Brian Duensing

Drowning_in_the_Sea_of_Red · July 23, 2008

Duensing named to Olympic team

Brian Duensing thought he had pitched his way off the U.S. Olympic squad.

After all, when the 24-man roster was set last week, the former Huskers’ name was nowhere to be found on the list.

“I tried to not think about it, and to look at it as a good opportunity to salvage the rest of my season,” said Duensing, who stands 5-10 with a 4.18 ERA in 22 starts for Rochester (N.Y.), the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins

“I’ve struggled with my consistency as far as keeping the ball down in the zone,” he added. “I’ve been leaving things up, and everytime I’ve made a mistake, it seems people have made me pay for it.”

Duensing’s luck, however, turned dramatically Sunday when the Omaha native was added to the U.S. roster to replace Clayton Richard, another lefty starter who was recalled by the Chicago White Sox over the weekend.

“I was incredibly surprised. Incredibly excited,” Duensing said on Tuesday by telephone. “I thought the dream was over.”

Duensing will make his next scheduled start for Rochester on Friday, and then will meet up with his U.S. teammates in California in preparation for next month’s Summer Games in Beijing.

The U.S. Olympic Team will begin an exhibition series with Canada on Aug. 1 in North Carolina, where Duensing will see another former Husker. Outfielder Adam Stern was selected to the Canadian Olympic team.

Duensing, a native of Omaha, compiled a 17-2 record at Nebraska, helping the Huskers to a pair of Big 12 titles and College World Series appearances in 2002 and 2005. In his final year at NU, he was 8-0 with a 3.00 ERA as Nebraska swept the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles and won a school-record 57 games.

A third-round draft pick by Minnesota in 2005, Duensing has spent the majority of the last two years with Rochester. In 2007, he compiled a 15-6 record between stints in Double-A and Triple-A and finished the season ranked third in the International League in ERA and eighth in wins.

Duensing also played a major role in Team USA qualifying for the Olympics. Last fall, he made two starts, going 1-0 with a 1.86 ERA, as the United States won the IBAF Baseball World Cup for the first time since 1974.

Duensing earned a win over bronze medalist Japan, allowing one run on three hits over five innings in a 5-1 win, and also pitched well in the gold-medal game against Cuba, taking a shutout into the fifth before allowing a pair of runs in Team USA’s 6-3 victory.

“I performed pretty well for them last year, and I think they had that in the back of their head when they made the decision to add me to the team,” Duensing said. “This is a really big step in my career.”

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