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Nebraska Baseball Completes Largest Comeback in 15 Years, Tops Purdue

The Huskers are one step closer to returning to Omaha to defend their Big Ten Conference Tournament title from 2024.

Kaleb Henry

Nebraska second baseman Cayden Brumbaugh awaits the pitch at Purdue.
Nebraska second baseman Cayden Brumbaugh awaits the pitch at Purdue. / Nebraska Athletics

Nebraska baseball is one step closer to returning to Omaha to defend their Big Ten Conference Tournament title from 2024.

Overcoming an 8-0 deficit, Nebraska rallied to top Purdue 11-9 Thursday in West Lafayette. The Huskers improve to 27-26 on the year and 14-14 in the Big Ten Conference, while the Boilermakers fall to 30-22 and 10-18.

The eight-run comeback was the largest for the program since 2010. That's the year Nebraska rallied from a 10-run deficit against North Dakota to win 11-10. That matched the comeback in 2000 that saw the Huskers get a 14-13 victory against Iowa State.

Everything went the way of the home side early. After a 1-2-3 first inning, Purdue put their first five batters of the second inning on base, scoring two runs in the process. A sacrifice fly and a single drove in three more runs.

In the third inning, a leadoff home run extended the lead. The Boilermakers woudl tack on two more to lead 8-0 just a third of the way through the contest.

Then Nebraska broke through.

Dylan Carey launched a home run to left center to get the Big Red on the board. Robby Bolin drove in a run on a single, and then back-to-back doubles from Cayden Brumbaugh and Gabe Swansen scored four more runs to shirnk the deficit to 8-6.

In the fifth inning, Bolin brought in another run on a sacrifice bunt before Riley Silva doubled to tie the game.

After a pair of scoreless innings for both teams, the Huskers put together the pieces again in the eighth. Joshua Overbeek led off with a double before Swansen got on after being hit by the pitch. Dylan Carey singled to score two runs before being driven in himself by a Devin Nunez double.

After Tucker Timmerman was roughed up over 2.0 innings of work, Caleb Clark, Pryce Bender, Grant Cleavinger, Drew Christo, and Luke Broderick combined to allow just one unearned run on five hits over the final 7.0 innings.

Nebraska and Purdue continue the series Friday at 3 p.m. CDT. The game will be streamed on B1G+.

Box Score

Nebraska shortstop Dylan Carey signals to the dugout from first base.
Nebraska shortstop Dylan Carey signals to the dugout from first base. / Nebraska Athletics

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Kaleb Henry
KALEB HENRY

Kaleb Henry is an award-winning sports reporter, covering collegiate athletics since 2014 via radio, podcasting, and digital journalism. His experience with Big Ten Conference teams goes back more than a decade, including time covering programs such as the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oregon Ducks, and USC Trojans. He has contributed to Sports Illustrated since 2021. Kaleb has won multiple awards for his sports coverage from the Nebraska Broadcasters Association and Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association. Prior to working in sports journalism, Kaleb was a Division I athlete on the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Track and Field team where he discussed NCAA legislation as SIUE's representative to the Ohio Valley Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. 

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