In Nebraska’s 6-2 victory over Purdue in the 2024 Big Ten Baseball Tournament, the Cornhuskers needed just two pitchers to carry them home.
Getting the start, Nebraska ace Brett Sears lasted six innings and allowed two runs, only one of which was earned, against the Boilermakers before giving up the ball to Drew Christo, who finished the day off with three scoreless innings to keep any threat of a Purdue come back under wraps.
After the game, Nebraska coach Will Bolt commended his pitchers for limiting Purdue while also allowing the rest of the pitching staff to save their arms.
“Purdue’s got a really good hitting lineup. So to hold them to 2-30 the day, pretty impressive job by those two guys,” said Bolt. Perhaps he could have even gotten the job done with just Sears, however, Bolt didn’t want to risk pitching him too much on brief rest.
“We would have hoped that, you know, Sears’ first start of the tournament would have been on full rest tomorrow. It didn’t work out that way, but I am glad we gave him that extra day to be able to give us that type of performance.
“I think he probably wanted to stay in the game at 99 pitches, he’s like, ‘Well, I’m going to have nine days off before my next start.’ But we felt like it was the right move to get him out of the game there.”
For the innings where Sears was in, Bolt had nothing but rave reviews.
“And he was great. I mean, the two-out home run, they put a good swing on it. The bases-loaded situation, he did what he’s done all year long. He made pitches when he needed to, got the ground ball out and allowed us to score.”
The Nebraska coach continued, noting how important Sears’ rhythm as a pitcher is to the Cornhuskers on both ends of the field.
“So, what Brett does, he allows the offense to get in a rhythm, because his innings are typically so fast. He works fast, he pounds the zone, he was great.”
Will Bolt also shouted out Christo for his unblemished third of the ballgame Thursday, which he considered a solid bounce-back.
“Great to see Christo, kind of a bounce-back outing. He had a great outing against Indiana and didn’t probably pitch the way he wanted to against Michigan State, but really bounced back and stuff was crisp again. Velocity looked like it was up a tick and the slider was good.”
Overall, an exemplary day on the mound for those two Nebraska pitchers.
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