Caron Homers Twice in 11-1 Rout at GCU

Josh Caron slugged two homers in Nebraska’s 11-1 win at Grand Canyon at Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark on Friday night. With the win, head coach Will Bolt notched his 100th career victory, becoming the sixth coach to reach the century mark in program history.

Nebraska (3-2) scored 11 runs on 17 hits and a pair of errors, while GCU (4-2) was limited to one run on four hits and two errors.

Caron went 2-for-4 with two homers and five RBI, matching his career-high in homers and RBI set last season at South Alabama. Tyler Stone was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI, while Will Jesske went 2-for-2 with a double and an RBI. Cayden Brumbaugh and Riley Silva tallied three hits apiece, while Garrett Anglim and Cole Evans had two hits each.

Brett Sears dealt six scoreless innings and struck out a career-high seven batters for the second straight weekend, surrendering just two hits and a walk. Ty Horn picked up his first save after pitching the final three innings. The freshman allowed an unearned run on two hits and a walk while striking out a pair.

The Huskers went to work early, leaping out to a two-run lead in the opening frame to grab a 2-0 lead. Silva reached on a single through the right side before Caron drilled a two-run blast over the elevated wall in center field for his first homer of the season.

The Big Red doubled its lead in the third with two more runs on a pair of hits. Silva began the inning with a single through the left side and swiped second, while Caron was plunked on a 2-2 pitch to place runners on first and second with one out. Stone continued his hot hitting on the series, clearing the bases with a two-RBI double off the wall in left-center field.

Sears worked around a pair of two-out singles in the bottom of the third to keep the Lopes off the board and keep it a four-run game through three innings.

Anglim opened the fourth with a walk and moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt by Rhett Stokes. Brumbaugh added to NU’s offensive production with an RBI single up the middle, plating Anglim and growing the lead to 5-0.

GCU’s Dustin Crenshaw led off the bottom of the sixth by reaching on an NU fielding error, snapping Sears’ streak of seven consecutive batters he retired. The junior retired the next three batters to clinch the quality start.

After a pair of two-out infield singles by Stone and Evans, Jesske ripped a pinch-hit RBI single through the right side to make it 6-0 in the seventh.

The Lopes plated their lone run of the night in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out RBI groundout.

Brumbaugh and Silva reached on back-to-back one-out singles in the eighth, setting up Caron’s three-run blast over the wall in center for his second homer of the night.

The Huskers added a pair of runs in the ninth to clinch the 11-1 win. Evans and Jesske started the inning with a single up the middle and a double to left-center to put runners on second and third with no outs. Evans touched home on a wild pitch, while Anglim’s RBI single plated Jesske to extend the lead to 10.

Nebraska and Grand Canyon continue the weekend series tomorrow at 7 p.m. CT. Saturday night’s matchup can be seen on ESPN+, while fans can listen to Greg Sharpe and Ben McLaughlin call the action on the Huskers Radio Network.