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Eric the Red

Team HuskerBoard
No. 4 Huskers Wrap up Road Trip at Iowa on Tuesday

2006 Record (24-5, 7-2 Big 12)

National Rankings: 4 (CB) • 6 (BA) • 8 (Sports Weekly) • 4 (NCBWA)

Day Date Rank Opponent Radio Live Video/TV Time

Tues. April 11 -/-/- Iowa (14-13) Pinnacle Sports Network None/NA 6 p.m.

Thurs. April 13 -/-/- Texas A&M (19-16, 3-9) Pinnacle Sports Network HuskersNside/Cox TV 6:35 p.m.

Fri. April 14 -/-/- Texas A&M Pinnacle Sports Network HuskersNside/NA 6:35 p.m.

Sat. April 15 -/-/- Texas A&M Pinnacle Sports Network HuskersNside/NA 3:05 p.m.

Polls are in the following order: Collegiate Baseball/Baseball America/Sports Weekly

Pitching Probables

Tue Tim Radmacher, Fr., RHP (1-0, 2.35 ERA, 7.2 IP)

Iowa - David Conroy, So., RHP (0-1, 6.87 ERA, 18.1 IP)

Media Information

Live Stats: Huskers.com

Radio: Pinnacle Sports Network

Internet Radio: Huskers.com

Video Steaming: Texas A&M series only

No. 4 Huskers Wrap up Road Trip at Iowa on Tuesday

The Nebraska baseball team wraps up its eight-game road trip on Tuesday evening, as the Huskers travel to Iowa City, Iowa, to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be carried across the state of Nebraska on the Pinnacle Sports Network, including KFAB 1110 AM in Omaha, 1400 AM in Lincoln and KRVN 880 AM in Lexington, along with an Internet broadcast at Huskers.com. Live stats will also be available on Huskers.com, but live video will not be available for Tuesday’s game.

The Huskers continued to climb in the national polls following a 4-0 week. On Monday, NU jumped from sixth to fourth in Collegiate Baseball and from eighth to sixth in Baseball America.

Nebraska heads to Iowa City on a roll, winning its last six games, including a three-game sweep of Missouri in Columbia last weekend. The Huskers are 24-5 on the season and 6-1 on the current road trip after handing the Tigers their first home sweep since the 2002 season. NU set season highs in runs (13) and hits (19) in a 13-7 win at Missouri on Sunday, overcoming a 5-1 deficit in the process. The Huskers hit .333 and averaged eight runs a game against a Tiger staff that entered the week ranked second in the Big 12 in ERA.

Tuesday’s game against the Hawkeyes marks the first trip to Iowa by the Huskers since 1930, as the series was renewed for the first time in 75 years last April in Lincoln, a 6-1 Husker win. The Hawkeyes come off of their best weekend of the season, taking 3-of-4 from Penn State in State College last weekend. Iowa nearly recorded the sweep, dropping the series finale, 10-9 in a game shortened to six innings because of Iowa’s travel curfew.

Redshirt freshman Tim Radmacher takes the hill for the Huskers on Tuesday night. The Rosemount, Minn. native is 1-0 with a 2.35 ERA in 7.2 innings of work. In his last start on March 29, he tossed five shutout innings and struck out a career-high six hitters in a 9-1 Husker win. Right-hander David Conroy (0-1, 6.87 ERA) will make his sixth start of the season for the Hawkeyes.

Tuesday’s game begins a stretch of four games in five days for the Big Red, as the Huskers return home to take on Texas A&M in a Big 12 series beginning Thursday evening at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park. GA tickets for all three games against the Aggies are $7 (adults) and $5 (youth and seniors) and can be ordered by calling the Nebraska Ticket office at (800) 8-BIGRED or at Huskers.com. Fans are strongly encouraged to buy their tickets in advance, as large crowds are expected for all three games, especially with the annual Red/White Spring game on Saturday.

Scouting Iowa

Iowa coach Jack Dahm leads his Hawkeyes into Tuesday’s game with a 14-13 record after taking 3-of-4 at Penn State over the weekend. Iowa returned 11 pitchers and four everyday starters from a team that went 28-29 and placed third in the Big Ten in 2004, its best finish in 15 seasons. This spring, Iowa already has wins over Northwestern State, Notre Dame and Big Ten leader Ohio State.

Offensively, the Hawkeyes use a balanced attack as three starters are hitting above .300. Dusty Napoleon paces the UI offense with 20 RBIs. Travis Sweet tops the Hawkeye regulars with a .347 average with 16 RBIs and 13 stolen bases. On the mound, the Hawkeyes will throw right-hander David Conroy against NU He has held opponents to a .219 average in five starts this season.

The Huskers hold an 8-7 lead in the series that dates back to the 1895 season. The teams did not play from 1930 to 2005 before the series was renewed last season. In that game, Curtis Ledbetter went 2-for-3 with a pair of homers and three RBIs in a 6-1 Husker win. Ledbetter recorded his third multi-homer game of the season, hitting a two-run homer in the second and adding a solo blast in the fourth, as the Huskers overcame an early 1-0 deficit with six unanswered runs. Ledbetter’s power outburst was more than enough for NU freshman Johnny Dorn, who allowed one run on three hits to earn the victory. Dorn struck out four in five innings while three relievers kept Iowa off the scoreboard.

Last Time Out

Sunday (NU 13, Missouri 7): Jeff Christy pounded a career-high four hits and the No. 6 Nebraska baseball team scored its most runs in a single inning this season to overcome a four-run deficit and post a 13-7 win at Missouri.

With the win, the Huskers picked up their first road sweep in two years and the first sweep of the Tigers since the 2002 season. It also marked the first time Missouri had been swept at home in four seasons.

Christy went 4-for-5 to lead Nebraska to a season-high 19 hits. NU scored eight runs with two outs in the sixth, highlighted by two-run hits from Nick Jaros and Ryan Wehrle and a three-run homer by Luke Gorsett, his Big 12-leading 14th round tripper of the season.

Wehrle and Gorsett each drove in three runs, while seven Huskers had at least two hits to help the Huskers to their highest single-game run total of the season.

After the early struggles, Husker starter Johnny Dorn righted himself as he faced the minimum over his final 3.1 innings of work to improve to 5-2 on the season. In all, he went six innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and stuck out four to give NU a chance to comeback.

 
Man, I can't believe what is going on with this game. Up 9-2 after 3, now 11-10 in 8th. 4 Skers have hit homers (not gorsett)

 
Im glad we got the win, but we did go through 9 pitchers. Well, at least it boosted a lot of our guys' batting averages.

A lot of ice for a lot of sore arms. Both hitters and pitchers. Rest up for a&m

 
Huskers outlast Hawkeyes in slugfest

By Andy Hamilton

Iowa City Press-Citizen

The stands were full. The weather was ideal. Almost everything about Tuesday night was memorable for Iowa baseball.

Perhaps everything but the ending.

The Hawkeyes tangled for four hours and 47 minutes with fourth-ranked Nebraska before the hard-hitting Huskers prevailed 16-14 in 13 innings in front of 1,020 at Banks Field.

"I think everybody in the dugout could feel that there was a buzz about Iowa baseball," said sophomore Travis Sweet, whose three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth sent the game into extra innings and created the biggest buzz. "Even the people in the stands, they knew we were playing the No. 4 team in the nation, and we stuck with them for 13 innings."

The Hawkeyes (14-14) stuck around long enough to make some noise against a program with three College World Series appearances in the last five seasons. Long enough to give the Huskers a scare. Long enough to perhaps add to their fan base.

"I don't know, they might've left after the first couple innings," Iowa coach Jack Dahm said afterward. "The last part of the game was an outstanding college baseball game. The first part, I don't think either team was very proud of the way people were pitching."

Nebraska (25-5) looked as if it had victory in hand more than once. The Huskers led 9-2 after three innings. They led 14-11 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and had preseason All-America closer Brett Jensen on the mound.

But Jensen walked Nate Price, plunked Ryan Gryzwa and threw a first-pitch fastball that Sweet tattooed over the left-field fence to tie the game.

"We had been taking (the first pitch) throughout most of the game," Sweet said. "We were waiting until they got a strike. I looked down to coach (Dahm) and he gave me the swing away sign. The three or four guys before me, (Jensen) threw down-the-middle fastballs, so I knew if it was a fastball down the middle I was going to jump on it."

It resulted in Iowa's biggest blast on a night when Nebraska's bats provided the fireworks. The Huskers belted 24 hits, including four homers, two triples and four doubles.

Steve Edlefsen went 6-for-8 and scored five times and Jake Opitz had five hits and five RBIs for Nebraska, which pushed its season home run total to 42.

"We've played in Iowa last year (against Northern Iowa) and this year, and it's been a twilight zone both times," Nebraska coach Mike Anderson said. "Crazy, crazy, crazy. I have no explanation; I have no understanding of what happened. I just give credit to Iowa. They fought, they fought hard."

But the Hawkeyes couldn't overcome Nebraska's persistent offensive attack.

Opitz hit a two-out, two-run single off Chris Zinn in the top of the 13th to score the winning runs.

"There's no moral victories," Dahm said. "It's disappointing we came out on the short end of the stick, but we can still gain some valuable momentum here and learn that you never give up."

The Hawkeyes used seven pitchers in an attempt to slow down the Huskers, who entered the game hitting .323 as a team.

Junior college transfer Chase Stephens pitched three innings of scoreless relief in extra innings. He worked his way out of a bases loaded jam in the 11th, getting No. 5 hitter Luke Gorsett on a looping liner that shortstop Jason White snared and doubled Ryan Wehrle off second base.

Iowa managed to fight back from an early hole thanks to some wildness from the Nebraska pitching staff. The Hawkeyes benefited 11 walks and five hit batters. Iowa scratched out two runs in the fourth and tacked on four more in the fifth, three of which came on L.J. Mims' three-run double.

Reach Andy Hamilton at 339-7368 or ahamilton@press-citizen.com.

 
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