MESA, AZ – Will Jesske\u2019s early home run and a strong outing from\u00a0Gavin Blachowicz\u00a0led Nebraska to a 9-1 win against Grand Canyon Sunday night at Sloan Park in Mesa.<\/p>\n
Nebraska recorded nine runs on 14 hits, while GCU totaled a run, four hits and an error.<\/p>\n
Jesske had a 3-for-3 night with a homer, two runs driven in and three runs scored.\u00a0Jett Buck\u00a0drove in three runs with a 2-for-4 performance, while\u00a0Joshua Overbeek\u00a0was 2-for-4 with two RBI.<\/p>\n
Case Sanderson\u00a0and\u00a0Dylan Carey\u00a0had a double and two hits apiece, and\u00a0Miken Miller,\u00a0Max Buettenback\u00a0and\u00a0Devin Nunez\u00a0recorded one hit each.<\/p>\n
Gavin Blachowicz\u00a0had a career outing in his first career start, pitching a career-high 4.2 innings with a career-high five punchouts. The sophomore surrendered one run on two hits and a pair of walks.<\/p>\n
Chase Olson\u00a0improved to 1-0 on the season after dealing 1.1 scoreless frames with three strikeouts in his Husker debut.\u00a0J\u2019Shawn Unger\u00a0threw two shutout innings with two strikeouts and a walk, while\u00a0Jace Ziola\u00a0entered the ninth and tossed a scoreless inning in his Husker debut.<\/p>\n
Jesske broke the scoreless deadlock in the top of the third with a 405-foot solo blast beyond the GCU bullpen in left field to give the Huskers a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
The Husker offense added three more runs in the fourth inning to stretch the lead to 4-0. Buettenback was hit by the pitch to start the inning, and Nunez ripped a single back up the middle and advanced to second on the throw to put runners on second and third with one out.<\/p>\n
A wild pitch allowed Nunez to jog on home from third base, while an RBI single up the middle off the bat of Jesske plated the Big Red\u2019s second run in the inning. Buck lifted a sacrifice fly to deep left field to score Jesske and make it a 4-0 game.<\/p>\n
The GCU offense threatened for the first time in the bottom of the fourth inning, picking up their first hit of the evening with consecutive singles to open the inning. A walk loaded the bases for the Lopes with no outs, before a sacrifice fly to deep left field plated GCU\u2019s first run of the evening.<\/p>\n
Blachowicz struck out the next two batters to strand the two baserunners and keep NU\u2019s lead at 4-1 through four innings.<\/p>\n
Holding a 4-1 lead after the seventh, the NU offense erupted for five runs on five hits in the top of eighth to blow the game open at 9-1.<\/p>\n
A leadoff walk to\u00a0Mac Moyer, followed by Jesske\u2019s third hit of the night had runners on first and second with no outs. An errant throw on a failed pickoff attempt moved the duo to second and third, setting up Buck\u2019s two-RBI single through the left side.<\/p>\n
Sanderson followed Buck with a ground-rule double, while Overbeek laced a two-RBI single through the left side to make it an 8-1 game. Carey capped the scoring with a first-pitch RBI double to left field that brought home Overbeek.<\/p>\n
Unger worked around a leadoff walk in the bottom of the eighth, and Ziola kept the Lopes off the board in the bottom of the ninth to preserve Nebraska\u2019s 9-1 victory.<\/p>\n