• Marlon Lucky and Joe Ganz appear on award watch lists
• Eshaunte Jones appears to be headed to Nebraska
• Want to play NCAA Football 2008 with Grant Wistrom?
• Will Khiry Cooper stay in Lincoln or sign with the Los Angeles Angels?
• Hunter Teafatiller gets third DUI in the last year
• Walter Roese has joined the Nebraska mens basketball staff
• Huskers host regionals this weekend
• What former Husker Trev Alberts thinks about the 2008 team
• Husker hoops recruit Roburt Sallie won’t be making it to Lincoln
• Dorn and Herr save the day
• Huskers Drop 4th Straight to Bears
• Big inning sinks #5 Huskers
• Huskers get commitment #5 as Dontrayevous Robinson pledges
• C.J. Zimmerer gets Nebraska offer and quickly accepts
• Huskers sweep doubleheader with dramatic comebacks

Lincoln, NE - The Huskers (36-8-1, 15-5-1) took two games from Louisiana-Lafayette winning 4-3 in both games.  The wins mark the 4th consecutive victory for the Huskers and is the 250th victory for Head Coach Mike Anderson. 

Game 1 - The first game was a continuation of a unfortunate pattern, Johnny Dorn pitches a great game yet doesn’t walk away with a victory.  Johnny pitched for 7.2 innings, scattered 5 hits, struck out 11 and gave up 3 earned runs.   However, when he left the game, the scored was knotted at 3. 

Dorn ran into a little trouble with 2 outs in the 7th when Zach Herr came in and struckout the last batter to end the inning.  In the bottom of the frame, Cody Neer knocked in the go ahead run to put Herr in position to earn the win.  Herr came out for the ninth and after a leadoff popout, he struck out the final two batters to seal the win.  With the win, Herr moved to 3-0 on the year.

Cody Neer powered the Husker offense in game one with a 2 for 4 day and 2 RBIs.  Ben Kline, Mitch Abeita, and Nick Sullivan also added 2 hits apiece to help lead the charge.

Game 2 - The nightcap was a 14 inning thriller that ended with Mitch Abeita hitting an RBI grounder up the middle to score Jake Mort from 2nd in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the 14th.

The MVP of the game might be Mike Nesseth though.  Mike came in to relieve Dan Jennings in the 9th and threw 3 innings, not allowing a single hit and striking out 6.  He helped keep the Rajin Cajuns at bay until the Huskers could put up a run and walk away with a victory.  Erik Bird came in to relieve Nesseth and pitched two scoreless innings to earn his 3rd win.

Aaron Pribanic got the start ahead of Thad Weber who couldn’t be with the team so he could be present for the birth of his first child.  Pribanic went 6 innings and gave up just 2 earned runs in a nice bounce back from a few rough starts in recent weeks.

Dan Johnston, Jake Opitz, Mitch Abeita and Bryce Nimmo all chipped in 2 hits apiece.   Mort drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the 14th and stole 2nd before Abeita drilled the ball up the middle to score Mort for the game winner. 

The Huskers used a dramatic 2-run 9th inning to tie it and send it into extra innings.  They scored both runs with 2 outs, including the 2nd on an error by the 3rd baseman to tie it up.

The Huskers take the week off for finals week before Texas A&M Aggies come to town in what is turning out to be the showdown for the Big XII title.  The Aggies enter the series having won 15 straight Big XII games, a league record.  They lead the league in about every offensive category and are just behind the Huskers in pitching.  It will be the 2nd time this year that Haymarket has played host to two Top 10 nationally ranked teams.  The first time was when Nebraska played Wichita State, who was then #5 in the country.

The Aggies are ranked as high as #6 (and as low as #10) coming into this week.  The first pitch is set for 6:35 pm on Friday night with Johnny Dorn getting the start.  Hopefully, we can see Johnny pitch well AND pickup a win in one game.

Lincoln, NE - The Huskers (34-8-1, 15-5-1) took both games of a midweek series with the Western Illinois Leathernecks 6-4 and 6-1.  The first win gave the Huskers 1 more win than last year’s season mark of 32, with 10 regular season games, a Big XII tourney and NCAA tourney left, the Huskers look set to win 40 games for the 3rd time in the last 4 seasons.

In the 1st game, the young guys really stepped up in a big way.  Freshman shortstop Ben Kline from Omaha Central hit a bases-loaded single in the 6th to give the Huskers the lead they would not relent.  Freshman pitcher Casey Hauptman from Millard South pitched a career high 4 innings and gave up just 2 hits to get his first career win.  Freshman reliever Mike Nesseth pitched a perfect 9th inning for his 4th save of the year.

In the 2nd game, Husker pitcher Erik Bird got the start and pitched 5 scoreless innings to notch his 4th win of the year.  Freshman 1st baseman Tyler Farst got things going for the offense in the 3rd when he drilled a 2-RBI double off the base of the wall with the bases loaded and just 1 out. After DJ Belfonte was hit by a pitch, Nick Sullivan was hit by a pitch to score another run.

Weekend starter Aaron Pribanic came in for 2 innings of perfect relief, perhaps a sign that Mike Anderson might be considering using lefty Dan Jennings for the Sunday start this weekend since Pribanic has struggled as of late.

The Huskers take on Louisiana-Lafayette for a three game series this weekend starting Friday at 6:35 followed up by a double-header on Saturday at 12:05pm and 6:35pm.

Lincoln, NE - The Husker baseball team (28-7-1, 13-4-1) fell short 6-3 on Sunday as they tried to complete the sweep against the Kansas Jayhawks.  The Husker  bats were silenced all day long by Omaha Skutt graduate TJ Walz.  Walz, perhaps a little upset he wasn’t able to play for Nebraska, proved that at least on this day, he’s a legitimate Big XII pitcher.

 On the day, he allowed just 3 runs and the Huskers couldn’t even manage a hit until Mitch Abeita caught a ball up in the wind that fell short of the right fielder for a strange double with 2 outs in the 4th. 

Aaron Pribanic started the day and for the most part pitched very well.  He ended up with 5 earned runs, but two were after he left and he struck out 8.

The Huskers seemed like they had something going in the bottom of the 9th with runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out.  David Stewart, representing the tying run, grounded into a double play to dash the Husker hopes.

The Huskers face in-state rival Creighton Bluejays on Tuesday in Lincoln before turning around and heading right back up to Omaha the next day to play at Rosenblatt stadium.  Since Dan Jennings was not used today or yesterday, it’s likely he’ll get the start on Tuesday with Erik Bird going on Wednesday.

Stillwater, OK - The Husker (25-6-1, 11-3-1) baseball team bounced back in impressive fashion today, taking the last game from the Oklahoma State Cowboys 14-5.  Craig Corriston and Nick Sullivan combined for 7 RBIs and Bryce Nimmo reached 5 of 6 times today from the leadoff spot for the first time thies year in place of the slumping DJ Belfonte.  While Dan Jennings came in for 4 scoreless innings of relief to seal the victory.

 Winning in Stillwater isn’t exactly easy.  16 times the Pokes have played a game there this year and today’s victory was only the 2nd for a visiting team.

The Huskers got the early lead 5-2 by scoring 4 in the 3rd without the benefit of a hit.  3 walks, 1 hit batter and 2 errors allowed the Huskers to take the early lead.

The Huskers would add to that in the 4th when  a wild pitch and a Craig Corriston double drove home would bring in 3 runs to make the score 8-2.

Aaron Pribanic got the start, but ran into trouble in the 5th when he allowed 3 earned runs (1 after he left) to score before Dan Jennings came in to stop the bleeding.  Dan would not relent as he only allowed 1 hit over the next for to shut down the Cowboy attack.  Mike Nesseth came in to seal the 9th for the 25th win of the year for the Huskers.

The Huskers came right back with 3 runs of their own the next inning to put the game out of reach when Nick Sullivan hit a two single to drive in Abeita and Mort and was then brought in himself when the next batter, Corriston, drilled a 2-out double to left center.

The win keeps the Huskers a half game behind Texas A&M for the conference lead seemingly setting up a big series in Lincoln the 2nd to last weekend of the year.

The Huskers next host the #5 Wichita State Shockers in Lincoln on Tuesday at 6:35pm.

Stillwater, OK - For the first time since the season opener, the Husker pitching staff showed that they are in fact, human.  The Huskers (24-6-1, 10-3-1) were taken to task by the Oklahoma State Cowboys on their home turf 19-2.  The Husker bats have yet to come alive in this series as they were held scoreless on Friday night and managed just 2 today.

The game started out looking like yet another pitching duel led by Thad Weber.  The game was knotted at 1 in the 4th inning and neither team had done much against the opposing starter.  Then the wheels came off.  The Cowboys scored 14 runs over the next two innings to blow the game wide open.

Bryce Nimmo and Dan Johnston had an RBI apiece and no Husker hitter had more than 1 hit in the game.   Craig Corriston and Cody Neer scored the only runs for Nebraska.

The loss is the first time all season the Huskers have lost 2 in a row.  They will look to bounce back against OSU Sunday at 1:00 pm in the series finale as Aaron Pribanic will look to help the Huskers avoid the sweep.

Due to inclimate weather postponing the remainder of the 3rd game, the Husker’s 4th and final game of the series was cancelled.  Despite an inspired performance from starter Dan Jennings, the Huskers came up short losing 4-2 to the Stanford Cardinal. 

Jennings picked up right where he left off on Saturday and held the Cardinal hitters scoreless for the 3rd and 4th innings. From there Junior College transfer Aaron Pribanic took the Huskers deep into the seventh.  With 2 out, Pribanic walked Cord Phelps on a full count to keep the inning alive.  In came reliever Erik Bird who gave up a line drive double to tie the game at 1. 

Herr replaced Bird and the wheels came off.  Herr got what appeared to be an inning ending ground ball to Senior 2nd baseman Jake Opitz, but his throw sailed wide.  Herr made a great play on the ball backing up first base and had the runner rounding 3rd dead in his sights.  However, after a long weekend of pouring rain, the ball slipped from his hands and sailed allowing the go ahead run to score.

The Husker’s woes continued in the 7th when the next batter hit a two run smash to give the Cardinal a 4-1 lead.

The boys tried to take back the lead when Jeff Tezak doubled home Opitz in the 8th to notch the game at 4-2.  Florida Transfer Cody Neer drew the walk to put runners on 1st and 2nd, but Jeff Abeita struck out to end the threat.

Despite losing the series 2-1, the weekend wasn’t a total loss for the Huskers.  We saw a great effort by a young team that could suprise some people this year.  They played hard, they never gave up or got down.  Even with Stanford commading a 17-0 lead, the Huskers fought and scratched to get 7 of those runs back and then proceeded to pour it on for the 2nd game win.   The last game was a gritty battle where the deciding factor was some moisture on the ball from the pouring rains that drenched the field. 

Dan Jennings performance today was definitely worth noting.  Combined with the home stretch from last season, Dan’s been on a roll and really controlling the game.  I really expect him to emerge as the #2 guy in this rotation behind Dorn.  JC transfer Pribanic also looked very sharp, but lacked a little of the control that we saw from Jennings.  Nesseth has looked sharp as well and should be a valuable commodity out of the bullpen.

The biggest issues we had this weekend could very easily be chalked up to early season jitters.  Espeically since the weather never really permitted the team to practice outdoors.  The team had too many errors (8), but again a lot of that can be chalked up to not having enough time on a real field.  The hitting and baserunning was agressive for a change.  The players seemed to have more of a winning attitude and much more team oriented.  This is a very distant observation of the few times I saw the team this weekend, so we’ll wait and see more as the season goes on.  However, if we see more efforts out of this team that we saw this weekend, this Husker fan will be very satisfied, regardless of wins and losses.