Lincoln – For the third straight season, the No. 23 Nebraska baseball team (28-11, 5-4 Big Ten) and the Ohio State Buckeyes (24-9, 7-2 Big Ten) are set to meet at Hawks Field for a three-game Big Ten series. The Huskers and Buckeyes have met 15 times dating back to 1991, while meeting 13 times since the Huskers joined the Big Ten, with NU posting a 9-4 record since 2012.
Nebraska enters the series fifth in the Big Ten standing with a 5-4 record. The Huskers have been tough at home this season, posting an 18-2 record, including a 5-1 record in Big Ten games at Hawks Field.
Ohio State enters the weekend third in the league standings with a 7-2 mark, one game back of both Illinois (8-1) and Iowa (8-1) for first place. The Buckeyes are 7-3 over their past 10 games, including a win at home over Louisville on Tuesday. Last week the Buckeyes hosted UNLV and took the first game of the series, but then dropped the final two contest. Like the Huskers, the Buckeyes have played well at home this season with a 15-4 record at Bill Davis Stadium. Also like the Huskers, OSU has not been as good on the road with a 9-5 mark, including a 6-5 record in road games. The Buckeyes have played six of their nine Big Ten games at home, with their lone road trip to Piscataway, N.J., where they took 2-of-3 from Rutgers.
Chance Sinclair is scheduled to make his 26th career start on Friday night and will look to even his record on the season, as he sits at 4-5 on the year in nine starts. Over 57.0 innings, Sinclair has struck out 40, while walking 11. Last season against the Buckeyes, Sinclair tossed his first career complete game at Nebraska and struck out seven, while walking none.
The Buckeyes are scheduled to start sophomore lefty Tanner Tully on Friday, who is 3-1 on the year in nine starts with a 2.63 ERA. Tully was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season, as well as a freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball and Perfect Game. Over 51.1 innings this season, the Elkhart, Ind., native has recorded 33 strikeouts to 10 walks. During league play, Tully is 2-1 in three starts and leads the Buckeyes with a 1.31 ERA. Tully started the middle game of the series last year in the Lincoln and no hit the Huskers over the first 6.2 innings of the game before Tanner Lubach delivered a two-out single. Tully held the Huskers to one run on three hits over 7.1 innings, but didn’t factor into the decision on April 5. Tully also started against the Huskers in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament and again didn’t factor into the decision after allowing three runs on seven hits in 7.0 innings, while striking out eight.
Senior Kyle Kubat is scheduled to start on Saturday and for the fourth straight week he’ll try to notch his 20th career win. With a 4-1 record on the year and a 19-4 career record, Kubat is looking to become the 11th pitcher in school history to record 20 wins.
Sophomore Travis Lakins is scheduled to start for the Buckeyes on Saturday. In nine starts this season, he is 1-2 with a 3.83 ERA in 54.0 innings of work. During league play, Lakins has worked 18.0 innings over three starts and has a 1-0 record with a 3.00 ERA. The righty from Franklin, Ohio, saw action out of the bullpen in three games against the Huskers last season, and he gave up six runs (four earned) on five hits and four walks over 3.2 innings.
Sophomore Derek Burkamper will take the hill on Sunday for the Huskers and he’ll be in search of his fifth win of the season. The Muscatine, Iowa, native has not factored into the decision in his last two starts, and hasn’t made it out of the fifth inning of either start after working 6.0 or more inning in four of his previous five starts.
Senior Ryan Riga is scheduled to start on Sunday and enters the weekend with a team-best 1.76 ERA in nine appearances, including eight starts, over a team-high 56.1 innings. Earlier this season, Riga posted a school-record scoreless streak of 30.2 innings, and had the streak snapped at Penn State on April 6. It’s the longest streak by any pitcher in the country this season and broke OSU’s previous record of 22.1 scoreless innings by Bob Spears in 1995. The 6-0 left hander didn’t throw against the Huskers in any of four meetings between the two teams last season.
Due to impending weather on Friday night, the Nebraska baseball team has announced that its series opener against Ohio State will now begin at 4:05 p.m. on Friday. The game was previously scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
At this time, Saturday (2:05 p.m.) and Sunday’s (1:05 p.m.) games are still scheduled for their original start times.
For all schedule announcements, remember to check Huskers.com. Updates will also be posted on facebook (facebook.com/NebraskaBaseball) and on twitter (@Husker_Baseball).
TV Coverage
Saturday’s game will be carried statewide on NET.
Web Streams
Both Friday’s and Sunday’s games will be carried in HuskersNSide (subscription required). Saturday’s game will be streamed on BTN Plus (subscription required).