For a couple of days, Nebraska baseball’s Red-White series will resemble a key Big Ten weekend.
The teams will play at 6 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday at Haymarket Park like they would in the spring. There will be a pregame meal and a national anthem. Full uniforms — red jerseys for one side and pinstripe whites for the other.
Games will be seven innings with standard nine-man lineups. Pitchers will go as long as they’re effective. The Huskers will even stream the action on their YouTube channel.
With 26 players back from last year’s 40-win club that won a league tournament title, Nebraska has already scrimmaged more than ever this fall under coach Will Bolt. It keeps sharp a veteran lineup largely intact and a stocked pitching staff likely deeper than last season despite the loss of Big Ten pitcher of the year Brett Sears.
“You can see the experience of college at-bats and innings,†Bolt said. “Their comfort level of how to compete at this level is different.â€
The Red-White series runs five days in all, with 3 p.m. starts Monday through Wednesday after beginning this weekend. All are open to fans with free admission. NU extended the showcase in part because its only scheduled fall exhibition against Wichita State was washed out last month. The team originally had planned to play Arkansas at Schwab Field Omaha in an event that would have also matched up Creighton and Oklahoma State before it fell through.
On the line is a meal the losing team will prepare for the victors in Nebraska’s new life skills cafeteria.
“That could be good or bad if you’re the winners, depending on who’s cooking for you,†Bolt said.
Assistant coaches and staffers chose the rosters and will manage them. Starting pitchers will be Red’s Drew Christo against White’s Mason McConnaughey (Friday), Tyner Horn against Carson Jasa (Saturday), Will Walsh against Jackson Brockett (Monday), Jalen Worthley against TJ Coats (Tuesday) and Tucker Timmerman against Ryan Harrahill (Wednesday).
Pitching intrigue remains high for a staff already returning 70% of last year’s innings that finished in the top 30 nationally in earned-run average. Jasa (pronounced YAW-sa) redshirted last spring as a true freshman but followed with a strong summer and fall. The 6-foot-7, 230-pound right-hander from the Denver area is NU’s hardest thrower with a fastball sitting in the mid-90s and continues to refine his formerly erratic command amid strikeout stuff.
Horn, a sophomore and previously touted prep prospect, has also turned a fall corner while tapping into a new “competitive confidence,†Bolt said. The junior Worthley is pounding the strike zone like never before, has gained 10 pounds of muscle and will contend as a starter after being a full-time reliever so far in college. The fifth-year left-hander Walsh has transformed his body and added a few miles per hour to his pitches after giving up hitting in the offseason.
A newcomer would be Nebraska’s closer if it needed a save right now, Bolt said. Junior righty Luke Broderick — an Elkhorn Mount Michael graduate who spent two years at Iowa Western — has been among the team leaders in velocity and strike percentage featuring a mid-90s cutting fastball and sweeping slider.
“He can punch your lights out on the mound with his stuff,†Bolt said of the former juco starter who fanned 56 batters in 42 innings in the spring with a 3.21 ERA.
Other fall notes
* Among the hitters to boost their stock in recent weeks are outfielders Riley Silva and Max Buettenback, Bolt said. Silva was NU’s regular centerfielder last year as a junior with 32 steals and stayed in Lincoln during the summer to get stronger. Buettenback, a sophomore, is transitioning from reserve catcher to corner outfielder after dominating the Northwoods League.
* First baseman Tyler Stone has sat out practices recovering from a slight separation of his left (non-throwing) shoulder and has yet to swing a bat. The senior who hit .289 with eight homers last year won’t need surgery and will be full-go for next season. Nebraska has otherwise been relatively healthy.
* Among true freshmen likely to make a quicker impact, Pryce Bender is perhaps leading the list of candidates. The 6-foot-4 two-way prospect from Edmond, Oklahoma, could see more early action as a pitcher who can throw from a variety of arm angles — touching 92 mph over the top and upper 80s from the side. “It’s interesting,†Bolt said. “He’s got finisher-type stuff.â€
* Nebraska is carrying 46 players on its roster and must trim to 40 by next spring. Assuming the NCAA’s ongoing court case is settled in the coming months, college baseball will begin operating with 34-man rosters by the fall of 2025 with no scholarship limits. Until then, coaches and 2025 recruits set to sign next month are operating in uncertainty and conjecture.
“We don’t have a lot of answers right now,†Bolt said. “We don’t know what it’s going to look like so we’re still working through it.â€
* The Huskers open their season Feb. 14-16 at the MLB Desert Invitational in Scottsdale, Arizona, but still don’t know who their three opponents will be. SEC programs Tennessee and Vanderbilt are among those believed to be in the mix. The event last year didn’t announce its eight-team field until January.
Red-White Series
Where: Haymarket Park, Lincoln
Video stream:
6 p.m. Friday: RHP Drew Christo (3-3, 4.62 ERA in 2024) vs. RHP Mason McConnaughey (9-3, 3.45)