Nebraska v Creighton Thread

Anderson, slumping Huskers not about to panicBY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 12:01:19 am CDT

Nebraska catcher Jeff Christy rubs his head, and pitcher Johnny Dorn (left) waits to for head coach Mike Anderson (back) to take him out of the game during the Huskers' 12-2 loss to Baylor on Sunday. It was NU's sixth loss in seven games.(Waco Tribune)

There’s definitely some pressure for Nebraska’s eighth-ranked baseball team to pull out of a 1-6 stretch.

If the Huskers — who battle Creighton in Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium tonight and then wrap up the regular season with a home series against Oklahoma this weekend — continue their struggles, who knows where they’ll slide?

Certainly not out of the NCAA Tournament, but it’s possible they could lose the opportunity to play host to a regional and/or super regional.

Those are scenarios that coach Mike Anderson isn’t about to put before his squad.

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“This is a good ball club,” he said after NU was run-ruled for the first time since 1998 in a 12-2 loss at Baylor on Sunday. “You’re going to have victories and you’re going to have defeats, and I promise you they don’t have a coach right now that’s pressing them, yelling in their ear saying ‘You’ve got to win. You’ve got to win.’

“They’ve got a coach that’s trying to make sure that they’re confident. It’s gonna be OK — they just have to feel it.”

While NU (37-12) is in the midst of its worst stretch since 1997 (but still clinging to second place in the Big 12 Conference), Creighton has won five straight to improve to 29-16 and have a chance to tie for the Missouri Valley Conference title.

Tonight, the Bluejays will be looking to deny the Huskers their third three-game regular-season sweep of CU in the past seven years.

Last month, NU beat Creighton 6-4 in Rosenblatt, and two weeks later won 4-2 in Haymarket Park.

“We just need to get back to playing Nebraska baseball and stop putting so much pressure on ourselves — just hand it to the next guy, get a base hit and do what we’ve been doing all year up to this point,” said junior pitcher Joba Chamberlain, who’s 0-2 in his last four starts. “The last couple of weeks have been rough, but before that we’ve just been handing it to the next guy and if we don’t do it one inning we know we’re going to do it the next inning.

“We just have to get back to the comfort level we were. The good thing about baseball, we get to put on the jersey on Tuesday and get ready to go — step up and play nine innings of baseball.”

Two years ago, Nebraska stumbled badly down the stretch and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six seasons. With a top-10 ratings power index and national standing, the Huskers are in no jeopardy of being bypassed for this year’s field.

Nevertheless, Anderson acknowledges he’s got some players experiencing adversity for the first time and noted “it would’ve been nice to go through this early so we’d be experienced (at handling it).”

Baylor coach Steve Smith acknowledged after Sunday’s game that it’s harder for a team to turn things around the later it gets in a season, but predicted the Huskers will be fine.

“With their pitching … and their RPI, they’re going to be at home (in the postseason), and they play unbelievable up there,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to be Oklahoma next weekend.”

Briefly

Tickets ($8 or $10 for adults, $6 ages 3-18) can still be purchased in advance at the Morrison Stadium ticket office on Creighton’s campus and Ticketmaster locations (Baker’s, Younkers). Seats go on sale at Rosenblatt at 4 p.m.

Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.

 
hello, NU wins 4 to 1, & sweep crei on the yr...brown hit a hr, & he continues his hot hitting, & NU pitchers pitched an 8 hitter

p.s. I have a feeling (or at least I am hoping) that NU is going to finish their regular season strong

 
Shirek helps send Huskers past Jays

BY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star

OMAHA — They finally got good bounces, another big bop by Andrew Brown and a second straight dominating performance against Creighton by redshirt freshman pitcher Charlie Shirek. Even with all that, in front of the largest crowd to witness a college baseball game this season, Nebraska had to hold its breath until left fielder Nick Jaros caught Zach Daeges’ bases-loaded smash off preseason All-American Brett Jensen with one foot on the warning track to secure the Huskers’ 4-1 victory over Creighton here Tuesday night.

“I turned around and saw Jaros going to the wall, and then coming in, so I knew it wasn’t out,” said Jensen. “I was just hoping he didn’t overrun it, catch it and get us out of here.

“It happened pretty fast, but it’s a great win for us.”

A Rosenblatt Stadium crowd of 21,158 watched the Huskers complete their third sweep of a three-game, regular-season series with the Bluejays for the third time in seven years. Last month, Nebraska beat Creighton 6-4 in Rosenblatt, then two weeks later won 4-2 in Haymarket Park.

Nebraska's Andrew Brown (white batting gloves) is surrounded by his teammates after his eighth-inning home run against Creighton at Rosenblatt Stadium. NU won 4-1. (Ted Kirk)

Tuesday’s outcome was only NU’s second win in its past eight games, leaving the Huskers 38-12. Currently second in the Big 12 Conference standings, Nebraska concludes the regular season with a three-game home series against third-place Oklahoma this weekend.

Had Daeges’ ball with two outs in the ninth carried a bit farther, or been located closer to the line, Nebraska would have a much different feeling going into the series against the Sooners.

“I hit it about as good as I can hit it that way,” said Daeges, who swatted a 0-1 delivery to the opposite field. “The first pitch, I was looking for something I could turn on, but he came down and away and so I tried to change my approach.

“(The next one) was a well-located fastball. I put a good swing on it — about all I could do.”

When Jaros snagged it, Creighton (29-17) had its five-game winning streak snapped.

“You could tell that kid was going for the fence,” Jaros said. “I took a peek at the wall at the last second — I was trying not to think about (whether it was going to leave the park) and was just trying to get to it.

“It feels good to get that win.”

With the game tied 1-1 after six innings, Nebraska got the decisive run in the seventh on a line-drive sacrifice fly by Luke Gorsett off Pat Venditte. No. 9 hitter Jake Mort had led off the frame with a ground-rule double beyond center fielder John Nowaczyk. Jaros then hit a high fly to shallow right field that Chase Odenreider lost and the ball fell in front of him to leave runners on second and third.

Ryan Wehrle popped the next pitch up to second baseman Chad Ogden, and Creighton intentionally walked Brandon Buckman before Gorsett drove a pitch to left to break the tie.

NU went up 3-1 when Brown, leading off the eighth, hammered a pitch from Scott Reese into the left-field bleachers for his fourth homer in six games. Jeff Christy then produced his first career triple to the left-center gap with one out. Creighton then went to Tony Bilek, and Mort, after fouling off two bunt attempts, delivered an RBI single up the middle against a drawn-in infield.

Nebraska had tied the game in the fourth, when Creighton should have gotten out unscathed after Brown singled to right with one out. Jake Opitz followed by hitting a sharp grounder, but shortstop Ryan Urzendowski couldn’t field the ball cleanly enough to try for a double play and had to go to first for one out. Christy, who was hitless in his last 14 at-bats before singling in the second inning, then pulled a pitch past third for an RBI double.

Creighton had drawn first blood in the first, when Shirek hit the first batter, Odenreider, with a pitch, Nowaczyk sacrificed him to second and Chris Gradoville delivered a two-out RBI single.

Shirek (4-2) allowed just five hits and a run over six innings to earn his second win against the Bluejays this season. In NU’s victory in Lincoln, he allowed just two runs while going a career-long 7 2/3 innings.

Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.

 
Huskers Complete Sweep of Creighton

Courtesy: NU Media Relations

Release: 05/16/2006

Final Box Score

Courtesy: Scott Bruhn/NU Media Relations

Andrew Brown blasted his third home run in the last four games to help the Huskers past Creighton Tuesday at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Omaha -- Charlie Shirek pitched six strong innings, and Andrew Brown continued to swing a hot bat to help the No. 8 Nebraska baseball team complete its season series sweep of Creighton with a 4-1 win in front of 21,158 fans at Rosenblatt Stadium on Tuesday night.

With the victory, Nebraska improved to 38-12 overall and 3-0 on the year against Creighton, while snapping a season-long four-game losing streak. The Bluejays slipped to 29-17, while losing for just the second time in the past 10 games. Tuesday’s win also gave the Huskers their third sweep of their in-state rival since the 2000 campaign.

Shirek, a sophomore from Minot, N.D., making his third appearance of the season against Creighton, picked up the victory with an impressive and efficient outing to improve to 4-2 on the year. Shirek allowed just one run on five hits through six innings, while striking out three, as he improved to 2-0 with a 2.95 in three appearances against the Bluejays.

Pat Venditte took the loss in relief of starter Ben Mancuso. Venditte, who has had great success for the Bluejays as an ambidextrous pitcher, suffered just his second loss of the season to slip to 3-2. He allowed just one earned run on three hits and two walks in 3.1 innings of work.

Brown was one of three Huskers with three hits, as the junior college transfer matched his career high in hits and added his eighth homer of the season – and fourth in the last six contests. Jeff Christy and Jake Mort also had three hits, as NU out-hit Creighton, 12-8.

NU Head Coach said that the crowd of 21,158, the largest single-game crowd in college baseball this season and the ninth-largest crowd in NCAA Division I history, gave the Huskers an emotional lift.

"I was really looking forward to the energy tonight from the crowd because our kids needed that," Anderson said. That was good, and just getting the win was good."

The Bluejays manufactured a run in the top of the first, getting an two-out RBI single by Chris Gradoville, scoring Chase Odenreider, who was hit by a pitch before moving into scoring position on John Nowaczyk.

The Huskers got the equalizer in the fourth, getting a two-out RBI double off the bat of Jeff Christy, who has hitless in his last 14 at-bats before his second-inning single. After a one-out single by Brown, Opitz moved Brown into scoring position with a groundout before Christy doubled past third to plate the runner.

Nebraska took the lead for good in the seventh, as back-to-back doubles by Mort and Nick Jaros put runners on second and third with no outs. Mort led off the inning with a double to set up the big break the Huskers have been looking for over the past several games. Jaros sent a high fly ball down the line in right field that Odenreider lost in the twilight sky and it fell for a double, pushing Mort to third base. After a one-out intentional walk to Brandon Buckman, Luke Gorsett hammered a line drive to left that was caught by a sliding Zach Daeges for the second out. Mort scored easily on the sacrifice fly by Gorsett to give NU a 2-1 lead.

Brown pushed the lead to 3-1 with a solo homer off reliever Scott Reese to open the eighth. NU continued to rally in the eighth thanks in large part to Christy, who laced his third hit of the night with a triple off the wall in center field. Mort gave the Huskers a three-run cushion, scoring Mort with a single to center through the infield.

But Creighton refused to go out quietly, as the Bluejays loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth inning for Daeges, CU's top hitter. With two outs, Husker closer Brett Jensen retired Daeges on a flyout to the warning track in left field for the game's final out.

Jensen picked up his 10th save of the year, becoming the first Husker reliever in history to record back-to-back double-digit save totals in his career

 
So, my boss scheduled me to work last night, and I didn't realize it until it was too late. So I ended up giving the tickets to him so he could take his son to the game. He ended up getting Brown's HR ball. I hate to give up tickets to games, but I am glad to see something good came out of it for a young kid like that.

 
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