Nebraska baseball has advanced to the finals of the Big Ten Baseball Tournament with a 6-3 win over Penn State Saturday night at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. The Cornhuskers qualify for the championship game for the second straight year and seek their second straight Big Ten Tournament championship, which they won over the Nittany Lions last year 2-1.
Nebraska took a two-run lead in the bottom of the second inning, as Hogan Helligso knocked in two runs with a single. Penn State stormed back, scoring a run in the third before fourth inning homers by Jesse Jaconski and Matt Maloney put the Nittany Lions ahead, 3-2. But the Huskers responded again in the bottom of the fourth. An RBI double by Riley Silva tied the game at three. Robbie Bolin followed with an RBI groundout to second to give Nebraska the 4-3 lead. Then in the bottom of the seventh, Gabe Swansen hammered a two-run home run to right-center to push the lead to three.
Drew Christo (3-2) earned the win, throwing three shutout innings of relief while allowing three hits and one walk. Luke Broderick earned the save, his 12th, shutting out PSU’s offense for the last 2.2 innings while allowing two hits and three walks while striking out four. All nine Nebraska hitters collected either a hit or an RBI. Devin Nunez was 2-for-4 with two doubles, while Helligso was 2-for-4 with two RBI to lead the NU offense.
The Huskers advance to the Big Ten finals to face UCLA, which beat Iowa in the other semifinal Saturday, 9-3. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m., with pregame coverage at 1:30 p.m. on KLIN.