• Missouri clobbers the Huskers 52-17
• Penalties and mental mistakes doom the Huskers
• Huskers and Hokies are ready to face off
• Former Husker Thunder Collins arrested for murder?
• Nebsports.Com is back online!
• Nebraska - Virginia Tech game to be shown on ABC
• Huskers have no problems with New Mexico State
• Nebraska lines up future games with Miami and Fresno State
• Huskers are ready for New Mexico State
• Andy Christensen re-instated by Coach Pelini
• Vote for Cornhusker cheerleader Katie Rockwell
• Huskers stuggled against San Jose State but win 35-12
• Huskers are ready for San Jose State
• Nebraska Football Tickets available
• Andy Christensen found not guilty

Nebraska football and baseball recruit Khiry Cooper as most people know was drafted last week in the 5th round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Los Angeles Angels.  Cooper is still unsure if he will sign with the Angels or stay in Lincoln and be part of the Huskers.

Right now Cooper is in Lincoln but has dropped his summer classes that he had planned on taking.  Once a player is enrolled in a division one school, he would not be able to be drafted once again until after their junior season.  Right now it is a waiting game between Cooper and the Angels.

Cooper has to decide if $125,000-$150,000 is a big enough signing bonus to pull him away from Nebraska.  He has said that he hopes to have a decision in the next week or so.

So what do you think? Will Cooper be a Husker or an Angel?

The Huser baseball game versus the Iowa Hawkeyes has been cancelled due to inclimate weather and will not be made up. This is the second game this year cancelled because of th weather. The first was the fourth and final game in Palo Alto versus Stanford.

Omaha, NE - The matchup between the Nebraska Baseball team scheduled to play at Rosenblatt Stadium tonight at 6:35pm has been postponed due to uncooperative weather until Wednesday April 23, 2008 at 6:30 pm.

Lincoln, NE - Northern Colorado Head Coach Kevin Smallcomb is probably glad to be done playing the Huskers (19-3-1, 5-0-1) for the rest of 2008.  His team has played Nebraska 6 times this season and lost all 6 for a combined 53-15.  Today, Erik Bird kept the Bears pretty quiet for 5 innings, giving up just 4 hits, 2 runs (1 unearned) and struck out 3.

Like yesterday, the offense used a huge 3rd inning to blow the game wide open.  Coming into the frame, the game was knotted at 2.  When the inning was finally over, the Husker had built up a 7-2 lead and with Bird on the mound, they were cruising.

9 different Huskers had hits today, but most notable may have been Freshman Ben Kline.  Ben has been in a rather large slump since the beginning of the Big XII season and his average that was once above .300 has plumetted all the way down to .224.

After Bird, Casey Houptman and Erik Anderson each threw 2 innings apiece to preserve the 9-4 victory.

Next up for the Huskers is a trip to Austin, TX for a battle against fellow ranked Big XII school Texas at Disch Falk field.  The game was originally slated for a night start, but due to the scheduling of Texas’s basketball team’s NCAA tournament game, the baseball game has been moved to 3:00pm.

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.

Heavy Rain in Palo Alto caused the Husker baseball game at Stanford to be postponed in the middle of the third inning.  Neither team had scored yet with Husker pitcher Dan Jennings surrenduring just 1 hit in his 2 innings.

Both today’s game and Sunday’s game will be played tomorrow (weather permitting) starting at 3:00 pm.  The 2nd game will follow 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.  The game will be broadcast for free through the Stanford Cardinal site if you’d like to watch it.

Three Nebraska Baseball players have been suspended for their role in trying to return bats to Scheels for cash.  These bats were given to the team to use during last season and once the season was over, they choose to take some of them and try to “return” them to Scheels and get cash.

Andy Gerch will be sitting out the first 12 games next year.  Right now it is uncertain if Gerch will even play baseball as he recovers from major surgery on his shoulder during the off season.

Craig Corriston who was also involved in the incident has been suspended for the first six games as well.

Catcher Jeff Lanning, also got hit with a six-game penalty, but he’s transferred to the University of New Orleans and will serve the penalty there I would assume.

Jeff Tezak will not miss any games because he received less than $100 in the fiasco.

All of the suspensions and games were based on how much money the players received.  Jeeze, I wonder what Gerch all tried to sell lol.  C’mon boys are you strapped that hard for cash?

The University of Nebraska is conducting a in-house investigation into the Nebraska Baseball team and atleast four players that tried to sell team issued clothes and team equipment.  Scheels employees said that some players came in and tried to return things for cash and when one of the employees noticed who they were contacted the university.

Gerch said the situation was a “miscommunication.” Asked to name the others involved, described by people with knowledge of the situation as important contributors to the team, Gerch said, “that’s not my spot to say.”

Yeah, miscommunication my butt Andy….  This is just another embarrising moment for the Nebraska Baseball team.  You players should know better.

The Nebraska coaching staff yesterday announced that they have signed three more players to the baseball team.  Two pitchers and a catcher will soon be wearing the Big Red!  The trio includes a pair of right-handed pitchers in Casey Hauptman (Omaha) and Aaron Pribanic (Plano, Texas) and catcher Drew Gray (Harrisonville, Mo.).

Hauptman played at Millard South and Coach Anderson says he is one of the most improved players in the state.  He has a very good makeup to be a good college pitcher and should really help out the team.

Pribanic went a combined 8-2 in two seasons at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College.  Last year he went 6-1 with an ERA of 3.33 so he really got the job done for Hutchinson.  Pribanic can throw in the low 90’s and Coach Anderson said that he will be able to fill either the starters role or work out of the bullpen.

Gray will be coming to Lincoln from Longview Community College in Missouri.  In the 2007 MLB Draft, Gray was drafted in the 27th round by the Texas Rangers but has decided to goto college in Lincoln instead of signing a contract with the Rangers.  Gray earned first-team NJCAA All-America honors by hitting .386 with 14 homers, 16 doubles and 69 RBIs during his sophomore campaign.

Nebraska Baseball

The Nebraska Baseball team has named it’s new pitching coach today.  Eric Newman will be coming to Lincoln from Dallas Baptist University where he has been the head coach for the past three seasons.  Before that he was their pitching coach for three years.

One reason he was hired because he has send players to the Major Leagues on a constant basis, and he can really recruit in the Big 12 states.  Over the last three seasons, the Patriots were 95-72, including 52-11 at home record, while completing the transition to full Division I status in 2005.

Huskers Blog