Slumping Huskers fall to rival Creighton Bluejays, 6-4

Four runs in the top of the ninth inning sank Nebraska in a 6-4 loss vs. Creighton on Tuesday night at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.

Nebraska (23-11) scored four runs on six hits, while Creighton (27-7) totaled six runs on nine hits.

Josh Caron led the Big Red, going 2-for-4 at the plate with a double, home run and a pair of RBI. Cole Evans and Tyler Stone drove in the Huskers other two runs, while Clay Bradford doubled. Dylan Carey and Ben Columbus each added a hit.

Caleb Clark went two innings and tied a career-high with four strikeouts in his third start of the season. Kyle Froehlich allowed a pair of runs, before Ty Horn and Tucker Timmerman each turned in a scoreless frame. Casey Daiss surrendered a solo home run, while Kyle Perry shouldered his first loss of the season.

After three scoreless innings, Creighton plated the first run of the night with Teddy Deters’ wind-aided solo homer into the left-field berm to give the Bluejays a 1-0 lead in the fourth.

The Huskers immediately got the run back in the bottom half with a solo homer of their own. Caron blasted the first pitch over the wall in right with a game-tying 369-foot roundtripper, his seventh homer of the season.

Nebraska grabbed a 3-1 lead behind a pair of runs on two hits in the bottom of the sixth. The Huskers had runners on first and second with no outs after Carey’s single and a full-count walk to Case Sanderson. Caron broke the 1-1 tie, ripping an RBI double, 114 miles per hour off the bat, into the left-center alley to score Carey.

Evans doubled the Husker lead to two with his Big Ten-leading sixth sacrifice fly of the season after lifting the first pitch down the left-field line.

Creighton threatened in the seventh with the bases loaded and no outs after two singles and a walk. Daiss struck out the second batter he faced to get the first out, before retiring the next two Bluejays via a lineout and groundout to prevent Creighton from scoring any runs in the inning.

The Bluejays trimmed the deficit in half in the eighth with Colby Canales’ solo homer to left field that made it a 3-2 game.

Back-to-back singles, followed by a walk loaded the bases for the visitors in the ninth inning. Deters lifted the first pitch he saw into the batter’s eye in center for a grand slam to give CU a three-run lead going into the bottom of the ninth.

Columbus reached on a one-out walk, while Stone's two-out RBI single off the top of the wall in left brought the Big Red within two. Bradford lifted a pinch-hit double off the wall in left field to put runners on second and third with the go-ahead run at the plate, but a strikeout ended the Huskers' rally and clinched the 6-4 win for the visitors.

Nebraska continues its homestand with a three-game series vs. Maryland this weekend at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park. First pitch of Friday’s series opener between the Huskers and Terrapins is set for 6:05 p.m.