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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 1983)
16 Monday, April 25, 1933 Daily Nebraskan Hedls break rasIiSsis record i by 1971 champioini team By Randy Wymore There are several different ways that you could look at Saturday's annual Nebraska Red-White game that was won by the Reds 37-14. One perspective is that the Reds rushed for a record 3S7 yards. Paced by AU American and Heisman Trophy candidate Mike Rozier, the Reds breezed past the old mark ol 343 yards, set by the 1971 Red squad. And to take this angle one step further, that same 1971 team went on to win 13 straight games and finish the year as the national champions. Rozier ended the afternoon with 10S yards on eight carries and two touchdow ns, one on a brilliant 57-yard run. Stopped after just a few yards by a group of Wliite defenders, the Camden, N.J., standout broke free after a series of twists and turns to fly into the end zone. "The first offense looked pretty good," Coach Tom Osborne said. "Later on in the scrimmage we had some exchange problems wluch I'd like to see eliminated." Defensive Coordinator Charlie McBride had another way of looking at the game. He said that his team was limited in the amount of defenses it could use. With no blitzes allowed and having to remain in a basic five-man front McBride said "the spring game is set up so the fans get to see some points scored." "It's just that basically the quarterback can tell what we're doing every time if they just listen to the corners," he said. The cornerbacks make the defensive calls at the line, and from scrimmaging against them for four weeks, the quarter backs begin to learn those calls as well as the offensive ones. Taking the defensive handicaps into account, Osborne expressed some mild concern. "The defense was pretty limited," he said. "But a lot of times the offense was stopped by its own mistakes McBride did find some good points for the defensive picture though. "I thought overall, the last scrimmage and this ... we were able to isolate some people and make some decisions," he said. "Right now, as a group, we've got the best hittin' bunch of kids," McBride said. "But like 1 said, we're concerned with physical strength." He said that his defense going up against the offensive lines of I'CLA, Penn State and Oklahoma for four quarters weighs heavily on his mind. One of the kids that made himself available for decisions was sophomore comer Todd Hsher. I he Omaha Burke graduate made two interceptions and ran back a Red punt for an 80-yard touchdown. Both coaches had praise for Fisher. "We were kind of hoping that that would happen (Fisher's performance)," McBride said. "He could probably play both corners." "Todd Fisher did some good things today," Osborne said. "And we're glad to see that. We need to have some corners C 9 w - 4 i coming on. Another Cornhusker having a good day on Saturday was Sophomore I-back Paul Miles. Miles rushed for 53 yards on nine carries and scored two touchdowns. Jeff Smith also had his usual good day with 68 yards on eight carries and one touchdown. Quarterback Craig Sundberg threw 1 1 passes for 10 completions and 104 yards. McBride cited linebacker Mike Knox, middle guard Ken Graeber and Fisher for noticeable performances. One more bright spot for Osborne was the second string offensive line. "We've made a little bit of improvement in our second offensive line," he said. "We may have a little better offensive line than we thought earlier." The second line includes Brad Muehling (center), Brian Blankenship and Greg Orton (guards) and Tim Roth and Mark Behning (tackles). An added positive note came in the form of the serious injury list - or lack thereof. Besides those players injured earlier in the spcing, nobody registered anything more serious than the usual bumps and bruises. The Cornhuskers will use the rest of the spring and summer to lift weights and run in preparation for the Aug. 8 opening of fall practice. ' J'j ': . f f fi' A J - X1 A 0 v v V. 4 A V Staff photo by John Zoz White team quarterback Travis Turner looks to pitch the ball during Saturday's Red-White spring game. The Red team defeated the Whites by a score of 37-14. i - t i "1 4 . . . . v A - ' A ft!-.-. Aw , . -1iAl?" j Staff photo by Craig Andresen Red team quarterback Don Douglas attempts to escape from the grasp of a white team defender during Saturday's spring game. Douglas completed three of seven passes for 27 yards during the game. i M WOODS "in fl mi! By Jack Denker Quiet victories are not that easy to come by when you're playing for all the marbles, but Texas A&M was to achieve one as they quitely defeated Creighton, 1-0, to win the 1983 Husker Spring Softball Invitational Sun day at Mabel Lee Field. "This is what we call a quiet win," A&M Coach Bob Brock said. "We will just take our trophy and go home." Texas A&M's "quiet victory" came by virtue of an illegal pitch ruled against Creighton in the bottom of the seventh inning that enabled an Aggie runner on third to score. It was an unfortunate ending to an otherwise ex tremely well played ball game. "This is the first time we have won a game like "that," Brock said. "It's a shame that we had to win it like that because it looked like we had a chance to win it outright." The game was scoreless through six and a half innings when A&M came to bat. Aggie second baseman Pattie Holthaiis led off the inning with a single and was moved to third on Iva Jackson's single to left Field. This set the stage for the bizarre series of events that followed. With the count three ball and no strikes on the Aggie better, CU catcher Angie Rajtora stepped out of the catchers box, indicating to pitcher Marcia Jacobsen that she wanted a pitch out. At this point, the home plate umpire ruled that it was an illegal pitch, because the catcher stepped out of the box during the pitch. There fore, Holthaus, who was on third at the time, was allowed to score the winning run for Texas A&M. "This was a very good game," Brock said. "Creighton played very well today and deserves a lot of credit for shwoing us that they can play good ball. It's just a shame the game had to end on a rule." On Friday, Creighton upset the 33-9 Aggies, who are currently ranked second in the nation, by the familiar score of 1-0. That was the only loss of the round-robin tournament suffered by A&M, who ended up 3-1. Creigh ton Finished second in the invitational with a 2-2 record. In the consolation game also played Sunday, Nebraska needed a third inning grand, slam home run by Denise Day-Eckert, to propel them to a hard fought 4-3 win over California-Berkeley. The home run by Day-Eckert was the First one hit out of the Mabel Lee field and it came at a time that the Huskers needed it most, Husker Coach Nancy Plantz said. "It was hit so high that my initial reaction was that it wasn't going to go out, but when it went over the fence I knew we had a chance to win it," Plantz said. The events that led up to the grand slam were also exciting. Husker second baseman Deanne Carr started things off with a single followed by another single by left fielder Wendy Turner and still another single by center fielder Cindy Aerni, to load the bases for Day-Eckert. "Four hits in a row doesn't happen very often," Plantz said. j Sophomore Mori Emmons started the game for Ne braska and was credited with the win after pitching three . strong innings. Rhonda Revelle pitched two arid one third innings before giving way to Sandy Wolterman, with one out in the sixth. Plantz said Wolterman showed a lot of character for pitching scoreless ball the rest of the way, while earning the save. "They were hitting Emmons real hard and we couldn't afford to let them get back into the game. So I used my other pitchers to keep them off balance," Flantz said. Plantz said she was pleased with the team's perfor mance Sunday, but she wasn't happy with her teams on Saturday as the Huskers lost both of their games that day - 7-2 against Creighton and 5-0 against Texas A&M. "We made too many errors and kicked the ball around on Saturday," Plantz said. "But 1 like the two games we won because we played good solid Softball and didn't make many mistakes." All in all, Plantz said she was pleased with the 1983 Husker Invitational despite the fact that her team finished in third place at 2-2. Cal-Berkeley came in fourth with an 04 tally. Next up for the 12-12 Huskers is the Big Eight Champ ionships at Norman, Okla. Plantz said Nebraska will open against Kansas followed by Missouri. The Big Eight Championships is a round-robin tournament so that every team will play two games a day with the Big Eight champ being determined by the best overall record! "We leave on Tuesday for the Big Eights," Plantz said. 4We ended on a positive note here and we are looking to keep it that way. We are going to have to play very good Softball to win the Big Eights and we all know that so it is just a matter of doing it now."