Nebraska hosts Northwestern at Haymarket Park this weekend.
Photo Via NU Athletic Communications
Looking At The Cats
Northwestern comes into Lincoln with a 5-22 record in 2023. The rough ride for the Wildcats has included sweeps from Texas State, LA Tech, St. Louis, and UTA. This Northwestern team has lost to some BAD teams. Their single game matchup losses have been from Gardner Webb, Presbyterian, USC Upstate, UIC (twice), Notre Dame, Houston, and TCU.
ND, TCU, and Houston are the only losses that are "acceptable" for a B1G team, but looking at this Wildcat team-not much good has come from anything.
Northwestern is hitting just .252 as a team during the 2023 campaign. Along with that is the 238 strikeouts in just their 27 games played. Northwestern's offense has only scored 146 runs while giving up 270. Which only goes to show just how bad the defensive side of things have been for the boys in purple.
The pitching staff has a combined 9.14 ERA. Yikes. Against the caliber of teams they've played-that number is flat out atrocious. I expect this staff to continue their struggles against this relentless Nebraska offense. Keep your head on a swivel if you're on the berm this weekend.
Where Nebraska Is
Nebraska is coming fresh off their second loss to cross-town foe Omaha this week. A game that left Husker Nation in complete disgust on Tuesday night. Omaha took down the Huskers 6-5 in 10 innings, and Nebraska had bases loaded with only 1 out in the bottom of the 9th (down by one). For Nebraska, anything short of a dominate sweep of the Wildcats would be sort of a letdown. When teams like this come through in the B1G conference, you can't let one game slip away. If they do, Nebraska will see their own postseason hopes slip right away with said game.
Of course, having just touched on how bad the Cats pitching staff is, it goes without saying that Nebraska has to have a huge weekend on the offensive side of things. With bats like Max Anderson, Josh Caron, Brice Matthews, and Gabe Swanson-it is safe to say Nebraska will be putting up 7+ runs the entire weekend.
However, the point of struggle for this Nebraska team has be LOB's. The last two games the Big Red have left 10+ men out there. This problem must be fixed to sweep this series.
Husker pitchers should be filled with excitement as well. Look for Jace Kaminska to have a big-time bounce back week and Emmett Olson to stay on track. Emmett has been absolutely splendid the last few starts. I expect him to really set the tone tomorrow night.
Photo Via NU Athletic Communications
Score Predictions
Friday
Northwestern: 1
Nebraska: 9
Saturday
Northwestern: 4
Nebraska: 11
Sunday
Northwestern: 5
Nebraska 16