The Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team might not generate a ton of headlines this time of year compared to its counterparts in basketball and football, but for at least a little bit on Friday afternoon, Will Bolt’s squad is the talk of the town.
That’s because the Huskers’ baseball team was able to nail down a rather impressive commit from a lefty hurler who led the entire state of Texas prep pitchers in strikeouts last season. JC Gutierrez announced he’d officially committed to Nebraska on Friday evening, and he’s expected to be in Lincoln by next Thursday.
According to the Omaha World-Herald, Gutierrez was a commit to the Texas Tech Red Raiders for more than two years. However, the Raiders’ loss became the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ gain when Tech had to inform the young pitcher it no longer had any more scholarship money available for him.
The lefty told the paper that being able to get a scholarship to play baseball was very important to he and his family. When Tech made their decision, so did Gutierrez in July and he started looking for a new school.
It turns out that the fact that Rob Childress is back with Nebraska played a big role in getting Gutierrez to Lincoln. When he started looking around for a new team, he remembered that he’d heard quite a bit from travel-ball teammate Max Childress. Max’s father is no other than the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ baseball team’s director of player development.
Gutierrez told the paper that seeing a familiar face when he visited the Huskers played a very big role in his deciding he wanted to play for the Huskers.
For their part, it certainly looks as if NU got a steal in the deal. The 5-10 175-pounder is willing to be a starter, a closer or a reliever and it seems he’s going to be racking up strikeouts no matter where he pitches.
Over 82 and 1/3 innings in 2021, Gutierrez struck out 153 batters while posting a 2.30 earned run average. In his high school career he had 348 Ks over 203 1/3 innings.