The Nebraska Huskers plowed through the competition at the Hillenbrand Invitation over the weekend and extended their winning streak to nine games.
The successful weekend saw the Huskers go 5-0, included a 10-3 drubbing of No. 19 Arizona, and earn a No. 24 ranking by D1 Softball on Monday.
Junior shortstop Billie Andrew made history in the final game of the weekend against Cal State Northridge when she became the 16th Husker to record over 100 hits, runs scored and runs batted in. She is just the fifth to achieve those numbers before her senior season.
The Huskers recorded 16 hits against Arizona, seven for extra bases and four were home runs.
Brooke Andrews finished 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs. Ava Bredwell, Katelyn Caneda and Billie Andrews each hit a home run as well.
Against CSUN, Nebraska pushed four runs across in the eighth inning to secure a 11-7 victory. It was the first extra-inning game of the 2023 season and the second-consecutive game with 15 or more hits.
The top seven batters in the lineup had multi-hit games including freshman Talia Tokheim who hit her second-career homer. She finished the game 2-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs.
The pitching staff, led by Courtney Wallace, had a fantastic weekend. Wallace improved to 8-3 and Sarah Harness is now 5-2.
Wallace pitched a complete game against Weber State and Arizona. Against Weber, she surrendered two runs on four hits, struck out four and walked five in a 3-2 win. Arizona tagged her for three runs on six hits, struck out three times and walked twice.
Harness earned the win against Texas A&M-Commerce in 5.1 innings of work. She struck out five and walked two before Wallace came in to complete the shutout and secure the 3-0 win. Harness got the nod for the second matchup against Weber and struck out three, allowed three hits and one run in a five-inning run-rule win.
Billie Andrews pushed her season home run total to eight which is good for second in the Big Ten. Other notable season stats include Ava Bredwell’s 18 runs scored which is good with sixth. Both Andrews and Caitlynn Neal rank in the top 10 for hits with 25 (sixth) and 23 (eighth) and are tied for second with six doubles.
The Huskers head to Wichita State on Friday for the Shocker Classic. They will play the Shockers and Missouri State twice each before playing their first game in their home state on Wednesday, March 15 at Omaha.
Maren is freelancing at HV this year and has a free membership so she has full access to her articles, but not admin access to Memberpress – 3/13/2023, EMV
