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• Jesse Coffey says yes to Nebraska Football scholarship
• Husker talk at Big 12 Media Day
• Internet hoax about two Oklahoma players backfires on Husker fan
• Cody Green chooses Nebraska over Texas A&M
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Stillwater, OK - Senior Johnny Dorn pitched about as well as you can ask a guy on a Friday night in the Big XII on the road. However, because of the excellent pitching by Andrew Oliver of Oklahoma State, the Huskers (24-5-1, 10-2-1) drop the first game of the weekend series 1-0.

 On the night, Dorn threw a complete game 4 hitter and allowed just 1 run to score from a leadoff triple.  The ball actually landed in Bryce Nimmo’s glove who slipped and fell on the centerfield track and the ball came loose.  Johnny walked just 1 and struckout 7, but unfortunately the Huskers couldn’t manage any offense.

Oliver was brilliant against the Huskers.  He struck out 10, didn’t walk anyone, and gave up just 3 hits, all in seperate innings.  Abeita, Neer and Nimmo all had 1 hit apiece.

The two teams go head to head again tomorrow at 1:00pm as Senior Thad Weber will take the hill and try his luck against the Cowboys.

Lincoln, NE - The Huskers (22-4-1, 9-1-1) continued to stiffle the bats of the Red Raiders (16-13, 4-6) en route to a 5-2 victory at Haymarket Park.  Senior Thad Weber, who entering today had only given up 1 earned run in 23 innings of Big XII pitching, struck out a career high 11 over 7.1 innings of work. 

The Huskers got all the runs they would need in the first inning.  Mitch Abeita and Jake Opitz both coaxed two out walks and Junior Nick Sullivan drilled a 1-1 pitch over the left-center fence for a 3-0 lead.

The Red Raiders plate two of their own in the 2nd inning, but that was all.  The Raiders really only threatened twice after that, one in the 7th inning when Tech had runners on 2nd and 3rd with just 1 out when Weber got a groundout to the pitcher and a strikeout to end the threat.

In the 8th the Raiders would threaten again getting runners on the corners with two outs when Dan Jennings came in relief and induced an easy groundout to Craig Corriston at first.

Jennings proceeded to pitch a perfect ninth, getting a strikeout and a popout and a strikeout to seal the victory.  Jennings earned his first save and kept his scoreless streak alive at 19.2 innings.

The Huskers go for the sweep on Sunday at 1:05pm.  Junior Aaron Pribanic (2-1, 2.41) takes the hill, looking to bounce back from his rough start last week where he gave up 5 earned runs over 6 innings in a 12-3 loss to the Longhorns.

Lincoln, NE - Texas Tech’s Doug Thennis hit a solo shot off Johnny Dorn in the 5th.  That one short sentence describes the entire offensive output against Dorn Friday evening.   The home crowd of 6,593 watched as Dorn and the #9 Huskers (22-4-1, 8-1-1) put a muzzle on the visiting Red Raiders (16-13, 4-6)by the score of 6-2.

Dorn allowed just the 1 hit over 7.1 innings and although he walked three, he also struck out 10.  With the win, Dorn moved to 4-0 on the year with a measly 2.12 ERA and is currently 3rd in the Big XII with 48 Ks behind Kendal Volz of Baylor (50) and Missuori’s Aaron Crow (67).

At the plate, the Huskers scored the first two runs in the 2nd inning when Junior transfer Cody Neer ripped  a 1-1 pitch into right center scoring Bryce Nimmo and Craig Corriston.  In the third, the Huskers would double that lead when Jake Opitz tripled home DJ Belfonte and Mitch Abeita followed up with a double to score Opitz.

Craig Corriston answered Tech’s 1 run shot in the 5th with a solo shot of his own in the 6th on the 2nd pitch of the inning that chased starter Nathan Karns.

The Huskers will try for their 4th straight Big XII series win on Saturday at 2:05 pm at Hawks field.  Coming off his brilliant 2-hit shutout of Texas last week, Senior Thad Weber (4-1, 3.20 ERA) will look to do the same against the Red Raiders.

Lincoln, NE - The Huskers (17-3-1, 5-0-1)  played to a 8-8 tie after 11 innings because of Oklahoma’s travel rules.   The Huskers missed a sure double play ball in the top of the 9th, but were still just 1 strike away from a 6-3 victory over the Sooners before a two-run single brought them within 1.  The Sooners took the lead just two pitches later when Aaron Baker parked a 1-0 pitch over the fence in the right.

The Huskers wouldn’t go down easy though, Senior Mitch Abeita homered to lead off the 9th and a few batters later, Dan Johnston hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Nick Sullivan to tie the game.

The Sooners again threatened in the 10th, when Mike Nesseth threw what looked to be another sure double play ball into center field.  However, the Freshman managed to get the next three batters to get out of the jam.

Early on, the Sooners jumped to a 2-1 lead after just 1 inning.  They extended that lead to 3-1 after the top half of the 5th inning. In the bottom of that frame, the Huskers battled back scoring 3 runs.  The first came from a bases loaded single from nick Sullivan and then Bryce Nimmo followed two batters later with a 2-run single of his own.  Sullivan and Nimmo extended that lead in the 7th with a sac-fly and RBI single respectively.

The tie spoiled a decent outing from Junior Aaron Pribanic.  Aaron pitched 7.2 innings and gave up just 3 runs and was in line for the win before the debacle in the 9th.

The Huskers take the field next on Tuesday when they face Northern Colorado for the 3rd time this year.  The game is slotted for a 6:35pm first pitch.  Junior Dan Jennings will most likely get the start with Eric Bird going on Wednesday for the 1:35 pm game.  The Huskers then travel to Austin to take on the Texas Longhorns for a 3 game set.

Lincoln, NE - You would think that a guy who’s 2nd on the alltime career win list going into his senior year with a program like NU would already be pretty decent, but what we’ve seen out of the Senior right hander so far this year is something even better.  Although he didn’t factor in the decision, his 7 inning 9 strikeout performance kept Riverside at bay while the Husker offense scraped together enough runs to win a 3-2 prototypical Friday pitcher’s deul over UC-Riverside.

Dorn’s only mistake today (of the season really) was in the second inning when he surrendered a two run blast to UC Riverside’s Ben Price that gave the Highlander’s the early 2-0 lead.

For Johnny, the first three years of his career would best be described as consitent, but not overpowering stuff.  This year we’re seeing something different.  He’s much more agressive, getting ahead of batters in early counts and mixing up his pitches in a way that is baffling batters.   He’s only allowed 2 earned runs in 13 innings work for a measly 1.38 ERA while striking out 16.  The 11 strikeouts per 9 innings he’s averaging this year far better than the 6.9 we saw last year.  The Huskers will certainly need him to step up and be the leader on this young pitching staff this year.

The Huskers used Mitch Abeita and Jeff Tezak solo home runs to even the score at 2 in the 2nd and 4th inning respectively off starter Stephen Penney.

With the score still knotted at 2, the Huskers appeared to be in serious trouble in the top of the 8th when back to back leadoff walks and a fielders choice infield single loaded the bases with no outs.  Junior Zach Herr and juco sophomore Erik Anderson struck out three consecutive batters to end the threat.

The very next inning, Ben Kline led off with a double down the line in left and came around to score on a wild pitch for the go ahead run.  The freshman from Omaha Central made some spectacular defensive stops in Palo Alto last week and this week he comes through with the bat.

Erik Anderson allowed a leadoff single in the 9th and a groundout moved the runner to 2nd, but struck out the final two hitters to end the game.

The defensive play of the game came in the Top of the 5th when DJ Belfonte dove in foul territory to end the inning and slid into the temporary fences put up around a swamp like area on the field.

The two teams face off in a double header on Saturday with the first pitch scheduled for 12:05pm.  The second game is slated to follow 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first.