5-4 victory over Michigan State.

Nebraska out hit MSU 13 to 10, but one of the two errors made by the Spartans did cost them a run in the seventh inning.  Michigan State pitching did not surrender a walk or hit a batter.  Nebraska walked two and hit one batter.  That’s high-quality pitching, folks!

You can expect more the same tomorrow as the two teams are scheduled to face-off again at 1:00 p.m.  Carson Jasa will look to get his second win of the season, as will his Spartan counterpart, Carter Monke.  Recent history suggests that this will be another close ball game, and don’t be surprised when something unexpected makes a difference in the game.

Notes:

• Ty Horn has incredibly quick feet, which makes his pick-off move deadly.  He’s easily the best righthander Nebraska has had since Matt Waldren in napping runners at first base.  His 7^th inning pick of Trent Rice was crucial with Khamaree Thomas coming up, who had already had two hits off Horn.
• Both nine-hole hitters – Jeter Worthley for Nebraska and Khamaree Thomas for Michigan State both had three hits on the day.  Pretty dang good for the bottom of the lineup.
• Case Sanderson and Jeter Worthley both had three hits today and Jett Buck had two.  The team hit .429 with runners in scoring position.
• Nebraska paid for converting infielders to outfielders, and prioritizing hitting over defense twice tonight.  Max Buettenback had to dive for a fly ball that ended up being a triple.  He’s played in the outfield since he arrived, but he’s certainly not a strong defensive player.  On the Van Ameyde triple in the ninth, converted infielder Devin Nunez slid past a flyball.  With the wind, that’s a tough play for any outfielder, but why did they wait until after the play to put in a strong defensive outfielder, Drew Grego?  It is not uncommon for college teams to take former infielders and turn them in to outfielders, but when you have better defensive players on the bench, it makes sense to have them out there at the end of tight games.
• While Michigan State now sits at 3-9 on the season, keep in mind that they started the season beating Louisville twice.  The same Louisville team that Nebraska lost to in Texas.  And, they played three games against perennial power Texas and one against Clemson.  They are a much better team than their record would indicate.  They aren’t playing an Iowa schedule.