'Good Moments' Aplenty In Huskers' Home-Opening Win

Nebraska pitchers struck out 16 batters. They issued no walks.
 
Freshman designated hitter Leighton Banjoff hit another home run and reached base two other times. He increased his team-leading batting average and on-base percentage.
 
A closer on this day, junior Paul Tillotson needed a mere 10 pitches for a 1-2-3 ninth inning and Nebraska's first save of the season.
 
A bright sun helped temperatures into the 50s on Friday, the sixth day of March, as 4,570 fans watched the Huskers defeat Columbia 5-3 in a tidy 2 hours, 26 minutes.
 
What else could you want in the first home baseball game of a new season, of a new coaching era?
 
"The weather was great, the fan support was great," first-year Nebraska coach Will Bolt said. "I know our guys were excited to be here in front of our fans."
 
Perhaps the only adversity Nebraska (3-7) faced came before sophomore Kyle Perry threw the game's first pitch. The grounds crew fixed a wet area in front of the mound, delaying the game close to 10 minutes.
 
"I'm not really picky about those things," Perry said, "but I threw my first few warm-up pitches and was slipping a little bit."
 
Perry certainly had no problems thereafter. Making his first start of the season, the left-hander struck out seven in five innings while allowing two hits and one run.
 
"I thought he was outstanding," Bolt said. "I think that's kind of what we expected from him. He's fearless. He's just going to attack with his best stuff."
 
Bolt replaced Perry after five innings because he'd thrown 68 pitches, closing in on his pitch count coaches set prior to the game.
 
"I told him after the game if he'd have been stretched out a little more," Bolt said, "he'd probably still be throwing."
 
No argument from Perry.
 
"They're taking me easy right now, which I understand fully," Perry said. "I understand the place we're at in the season right now."
 
Perry knew the importance of attacking the zone and getting ahead of hitters. His seven strikeouts came over his final three innings. He struck out the side in the fourth, the same inning he allowed a solo homer, and five times caught Columbia hitters looking at strike three.
 
"They couldn't do much with the inside fastball, and that's where most of my strike threes were," Perry said. "The ump was giving me the call on the lower inside portion, and I kind of took advantage of that."
 
Max Schreiber replaced Perry and pitched four innings, allowing two runs and four hits. He, too, struck out seven.


 
"That's attacking the strike zone, getting ahead, putting guys away when you have a chance to do it," Bolt said. "There were a lot of big moments in that game where we stepped up."
 
Including the eighth, when Columbia took advantage of an error to score one run and had the tying runs in scoring position with one out, that after a wild pitch. But Schreiber ended the threat by getting the next two Lions to strike out swinging, eliciting the crowd's biggest roar of the day.
 
Tillotson then tossed a drama-free ninth inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced, including one to end the game.
 
"They're competing," said catcher Luke Roskam, who caught all three pitchers. "They're just throwing their best stuff and saying, 'Try to hit it.' That's what you want from all your pitchers, is attack, attack, attack."
 
Even though Tillotson may have looked the part Friday, Bolt isn't ready to label him, or anyone, for that matter, as the Huskers' closer.  
 
"I'm not going to name any roles at this point. It's just whoever's got the ball and feeling good, let's go finish it," Bolt said. "It's who's going to throw strikes, who's going to compete. He's shown us each time he's taken the ball, that he's just going to fill up the strike zone and be composed and get ahead and do those things."
 
Offensively, Roskam lined a 3-1 pitch into left field for a two-run single and 3-0 lead in the fourth inning. Nebraska had already taken a 1-0 lead in the second inning, as Banjoff continued his hot streak with a solo home run, his third homer in two games.
 
Banjoff, who increased his team-leading batting average to .379, is using the same approach he used in high school and hasn't made any notable adjustments, mechanically or mentally. He said he's been seeing the ball better, and has been able to slow down the game more, compared to the first two weekends of the season.
 
Bolt agrees.
 
"In his first 8 to 10 at-bats, I thought he was maybe a little caught in between on some of his swings," Bolt said, "so he wasn't … he was getting a couple of hits, walks, but he wasn't really doing a lot of damage, which we felt he'd be able to do. This (last) weekend he was a lot more decisive in what he was doing, and so you started seeing the doubles and home runs as a result."
 
Banjoff also drew a walk and was hit by a pitch to increase his team-leading on-base percentage to .526.
 
"It probably wasn't he most aesthetically pleasing game in the world," Bolt said. "We left some plays out there on the field, defensively, especially. But you never worry about a win, what it looks like. There were a lot of good moments in there for us, and I'm just happy we got the win."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.