HuskersLincoln, 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.


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HuskersDue 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.


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HuskersHeavy 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.


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NebraskaAfter getting throttled 17-7 in the opener, the Huskers even up the series 1-1 with a 9-2 pasting of their own.  This was a great win for a young team that didn’t get too down on themselves early in the season. 

The game was highlighted by an incredible start to Nebraska’s only heralded pitcher Johnny Dorn.  He was around the plate all day long and Stanford really couldn’t come up with any sort of answer for him.   He threw a stellar 6 innings with 7 strikeouts, 2 walks, just 2 hits and 1 unearned run.  He retired 11 straight batters at one point and really wasn’t threatened much at all. 

For the offense, DJ Belfonte shows no signs of ‘sophomore-itis’ with a nice 4 of 6 day and 4 RBIs to power NU.  Abeita also turned in a nice 2 for 5 nightcap as he seems to be seeing the ball really well.

Redshirt frosh Mike Nisseth and junior Omaha Skutt native Zach Herr combined to finish the final three innings striking out 1 and 2 respectively.

There was a scary moment in the 2nd when Husker 3rd baseman Jake Mort was drilled in the head by a fastball and he walked off to the side and dropped to his knees and then laid down.  After the Husker trainers had a chance to look him over, he trotted his way to first base to a standing ovation from the crowd.  Mort did stay in and finish the game.

Also worth noting, the Stanford announcers seemed to think there might have been more Husker fans than Cardinal fans there.  Just goes to show that a Husker baseball game in February that’s 4 or 5 states away proves we’re the best fans in the country!

The only thing a person can take away from two games of baseball is you really don’t know anything yet.  That being said, it was great to see the fight in this team bouncing back after a pretty good whooping the first game.   Since the 7th inning of game 1, they’ve outscored Stanford 16-2 and on the day they’re down 19-16.  Not too bad considering Stanford scored the first 17 runs….

The Huskers continue the series tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. CST  (changed due to forecasted rain).  The game will be broadcast for free through the Stanford Cardinal site if you’d like to watch it.


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NebraskaPalo Alto, CA

The Husker baseball team saw it’s first action of the 2008 season today at Sunken Diamond field, home of the Stanford Cardinals and it did not go the way Head Coach Mike Anderson would have liked it to.  Starter Thad Weber, hoping to build off of some great summer numbers, was lit up for 8 earned runs over the first 3 innings including 5 in the first.  The Cardinals finsihed off the Huskers with a 17-7 throttling.

The Huskers had a decent opportunity to get back in the game in the 2nd with bases loaded and only 1 out when sophomore junior college transfer Clay Cuno grounding into the inning ending 6-4-3 double play.

The relievers didn’t have great success either as Joe Hatasaki and Michael Mariot let up 9 more runs in the 5th and 6th combined.  Mariot was able to settle down a little though and pitch the final two scoreless frames.

Although the brightspots were few, DJ Belfonte picks right up where he left off last year with a nice 2 for 5 day with an RBI.  Mitch Abeita hit the first NU homer of the year, with a deep shot in the 7th.  Nick Sullivan chipped in a 2 for 2 day with a run and an RBI.

This is the first of a season opening double header, the Huskers face Stanford again tonight following today’s game.

Box Score from Huskers.com


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NebraskaTickets for the 2008 Dr Pepper Big 12 Football Championship Game on Saturday, December 6, at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, go on sale Friday, February 15, at 10 a.m. (Central).

Tickets can be purchased through all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at (800) 676-5488 or (816) 931-3330 in Kansas City, via the internet at www.ticketmaster.com, or at the Arrowhead Stadium ticket office.  Tickets will not be sold through the Big 12 Conference office.

I usually pick up some of these tickets just incase the Huskers do make it to the Big 12 Championship.  Nothing like having Husker Tickets for the big game and them making it!  If they don’t happen to make it, you can easily resell them on ebay or stubhub.

Tickets are priced at $85, $75, $65 and $55 each based upon location, plus applicable convenience and handling fee charges.


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NebraskaDo you enjoy Nebraska Athletics?  Do you enjoy writing and letting your opinions be heard?  Then we might just have something you will be very interested in!  Nebsports.com is currently looking to add a couple of contributors to the site.  We are looking for people that follow the mens basketball and baseball teams on a regular basis.  If you are able to attend games that is even better.

If this is something you might be interested in, please e-mail me here and let me know!


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