Nebraska Baseball
The non-conference season for the Nebraska Cornhuskers has been a good one so far. Before this freak early spring storm took away 4 games from the schedule, the local 9 had been playing very well. Nebraska is on a 11 game winning streak including taking the Dairy Queen Classic in Minneapolis and sweeping #25 Alabama to kick off the home schedule. It is very rare for a warm weather school like Alabama to make a visit to a “cold weather” school like Nebraska. The 3 game set came from a tournament that both Alabama and Nebraska were entered in wascanceled and both had an open weekend. Instead of trying to fill it with lesser competition, both teams decided to trade a home and home series with each other. Lucky for fans, the weather on Friday was absolutely perfect. A season opening record crowd of 6291 showed up to see Nebraska win 2-1 in 11 innings. Nebraska’s two losses came to The Citadel in theHomewood Suites Shootout in Charlston , South Carolina and Rice at the Rice Invitational in Houston, Texas. The Huskers are 15-2 going into this weekends conference opener at home vs. Kansas. Due to the snowstorm, Fridays game was moved back to make a doubleheader on Saturday. Sunday’s game so far is as scheduled.
Coming into the season everyone knew what the strength of the team was going to be this year. Pitching, pitching and pitching. Namely starting pitchersJoba Chamberlin, Johnny Dorn and closer Brett Jensen. Those three in combination with a deep bullpen contributed to Nebraska’s lofty preseason ranking (as high as #3 in some publications) There is no question that Nebraska has one of the best Friday/Saturday combinations in the nation. Nebraska will go as far asJoba and Dorn take them. They will be the determining factor if Nebraska goes back to the College World Series. If sophomore Tony Watson could beconsistent in that 3rd starter spot, with his potential, there could be no beating this team on the road to Omaha.
For me the concern this year was going to be the offense. More specifically, where the power was going to come from. Nebraska has alwaysbenefited from some big bats in the middle of the lineup. Gone is Curtis Ledbetter but in comes Luke Gorsett. This juco transfer has made quite an impact in his first 17 games with Nebraska. He has already hit 8 homeruns this year and drove in 17 runs. The unenviable task of filling the shoes of All-American and player of the year Alex Gordon goes to Jake Mort. No one really expects Jake to come anywhere close to doing what Alex did for Nebraska, but the faster that he develops, the better this team will be. Taking over Joe “vacume” Simo spot at shortstop is last years second basemen, Ryan Wherle. Joe really didn’t have that great a bat so anything Ryan can do will probably be an improvement for Nebraska. On the defensive side, not many people can improve on whatSimo did on the field. All I ask is that Ryan makes the plays that he’s supposed to make and no stupid mistakes in the field. If Nebraska gets that, they should be fine.
The schedule does not really line up very well for Nebraska. Many of their key conference opponents are all road series. Texas, Missouri and Baylor are all on the road. In the friendly confines ofHaymarket , Nebraska has a definitive advantage in the series but with these being on the road it will be very important for the pitching to carry us and the young players to grow up fast. Nebraska has home series with Kansas (this weekend), A&M, Texas Tech and Oklahoma. A&M coming to town will bring back an old friend to the Husker program. RobChildress left for College Station to become their new head coach. Childress was Nebraska’s long time pitching coach but for Childress it was an easy decision to go to his home stat to take a top position with a top program.
As for the season outlook, it really is looking good so far. The 15 wins in the non-conference so far are just what the team needs going into the conference season. Nebraska is looking to defend it’s co-Big XII regular season championship and conference tourney championship. It’s still a bit to early to expect a return trip to Omaha for theCWS but for sure hosting a regional at Haymarket Park is almost a given for this team. Anything less than a super regional birth for Nebraska this year is probably a disappointment.
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