page 10
daily nebraskan
monday,april 17, 1978
Despite Missouri losses, Sanders pleased with pitching
By Jim Hunt
The UNL baseball team fell short twice
in its bid to upend the University of Mis
souri in the eastern division of the Big
Eight Conference, in league action at the
UNL Diamond Saturday.
Approximately 50 fans braved the rain
and 40-degree weather to watch the Tigers
sweep the Huskers 2-0 and 5-4 to move to
the top of the Eastern Division race.
"They were two tough games," UNL
baseball coach John Sanders said. "Mis
souri has a good senior ball club.
"We had a chance to win both games.
We can't hang our heads, we just have to
look at the good things and come back
next time."
Sanders said he was pleased in the first
game and the pitching performance of Jeff
Costello and Gary Nolting.
Missouri jumped to a 3-1 lead in the
first game - scoring one run in each of the
first three innings off Costello. However,
the Huskers overcame the deficit in the
bottom of the sixth inning when second
baseman Steve Oakley tripled to right field
scoring three runs.
Yet the Husker lead was short-lived as
Tiger first-baseman Curt Brown doubled
off Nolting to drive in two runs winning
the first game for the defending Eastern Di
vision champions.
Rob Pietroburgo picked up the win for
the Tigers pushing his record to 6-1 while
Costello was saddled with the loss which
dropped his record to 3-3.
In the second game, Missouri starter
Tom Bloemke held UNL to just three hits
as the Tigers scored one run in each of the
first two innings against Nolting, to gain a
2-0 victory. Bloemke had a no-hitter going
until the fifth inning when right fielder
Bob Gebler singled.
The win pushed Bloemke s record to 4-2
for the season while the loss dropped Nolt
ing's record to an identical mark.
Sanders said the teams had to play des
pite the bad weather conditions.
"If we could have predicted sunshine
and good weather we wouldn't have played
Saturday," Sanders said. "But the word we
got from the weather people predicted
worse weather for Sunday and Monday, so
we didn't have much choice.
"You must play seven games in your di
vision to qualify for the Big Eight play
offs. If we would have waited to play Sun
day and Monday and been rained out both
days, we could only be rained out one of finish the Missouri series Monday with a
our remaining eight division games." double-header scheduled to start at 1 p.m.,
UNL, now 22-1 5 overall, will attempt to weather permitting. Missouri now is 23-10.
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Photo by Mark Billingsley
Missouri's Ed Woelbel slides safely into second base at UNL's John Russo awaits the
throw in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader. UNL, which lost both games, 6-5
and 2-0, will play Missouri in a doubleheader today at 1:30 p.m. at the UNL
diamond, weather permitting.
Berns, Hipp appearance is short-lived in scrimmage
By Rick Huls
The awaited appearance of I.M. Hipp
and Rick Burns in the offensive backfield
was short-lived Saturday in the Husker's
third spring football scrimmage.
Berns, still bothered by a hamstring in
jury, left the field after only five or six
plays in the backfield with Hipp.
"It tightened up again," Berns said of
the injury. "The second week of practice it
started to pull. Today was the first time I
really got out there to work."
Berns said he still is learning the veer be
cause he has not had much practice time.
"IVe had to learn the fullback position
and that means a different stance too,"
said the junior from Wichita Falls, Texas.
"At first I was having trouble getting set."
He said the offense had a couple of
good drives in Saturday's scrimmage.
"Sorley (Tom) was running real well
and we moved the ball," Berns said. "We
had a few mistakes and errors but consider
ing how wet it was the offense moved pret
ty well."
Although Berns is still learning the veer
formation, teammate I.M. Hipp said adapt
ing to the veer was no problem since his
high school team used it.
"I've learned the techniques in the veer.
Everybody on offense is starting to work
together on it," Hipp said. "It's not confus
ing for the ofiense.it just makes it tougher
on the defense."
Both Berns and Hipp agree that the veer
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Photo by Mark Billingslcy
UNL's Everton DaCosta (left) rounds the corner of the 400-yard intermediate hurdles which he won in Saturday's rainy track
dual against Iowa State. DaCosta raced to a 53.0 second clocking while teammate Ron Fisher placed second with a time of 54. 1
seconds.
UNL easily won the dual as they scored 10S points compared to Iowa State's 46 points. UNL grabbed 13 first places in 17
events.
First place finishers for UNL included: Ken Drwal in the javelin, Harold Stelzer in the mile run, Jeff Lee in the 120-yard high
hurdles, Ray Mahoney in the 440-yard dash, Larry Meyer and Dean Herzog in the high jump, Ron Hoagland in the 100-yard
dash, Lee Kunz in the discus, Dean Ross and Randy Raymond in the pole vault, Neville Murray in the triple jump, Ron Hoag
land in the 22-yard dash, the 440-yard relay composed of Roger Moderow, Mahoney, Hoagland, and Tom Dovel, and the mik
relay composed of Dovel, Ron Fisher, Mahoney and Scott Poehling.
UNL will travel to FJ Paso, Texas next week for the University of Texas El Paso Invitational.
is a more explosive offense than the I-for-mation.
"You move out quicker and the defense
doesn't have as much time to think," Hipp
said.
"You lose the blocking lead, otherwise
it's quicker and more explosive," Berns
noted. "Having the I-formation and the
split backfield gives the offense an advan
tage." While the offense scored only one
touchdown (a 53-yard dash by Sorley),
three more scoring opportunities were ruin
ed by mistakes and defensive plays.
The. first string offense drove to the 5
and 4-yard lines on the second team de
fense, but failed to score after a fumbled
pitch from quarterback Tim Hager to Hipp
and a blocked field goal by cornerback
Darrell Walton.
Quarterback Jeff Quinn fumbled at the
eight-yard line after the second string of
fense drove 62 yards on the first string de
fense. Good defensive efforts also were respon
sible for the stalled offensive drivers.
"We continued to play hard," said de
fensive coordinator Lance Van Zandt.
"Our first-team defense didn't get scored
on again. It makes it tough for us to pre
pare for the veer and the I-formation."
Van Zandt said the defense needs to do
a better job of containing the quarterback.
"We've got to keep him inside," he said.
"We can't let the offense go wide on us."
Head Coach Tom Osborne said the Hus
ker defense has more depth than the of
fense, but the first two offensive units
looked better Saturday than last week.
"Considering the wet field we held onto
the ball pretty well," Osborne said. "Sorley
had some nice runs and Tim Woodard had
some good catches."
He said the offense still is short on
backs, and Andra Franklin is the only back
who is completely healthy.
"Right now our best backfield is pro
bably Andra and Hipp," Osbome said.
"Richard (Berns) needs more playing time.
He's missed too many practices and is hav
ing blocking problems."
Osborne praised freshman I-back Craig
Johnson for his rushing efforts after replac
ing the injured Berns.
The Huskers worked on the punting
game before the scrimmage but with pun
ter Tim Smith out with an injured foot, lit
tle was accomplished.
The most serious injury of the day was
defensive back Dave Liegl's knee. The Hus
kers will scrimmage again next Saturday
before the Red-White Spring game sched
uled for April 29.