Huskers Travel to Rice Invitational

[hskrfan4life]

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This Week: The Nebraska baseball program continues its early-season travels, as the Huskers travel to Houston, Texas, for the Rice Invitational this weekend at Reckling Park. Nebraska (1-3) will take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday (1 p.m.), No. 9 Rice on Saturday (4:30 p.m.) and Elon on Sunday (Noon). It was a short turnaround for the Huskers, as they returned to Lincoln Tuesday afternoon and left Thursday morning for Houston.

 

On the Radio: Fans across Nebraska can listen to Greg Sharpe and Lane Grindle call all of the action this weekend on selected Husker Sports Network stations - including KLIN 1400 AM in Lincoln and KRVN 880 AM in Lexington - and on the Internet at Huskers.com. Saturday’s game will be Internet only because of conflicts with men’s and women’s basketball that day.

 

The Huskers come off a 1-3 weekend at Fresno State, as two of the Bulldogs’ three victories came on its last at-bat. The Huskers took the finale, 4-1, late Monday, as freshmen Tom Lemke and Kurt Giller held Fresno State scoreless until the ninth. Lemke fanned six over five shutout innings in his collegiate debut, while Giller, who made two appearances on the weekend, went the final four innings for the save.

 

Nebraska hit .279 as a team on the weekend, reaching double figures in hits in each of the final two games of the series. The Huskers were led by senior outfielder DJ Belfonte, who hit .611 (11-for-18) in last week’s series with the Bulldogs, as he recorded four straight multiple-hit games. He matched a career-best four hits on Feb. 21, in the Huskers’ extra-inning setback to the Bulldogs. Belfonte leads the Big 12 in hits (11) and is fourth in batting average entering this weekend’s action. Belfonte was one of three Huskers to hit over .500 in Fresno, as Adam Bailey went 9-for-17 with a homer and three RBIs, while freshman Josh Scheffert went 5-for-7 with five RBIs in just two contests. Bailey also had a four-hit day on Feb. 21, including his first homer of the season.

 

3 Thinigs to Watch

1. Senior DJ Belfonte opened the season with four straight multi-hit games, becoming only the third Husker since 1999 (also Luke Gorsett, 2006; Alex Gordon, 2004) to begin a season with four straight multi-hit games.

2. Eight newcomers saw their first action as Huskers at Fresno State, while five earned their first starts last weekend (Josh Scheffert, Patric Tolentino, Bryan Peters Khris Tate and Tom Lemke

3. Six of the Huskers’ first seven contests are against teams that qualified for last year’s NCAA Tournament (Fresno State, Rice, Elon).

 

Scouting the Rice Invitational

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi: The Islanders are 2-0 on the season heading into a Thursday afternoon contest against UH-Victoria, as they swept Prairie View A&M in a twinbill on Sunday. TAMU-CC returns 15 players, including four starters, from a team that went 18-38 in 2009. Catcher Stephen Floria is the Islanders’ top returnee, as he hit .309 with nine homers and a team-best 43 RBIs in 2009. Flora topped TAMU-CC in RBIs, runs (41) and doubles (18) last season. Junior college transfer Ian Campbell will take the hill against Nebraska in his first start of the year. Campbell allowed one hit in three innings of one-hit relief against Prairie View A&M on Sunday for the win.

Series History: Nebraska is 1-0 against the Islanders, picking up a 9-1 victory in the 2007 Rice Invitational. In that game, Jake Opitz went 3-for-4 with three runs scored while Drew Bowman allowed one run over six innings for the win.

 

Rice: The Owls are an uncharacteristic 0-4 on the season after a 13-7 loss to Lamar on Wednesday. The Owls returned eight everyday starters and 12 pitchers from a team that went 43-18 and lost eventual national champion LSU in the Baton Rouge Super Regional. The Owls, coached by Wayne Graham, were swept by Stanford last weekend to open the season. The Owls return Anthony Rendon, who was the Conference USA Player of the Year and Baseball America’s National Freshman of the Year in 2009. Sophomore left-hander Taylor Wall will face NU on Saturday, as he went 7-6 with a 3.72 ERA in 18 appearances as a freshman. Wall took the loss in Rice’s season opener at Stanford on Feb. 19.

Series History: Rice is 16-11 all-time against Nebraska dating back to 1956 and have won the last two meetings. NU’s last win over the Owls was on March 4, 2005 in Round Rock, Texas. The Huskers have been a fixture in Rice’s tournaments in recent years, making its eighth appearance since 1999.

 

Elon: The Phoenix head to Houston with a 4-0 mark after winning the Elon Classic last weekend and then posting an 8-3 victory over High Point on Tuesday afternoon. The Phoenix finished the 2009 season ranked 24th by Baseball America, as they finished with a 41-18 record. Last season, Elon led the nation with 138 homers in 59 contests and had eight players with at least 10 round trippers. Offensively, Elon returns just three offensive starters, but are led by catcher Mike Melillo, who hit .344 with 18 homers and 59 RBIs.

Nebraska will face senior Daniel Britt in its tournament finale. Britt fanned five over six innings of shutout ball against North Carolina A&T on Sunday to earn the victory. Last year, he went 8-1 with 5.86 ERA in 17 appearances.

Series History: Sunday’s match up between the Huskers and Elon will be the first meeting between the two schools.

 

Last Week

Friday (Fresno State 7, NU 5): Jordan Ribera’s two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth capped a four-run inning, giving Fresno State an improbable 7-5 victory in the season opener. The Bulldogs trailed 5-3 before scoring four times in the ninth off of reliever Mike Nesseth, getting a two-run double from Brennan Gowens before Ribera’s game-winning homer. DJ Belfonte had three hits in a losing effort, while Kyle Bubak drove in a pair of runs, as the Huskers jumped to a four-run lead against WAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year Derek Benny. Boomer Collins drew a career three walks, as the top two and bottom two spots in the order produced all five of the Huskers’ hits. Jordan Roualdes and Casey Hauptman were strong in relief, as the pair allowed just three hits over 4.1 innings heading to the ninth.

 

Saturday (Fresno State 8, NU 2): The Huskers struggled with timely hitting, as Fresno State used a pair of big innings to post an 8-2 victory. Jordan Ribera and Trent Garrison drove in three runs apiece, as the Bulldogs (2-0) used a four-run second inning to seize control early off of Nebraska starter Michael Mariot. Nebraska had ample opportunities, but could not take advantage, going hitless in 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position and leaving eight of 11 stranded runners in scoring position. Trailing 5-2, the Huskers loaded the bases in the sixth and eighth, but came away empty both times before the Bulldogs scored three in the bottom of the eighth to extend the lead. Adam Bailey had three of NU’s seven hits on the day.

 

Sunday (Fresno State 10, NU 9, 11 inn.): Nebraska could not hold a pair of late game leads, as Fresno State picked up its second walk-off win of the weekend, pulling out an 11-9 win. Nebraska overcame a three-run deficit to take a 8-6 lead into the ninth, but the Bulldogs scored twice in the frame to send it to extra innings, and NU led 9-8 in the bottom of the 11th, only to see Fresno State score twice, including a wild pitch with the bases loaded to end the game. The Huskers rapped out 15 hits, as Adam Bailey and DJ Belfonte both tied career highs with four hits apiece. Bailey and freshman Josh Scheffert both drove in three runs, as Scheffert went 3-for-4 in his Husker debut.

 

Monday (Nebraska 4, Fresno State 1): Freshmen Tom Lemke and Kurt Giller held a potent Fresno State in check, allowing one run in a 4-1 victory on Monday Lemke (1-0) tossed five shutout innings for his first career win, as the right-hander scattered five hits and struck out six in his Husker debut. Giller closed the door on NU’s first win of the season by going the final four innings for his first save, as the duo held the Bulldogs scoreless until the ninth. Nebraska totaled 12 hits, including two each from DJ Belfonte, Adam Bailey, Josh Scheffert and Cody Asche. Scheffert provided the game’s biggest hit, a two-out, two-run single in the sixth to spot the Huskers a 3-1 lead.

 

Leading Off

•-Nebraska has annually participated in one of Rice’s early-season tournaments, as the 2010 campaign marks the ninth time in 12 years that NU has played in one of the Owls’ events. NU is 13-10 all-time at Rice’s non-conference events.

 

Huskers at Rice Tournaments

Year Record Results

1999 2-1 (W, Nicholls State; L-Rice; W-Jacksonville St.)

2000 1-2 (L-Northwestern State, L-Rice, W-Arkansas St.)

2001 1-2 (L-Rice, W-Lamar; L, Georgia Tech)

2002 1-2 (W-New Mexico; L-Rice; L-Wake Forest)

2004 2-1 (W-Northwestern State; L-Rice; W-No. Carolina)

2005 2-0 (W-New Mexico; W-Rice)

2006 2-1 (W-Texas State; L-Rice; W-St. John’s)

2007 2-1 (W-Texas A&M-Corpus Christi; L-Rice; W-Fla. Atlantic.)

 

•-Center fielder DJ Belfonte picked up where he finished the 2009 campaign, recording multi-hit games in each of Nebraska’s first four games. He is the first Husker to do that since Luke Gorsett in 2006, and has hit safely in his last seven games dating back to 2009. The seven-game hit streak is the longest of Belfonte’s career, and he is hitting a blistering .426 (20-for-47) in his last 12 contests dating back to the end of the 2009 season. Prior to his current seven-game hit streak, Belfonte’s longest career hit streak was five games. Last year, Belfonte hit just .400 (4-for-20) in Nebraska’s season-opening series at UL-Lafayette.

 

•-Two of the Huskers’ three losses at Fresno State came after taking a lead into the ninth inning. It marked only the third and fourth times in 141 games dating back to 2005 that Nebraska had lost when heading into the ninth. The Huskers are 233-6-1 (.973) when leading after eight innings under Mike Anderson.

 

•-Freshman Tom Lemke became the just the fourth Husker freshman to earn a start during the opening week of the season since 1999, and the first to collect a win in that stretch.Here is how Lemke’s line against Fresno State compared to the other three freshman hurlers.

 

•-Freshman Josh Scheffert enjoyed quite a debut against Fresno State on Feb. 21. He went 3-4 with three RBIs. He is the only Husker freshman in the last decade to have at least three hits or three RBIs in his first game as Husker. Here are the other newcomers who had at least three hits or three RBIs in their Husker debut since 1999.

 

•-The Huskers bring back one of its most experienced teams in a while, as 18 letterwinners are back for the 2010 campaign. It is the second-highest number of returning letterwinners since Mike Anderson took over in 2003 and only the third time this decade NU has had at least 18 letterwinners. The biggest amount of experience is on the pitching side, where Nebraska returns at least 75 percent of its wins, starts, innings and strikeouts in 2010, a far cry compared to a year ago.

 

•-One area of focus in the offseason was adding strength, and a quick look at the rosters over the last two seasons show a dramatic improvement. Under strength coaches Mike Arthur and Brandon Rigoni, the 18 returnees from last year have gained a total of 203 pounds, an average of 11.2 pounds per player. Of the 18 players, 11 are at least 10 pounds heavier than their playing weight during the 2009 campaign. As a team, the Huskers gained a total of 328 pounds during the team’s off-season strength program in the fall.

 

•-Nebraska had 15 come-from-behind wins among its 25 victories last season, including eight wins where the Huskers had to overcome at least a three-run deficit. NU has 114 come-from-behind wins under Mike Anderson since 2003.

 

•-The Huskers are 94-1 under Mike Anderson when reaching double figures in runs, including 66-0 since the start of the 2005 season.

 

•-The Huskers are 55-6 dating back to last season when they out-hit an opponent and have won nearly 90 percent of their games since 2003 when out-hitting an opponent.

 

•-Adam Bailey’s 12 homers is the most by any Husker returning player since Alex Gordon in 2005. Gordon belted 18 homers en route to Big 12 Player-of-the-Year honors in 2004.

 

•-Senior outfielder DJ Belfonte ranks second on Nebraska’s career hit-by-pitch list with 44. He is just the second Husker to be hit by 40 pitches in a career, joining Daniel Bruce, who was hit 67 times in his playing career from 2002 to 2005.

[huskerswrkhavoc]

Elon. One of the best teams nobody knows about. If we lose that game, a lot of people will freak out without even knowing anything about them, but they are a legit team. I would love to go 2-1 this weekend. Rice will be looking to bounce back after getting swept out at Stanford.

[hskrfan4life]

Elon. One of the best teams nobody knows about. If we lose that game, a lot of people will freak out without even knowing anything about them, but they are a legit team. I would love to go 2-1 this weekend. Rice will be looking to bounce back after getting swept out at Stanford.

I would like to beat Rice, but wow I surprised they got swept by Stanford.

[huskerswrkhavoc]

Elon. One of the best teams nobody knows about. If we lose that game, a lot of people will freak out without even knowing anything about them, but they are a legit team. I would love to go 2-1 this weekend. Rice will be looking to bounce back after getting swept out at Stanford.

I would like to beat Rice, but wow I surprised they got swept by Stanford.

 

So was I. Very surprised. But it was at Standford, always tough to go on the road and win. What may be more surprising was the midweek loss also, however its tough to judge a lot off the midweek stuff. Pretty upset that we have Yost throwing today and Mariot tomorrow.. I'd rather see it the other way around.

[hskrfan4life]

Elon. One of the best teams nobody knows about. If we lose that game, a lot of people will freak out without even knowing anything about them, but they are a legit team. I would love to go 2-1 this weekend. Rice will be looking to bounce back after getting swept out at Stanford.

I would like to beat Rice, but wow I surprised they got swept by Stanford.

 

So was I. Very surprised. But it was at Standford, always tough to go on the road and win. What may be more surprising was the midweek loss also, however its tough to judge a lot off the midweek stuff. Pretty upset that we have Yost throwing today and Mariot tomorrow.. I'd rather see it the other way around.

I do hope that those freshman pitchers get some innings this weekend, let's see if they can continue their great innings.

[huskerswrkhavoc]

Elon. One of the best teams nobody knows about. If we lose that game, a lot of people will freak out without even knowing anything about them, but they are a legit team. I would love to go 2-1 this weekend. Rice will be looking to bounce back after getting swept out at Stanford.

I would like to beat Rice, but wow I surprised they got swept by Stanford.

 

So was I. Very surprised. But it was at Standford, always tough to go on the road and win. What may be more surprising was the midweek loss also, however its tough to judge a lot off the midweek stuff. Pretty upset that we have Yost throwing today and Mariot tomorrow.. I'd rather see it the other way around.

I do hope that those freshman pitchers get some innings this weekend, let's see if they can continue their great innings.

 

 

Lemke is getting the start Sunday, I love that kid. He's in for a great career here. Giller will be used more as an early option outta the pen. I'm guessing if its a close game tomorrow, Hauptman will be 1st out, followed by Giller. The other young kids got innings today, and good thing. Get their feet wet when we have a huge lead. Always good.

[Vince from ShamWOW]

On the Radio: Fans across Nebraska can listen to Greg Sharpe and Lane Grindle call all of the action this weekend on selected Husker Sports Network stations - including KLIN 1400 AM in Lincoln and KRVN 880 AM in Lexington - and on the Internet at Huskers.com. Saturday’s game will be Internet only because of conflicts with men’s and women’s basketball that day.

 

That's too bad. I would rather listen to the baseball game over this years basketball team/ game any day.

[hskrfan4life]

Baseball plays Rice today at 4:30

[huskerswrkhavoc]

game is going to get started late. A&M CC and Elon are still playing.. 16-12 in the bottom of the 9th, Elon at bat. They have scored 2 already, have a runner on 1st and 1 out. They put up a 6 spot last inning. CC was winning 16-3 after the top of the 7th.