Senior Rhett Stokes came through in the clutch, lining a walk-off single down the left-field line to give No. 16 Nebraska a 7-6 win vs. Kansas State on Tuesday night at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.
Nebraska (34-11) scored seven runs on 14 hits and no errors, while Kansas State (26-19) finished with six runs, eight hits and one error.
Jeter Worthley led the Husker offense at the plate, going a perfect 5-for-5 with a triple and two runs. Worthley is the first Husker freshman to record a five-hit game since Gunner Hellstrom against Rutgers in 2018.
Stokes drove in the game-winning run with a walk-off single, and Mac Moyer finished 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored. Joshua Overbeek had a 2-for-5 night with a double and a run, while Case Sanderson doubled and Will Jesske and Drew Grego recorded one hit each.
Tucker Timmerman started and allowed three runs over four innings on three hits. Kevin Mannell was tagged with two runs on one hit, and Caleb Clark tossed a scoreless inning in relief. Jalen Worthley surrendered a run in one inning of work, while Ty Horn pitched a scoreless seventh inning. J’Shawn Unger earned the win, improving to 6-1 with two scoreless frames to close it out.
Nebraska jumped on the Wildcats in the first, scoring three runs behind two hits and an error to race out to a 3-0 lead. Consecutive singles from Moyer and Je. Worthley began the inning, while the pair came around to score on wild pitches to score the first two runs.
Carey drew a four-pitch walk and scored all the way from first on a dropped fly ball in right field with two outs to make it a 3-0 game.
A leadoff double in the top of the third, followed by an RBI groundout later in the inning plated K-State’s first run of the night and trimmed NU’s lead to 3-1.
The Huskers immediately got the run back in the bottom of the third with Carey’s sacrifice fly to center field after Je. Worthley’s single and a double by Sanderson opening the inning.
K-State grabbed a 5-4 lead after smacking a pair of two-run homers in the fourth and fifth innings. The Wildcats extended the lead to 6-4 with a leadoff home run to begin the sixth inning.
The Huskers rallied in the seventh when Moyer singled home Grego and Worthley tripled to center to score Moyer, tying the game at six and setting the stage for Nebraska’s walk-off hit in the ninth.
Unger blanked the Wildcats in the next two innings to send a 6-6 game into the bottom of the ninth. Overbeek ripped a double into the gap in left-center field to open the Huskers’ ninth, and two batters later Stokes lined a walk-off single down the left-field line to score Overbeek from second for Nebraska’s fifth walk-off win of the season.
Nebraska returns to Big Ten play this weekend with a road series at Ohio State on Friday-Sunday, May 1-3.
Huskers.com
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