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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2000)
Huskers sweep Tigers, extend streak rrom scan reports The Nebraska baseball team stayed red-hot this weekend, extending its win ning streak to eight games by sweeping Missouri. The Ccxnhuskas had beep struggling on the road and hadn’t won at Missouri since 1995.ButNUpoundedout50hitsin three lopsided ball games against the Tigers. tv ' . • • . After a 17-strikeout performance against Kansas last weekend, NU pitcher Shane Komine continued his brilliance by striking out 16Missouri batters Friday. The Huskers (26-11) won that game 7-2, and Komine pitched a complete game, giving up only six hits and one walk. The NU offense gave Komine plenty HUSKERS 7 15 9 TIGERS 2 8 5 ofsupport, pounding out 18hit& Matt Hopper, Nebraska^ designated hitter, was l-fbr-6 but launched his eighth home run of the season. Dan Johnson, BrantVliegeraridAdarn Shabala added three hits apiece. As good as theoffense was, NU Coach Dave\hn Horn said Korrnne (6-3) stole the show. “Shane was incredible,” Van Horn said. “Wfeplayed our game tonightWfe had success bunting, and we were able to con trol the game. A couple more hits and we could have scored a lot more runs.” Saturday, the Huskers Hasted Missouri 15-8, as Nebraska recorded 18 hits for the second straight game. Johnson hit his 10th home run of the season, and catcher Justin Cowan hit his fourthand drove in five runs. Nebraska center fielder Jamal Strong was 4-fbr-4 and scored three runs. NU pitcher RJD. Spiehs (3-1) picked up foe win by pftching four and two-thirds innings in relief of starter Scott Fries. The Huskers completed the sweep by beating Missouri 9-5 on Sunday. NU pitcher Trevor Bullock picked up his fourth win of the seasoa The Huskere started the game off with a bang, as Johnson and Hopper hit back-to back home mns in the first inning. Nebraska begins a 10-game home stand Tuesday, when it takes on Western Illinois at 7 pm I NU track takes top spots From Staff Reports The Nebraska Track teams went different ways this weekend. The majority of the Comhusker field event athletes took part in the Texas El Paso Invitational. Other members of the Huskers competed at the Mt. Sac Relays and the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational. Top finishers this weekend at the UTEP Invite included freshman Jennifer Cowher, who qualified pro visionally by taking second place in the discus (169-5). Freshman Leann Boerema fin ished in second place in the shot-put with a provisional mark of 49-6 lA In the high jump, senior Carrie Braness placed second with a provi sional mark of 6-0. Junior Erin Wibbels took second in the hammer, while freshman Emily Wolken placed third in the javelin (132-09). In Walnut, Calif., at the Mt. Sac Relays, senior Michelle Brooks earned her first provisional mark of the season in the 3,000 meters with a time of9:28.73 to place fifth overall. Junior Guy Emry won the decathlon with a score of 6.979. At the Pomona-Pitzer Invite, senior All-American Stella Klassen finished 10th in the 800 meters (2:13.31). Next week, Nebraska will take part in the USTCA Team Championships in Austin, Texas. Kea-Wbite scrimmage ends in 21-21 deadlock RED-WRITE from page 16 Solich said. “I thought the execution was decent Not a lot of mistakes, hot a lot of foolish penalties, not a lot of things that make coaches pull our hair out” i The game plan was simplified to include only base offenses and defens es with the idea that this would give the coaches die best picture of die squads’ ability. Inexperience at quarterback and the fact that all three - Joe Chrisman, Lindstrom and Kelly Cook - were forced to wear green jerseys, meaning “hands off” to the defense, didn’t help for exciting offense either. The basic plays frustrated some, like Chrisman, who completed only two of nine passes for 27 yards. He was sacked four times and rushed six times for negative five yards. “It’s tough (wearing the green jer sey), but I understand why we do it,” Chrisman said. “We can’t afford to lose another quarterback, but it kind of pres ents an unrealistic vieW out there fdr both die offense and die defense.” But the bland play calling made stars of a few players, too. Redshirt freshman fullback Judd Davies and Butler, also a redshirt freshman, both eaped praise from Solich. Davies had two carries for two touchdowns and 22 yards. Butler led all rushers with 118 yards on 16 carries and added two touchdowns. Defensively, rush end Kyle Vanden Bosch was nearly unblockable. He recorded three sacks, 28 yards of losses and missed sacking Chrisman for a safety by about a foot “He is showing tremendous quick ness and tremendous strength for his size,” said Solich of Vanden Bosch. “He is a player that at the snap of die ball is going to give you everything he’s got on every play, and he’s got a lot. If the Comhuskers are going to be a national championship-caliber team next season, they will need more offen sive production than the top unit pro duced. The top offense’s premiere first down came on a 30-yard scramble by Chrisman with 11:55 to go in the third period. It would only score 14 points on the day, with both touchdowns coming on runs by Davies. This was in contrast to the first two scrimmages where the offense ran roughshod over defense when die quar terbacks weren’t hindered by green jer seys, and quarterback Jammal Lord was leading the No. 1 offense before he wait down with a knee injury. But change is a good thing, Vanden Bosch said. “I was real happy with how the defense played today,” he said. “We came out strong at the beginning. A lot of the spring we’ve been playing at the offense’s tempo, and we wanted to come out and set the tempo like we did last year.” A slight damper was put on the scrimmage as Solich revealed that wingback Bobby Newcombe suffered a dislocated elbow as he was returning a punt in the second quarter and will miss five to six weeks. Weak side linebacker Randy Stella suffered a shoulder stinger, and Solich said the team will wait until June to decide if Lord’s knee warrants surgery or has healed significantly. Newcombe should be back by fall camp, as should starting quarterback Eric Crouch and several defensive players, which center Dbritirrie Rniola hopes will set the table for a title run. “Our limits are as high as the sky this year,” Raiola said. “We haven’t set any limits on ourselves this year. We know what everyone wants, and it isn’t a Big 12 Championship, it’s a national championship.” Huskers split series with OU, OSU rrom Man Reports The Nebraska softball team came out of its most important span of games this season at 2-2. By splitting a pair of series with No. 6 Oklahoma (47-7, 12-1) and No. 22 Oklahoma State (32-16, 7-6), the Huskers (33-18,8-2) put themselves in a good position to still have a shot at winning die conference tide. Against the Sooners, the Huskers took the first game 1-0 in 11 innings before being blanked 13-0 in game two. In game one, Leigh Ann Walker had a no-hitter through five innings. In die first three innings alone, Walker had eight strikeouts. She finished the game with 13 strikeouts and only gave up two hits, earning a no-decision. Jenny Voss earned the win after she replaced Walker in the ninth. NU scored the game-winning run in the 11th, when Kim Ogee laid down a sacrifice squeeze bunt that brought home Alice Brewer. In game two, Oklahoma stormed back by pounding 12 hits in only four innings to shut out the Huskers 13-0. HUSKERS 1 0 SOONERS 0 13 HUSKERS 2 12 COWBOYS 4 1 Voss took the loss on the hill for NU. On Saturday, Nebraska fell to OSU 4-2. OSU scored three of its four runs in the first inning off Voss (12-8), who took her second loss of the weekend. In Sunday’s contest, the Huskers bounced back and blasted Oklahoma State 12-1. Walker continued her dominance on the lull* with nine strikeouts to improve to 13-5. Offensively, NU had a season-high 12 hits led by Amber Buigess, Jennifer Williams and Ogee, who had three hits apiece. With the win, Nebraska broke a 12 game losing streak in Stillwater. The Huskers will be in action at home this week with single games against Iowa State on Tuesday and Creighton on Wednesday. Butler, Davies exemplify backfield depth ■Unheralded back-ups blast through defenses, racking up impressive numbers. By David Diehl Staff writer With their performances in Saturday’s Red-White Spring game, Chris Butler and Judd Davies would n’t mind if every game they played in produced the same results. Butler ran wild over the Red Team defense Saturday, putting up 118 yards on 16 carries as the White squad’s primary offensive weapon. Davies wasn’t in the spotlight as often for the Red team. But he capi talized on all of his chances, scoring touchdowns on both his rushing ouciupis. Neither Davies nor Butler, both redshirt freshmen, were listed on the spring depth chart, proving just how much talent the Comhuskers have at the I-back and fullback spots. Butler scored two touchdowns, one on a 1-yard dive and the other a 40-yard sprint down the west sideline. Butler’s impressive showing Saturday wasn’t even at 100 percent. He’s been bothered by an abdominal injury for the whole spring. Butler said he only performed “at 80 percent on a good day” this spring with the injury. Butler is having surgery Monday. “I began feeling it later on in the game,” Butler said. “But you get the adrenaline rushing and the crowd and all that and you kind of overlook it. “I didn’t let it stop me. Sometimes you get in a situation where you know you have something against you, but I didn’t let it stop me.” This is the second straight spring game Butler has shined in. In last year’s game as a redshirt, the Hoover, Ala., native, rushed for 57 yards and scored on a 47-yard touchdown run. Kunning Backs Coacn Dave Gillespie wasn’t surprised that Butler performed so well. But the top three spots at I-back are still occupied by Dan Alexander, Correll Buckhalter, and Dahrran Diedrick. Thunder Collins, held out of spring football for academic reasons, figures to have a shot with the top units next fall. But certainly things can change. “I don’t know if you ever can say that any position is untouchable,” Gillespie said. But certainly Dan and Correll, have their merit But without yet evaluating the spring game those three are certainly die top three. The other spots are up in the air.” Those spots may be even more up in the air at the fullback position, as Tyrone Uhlir has sat out the spring with an injury and Davies, from Millard North High School, per formed very efficiently with both rushing attempts ending as touch downs. “Any time you touch the ball the goal is to get in the endzone,” Davies said. “Especially with the fullback position you don’t get that many touches.” Davies said he gained confidence this spring but he wasn’t totally satis fied with his all-around performance and was very humble in the post game press conference. “I still got a lot to learn, but I’m getting better going into the fall,” Davies said. coacn frame soncn saia Davies doesn’t give himself enough credit, especially after a two-touchdown per formance. “Judd doesn’t have as far to go as maybe he thinks he does,” Solich said. “He’s tough and he’s got great size, strength and he can do a lot for us. He’s going to be a great player for us.” The talent that Davies and Butler have are important that far down in the depth chart, Gillespie said, espe cially at the I-back spot, which receives a lot of wear and tear during the season. “An injury or two occurs there and someone jumps right in,” Gillespie said. “And that’s a spot where you just can’t have any guy. You’ve got to have a guy with ability.” U