On a night where a freshman was the star of the show, two of the most grizzled veterans to wear scarlet and cream combined to complete the comeback and send the cold and wet fans home happy. Usually when these two teams get together, one team seems to blow the other out. Tonight was the rare back and forth affair between the old foes.
Nebraska wasted little time in getting things going. Kansas State went with their Friday night starter James Guyette, coming off his worst outing of the season, and tonight was more of the same. Back to back singles by Mac Moyer and Jeter Worthley started the night. Case Sanderson moved the runners over with a groundout to first.
Guyette then lost a fastball that went behind Dylan Carey, letting Moyer scamper home for the first run. Another fastball tailed too far inside, nearly hitting Carey again, and the Cather couldn’t come up with it, allowing Worthley to jog home. Carey walked and then the inning appeared to be over with a Jett Buck fly ball to right, but the outfielder dropped the ball on a rainy night. Always the hustler, Carey made it home easy to put Nebraska up 3-0 after 1 inning.
Thank you rain. 🤝Huskers up 3-0 in the first. pic.twitter.com/R8rbqF9YKA
— Nebraska Baseball (@HuskerBaseball) April 28, 2026
The second inning was fairly uneventful, with the exception of Husker starting pitcher, Tucker Timmerman making an incredible play covering first on a play hit to Sanderson. Sanderson bobbled the ball, picked it up, and threw it into the dirt behind Timmerman. “Tuck” happens to be maybe the best all around athlete on the team, and not only caught the ball, but upon replay drug his toe across the base just in front of the runner. You have to watch it to believe it.
In case you doubted it. ⏪ https://t.co/Hv9o3T4jGl pic.twitter.com/w2Il89ATug
— Nebraska Baseball (@HuskerBaseball) April 28, 2026
The teams traded runs in the 3rd, Timmerman gave up a leadoff double, then back to back outs brought the runner home. On the Nebraska side, Worthley singled up the middle, part of the freshman backstop’s 5 for 5 night. A double from Sanderson down the left field line put runners on second and third for Carey. Carey drove a sac fly to deep right, and Worthley put the Huskers up 4-1 after 3.
Kansas State took the lead in the middle innings, by way of the long ball. A 2 run home run in the 4th off of Timmerman, and a 2 run home run off Husker reliever Kevin Mannell in the 5th gave the Wildcats a 5-4 lead, and put all the momentum in the visitor’s dugout. Jaylen Worthley gave up a leadoff double of home run in the 6th, on his first batter the Wildcats’ dugout went wild.
Nebraska loaded the bases in both the 4th and fifth innings, but couldn’t finish the job. Coach Will Bolt felt like the offense was putting together good swings, just happened to line out to some well placed infielders by Kansas State. “When you set up as many innings as we do, and you don’t knock ‘em down, you give the other team momentum,” stated Bolt post-game.
As this team has done countless times this season, the Huskers battled back. With 1 out in the 7th, Drew Grego wore the first pitch of his at bat on the shoulder. As seems to happen a lot this season after a hit-by-pitch, Grego stole second base. With 2 outs, Mac Moyer drove a ball up the middle, just past the diving second baseman, scoring Grego, and cutting the lead to 6-5.
That brought up Worthley, already sitting on a 4-4 stat line. He drove a low and inside fastball deep into center field. The center fielder wouldn’t have made the play, but slipped after taking a step in, then trying to turn and run to the wall. Moyer scored all the way from first, tying the game, and Worthley punctuated his big night with a stand up triple, urging the third base dugout to get pumped up, not that they needed any encouragement at that moment.
TIE BALL GAME! 🌽Worthley RBI TRIPLE brings home Moyer. pic.twitter.com/5B5z4gQL5T
— Nebraska Baseball (@HuskerBaseball) April 29, 2026
Following a shutout inning by Ty Horn in the 7th, J’Shawn Unger came out and with the help of a double play, sat the Wildcats down quickly in the 8th. Unger surrendered a 1 out walk in the 9th. The runner then stole second to get into scoring position. Inexplicably, the runner took off for 3rd, and was thrown out so easily that he didn’t even attempt to slide. Unger struck the batter out to end the inning, and take us to the bottom of the ninth.
Josh Overbeek led things off for Nebraska in the 9th. After quickly going down 0-2, he battled back and sent a 2-2 deep to the left field gap. The left fielder made a good play to cut the ball off from getting to the wall, theoretically holding “Beek” to a single. Only Overbeek had zero intention of stopping at first and barreled into second base will little regard for his or the second baseman’s life. He was going so fast and sliding headfirst so hard that he barely stopped in time to stick on the base.
Drew Grego has been a clutch player late in games, and hit a sharp ground ball right down the left field line, but the 3rd baseman was playing right on the line, and threw him out. That brought up Rhett Stokes, who was 0-4 on the night. Stokes pulled a hard grounder in almost the same place as Grego, only the third baseman was playing well off the line this time. Overbeek rounded third, held his hand up in the air, and scored a 4th straight walk-off win for the Huskers at home.
— Nebraska Baseball (@HuskerBaseball) April 29, 2026
It’s RPI watch season as the calendar is soon turning to May. The Huskers move up in the RPI with the win to 11th in the country. If they win their final 3 weekend series of the season, they should be solidly in the 2nd seed in the Big Ten Tournament and in line to host in the NCAA.