Tuesday, April 15, 1986
Daily Nebraskan
Page 9
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Praetooe
WBom up
QB battle
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
The battle Is on.
One of the most Important spring football
decision making processes at Nebraska in
recent years is underway.
The "battle" Is between McCalhom Clay
ton and Steve Taylor for the No. 1 quarterback
position on the depth chart.
Taylor Is the early leader.
Taylor, a sophomore from Spring Valley,
Calif., was named the top quarterback on last
week's depth chart and has not looked back
since.
"1 really didn't expect this much," Taylor
said. "It's surprising."
In Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage, Tay
lor completed five of seven passes for 80 yards
and ran for 40 yards on five carries.
"He's got tremendous ability," Nebraska
coach Tom Osbome said following the scrim
mage. "He's very hard to tackle, he's got good
lateral movement, good speed and a real fine
arm."
Clayton, last year's starter, was held out of
Saturday's scrimmage because of back spasms.
Last week, Clayton carried 10 times for. 32
yards and completed one of five passes for
one yard. Clayton said he feels that Taylor
deserves his No. I ranking on the depth chart.
"I think he's done some things better than
I have," Clayton said. "That's why Coach
Osborne moved him up."
The much talked-about rivalry between the
two signal-callers for t op honors was shrugged
off by both as being relatively non-existent.
"There's no problem at all," Clayton said.
"We get along fine and help each ot her out."
Taylor agreed.
"We're good friends," Taylor said. "We get
along the same as always. It's not really some
thing we think about in practice. We just go
out and run our plays and try to do the best we
can."
Taylor also said he felt the position on the
depth chart is not as important as people
tend to think.
"It doesn't matter that much," he said.
"Nothing really matters until next summer."
Both players said they have improvements
to make, especially where the passing game
is concerned.
"Our (team's) passing percentage wasn't
that high last season," Clayton said.
Clayton said he feels his biggest advantage
is experience. He said he feels fairly comfor
table with reading defenses and reacting to
particular situations.
Taylor, on the other hand, said his inexpe
rience is his biggest drawback.
"I need to continue to learn the offense
and continue to keep up my consistency,"
Taylor said. "I just want to do the right
thing."
Taylor said the job of starting quarterback
will probably be decided by whichever player
is the best athlete, as well as who shows the
most consistency.
Battles are never won by anything less.
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Softball team
leads Big 8
By Lisa M. Henkel
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska softball team loads the Big
Eight conference by two games after last
weekend.
The Cornhuskers defeated Oklahoma State,
4-3, and Missouri, 8-1, on Saturday in Colum
bia, MO. Sunday, Nebraska again swept both
games in the round-robin tournament, beat
ing Oklahoma State 3-1, and Missouri, 4-3.
The wins raised ninth-rated Nebraska to 29-7
on the season and 7-1 in the conference.
Nebraska coach Wayne Daigle said the
games were tough wins, but his team is play
ing well. He said the team probably needs to
work on its mental intensity.
"We've separated ourselves from the rest of
the conference in terms of winning and los
ing," Daigle said. "We need to push ourselves
to win. It's the most important task at hand."
Daigle said his freshmen players hit their
stride about a week ago.
"Every freshman that starts is playing very
good ball at the major college level," he said.
The Huskers hit six home runs by four
different players during the tournament.
Shelby Mertins and Jane Kremer both had
two-run homers against No. 15-ranked OSU.
The Cowboys had a 3-2 lead but Kremer's
fourth home run of the season won the game
for the Huskers. Donna Deardorff got the win
for Nebraska while Lori Sippel earned her
third save of the season.
Lisa Winchester, Lori Richins and Mertins
all had homers in Saturday's win against Mis
souri. Eight runs on 13 hits were enough to
help Nebraska to victory. Sippel earned the
win to raise her record to 9-4.
On Sunday it was freshman pitcher Marlys
Handley who got the win against OSU. It was
Handley's 10th straight win, raising her
record to 1 1-1 and her ERA to 0.27. The game
also gave sophomore pitcher, Sippel her
fourth save.
Nebraska scored two runs in the sixth
inning to break a 1-1 tie. Rhonda Gorraiz
scored on Katie Wolda's double. The winning
run scored when Heidi Schlabach reached
first on an OSU error.
The win against Missouri on Sunday came
after Deardorff retired 13 straight batters.
The win raised the sophomore's record to 9-2.
Nebraska was behind as the Tigers scored on
a walk and three singles. Winchester hit her
third home run of the season to bring the
Huskers within one. Pinch-runner Ann Schas
teen scored on a Missouri error off Margie
Ogrodowicz's ground ball. Ogrodowicz then
scored on a single by Richins.
Ogrodowicz is hitting .376 and has hit
safely in nine straight games and in 25 of the
last 26. She also broke a school record by
stealing two bases, raising her record to 18
stolen bases this season. The old record was
17, held by Denise Eckert.
Daigle said Deardorff was the key to
Nebraska's victory.
"She completely shut the other team out,"
he said.
Nebraska's next six games are at home.
The Huskers play Kansas State in a double
header Friday at 3 p.m. Nebraska then takes
on Iowa State and Kansas in a round-robin
tournament, Saturday and Sunday. The Iowa
State game begins at 2 p.m. and the Kansas
game at 4 p.m. at the softball complex.
Comebacks startle sports wor
Winter made a comeback in Lincoln
Monday as snow fell and the tempera
ture plummeted.
Bob
Asmussen
Comebacks seem to be the rule in
recent days rather than the exception.
No where is that more evident than in
the remarkable weekend performances
of two athletes, Dennis Leonard and
Jack Nicklaus.
Going into the past weekend, Leo
nard and Nicklaus seemed to be in the
winter of their careers. Or maybe even
past winter.
Injuries and four operations had left
Leonard on a growing pile of washed up
baseball pitchers. Once the leader of
the Kansas City staff, Leonard had
fallen to the status of a spot starter
whose career was severely in doubt.
Nicklaus' apparent downfall had a
more reasonable culprit: age. The 46-year-old
golfer hadn't won a tournament
in two years and it appeared to all that
Jack would never be back.
With Danny Jackson out for a couple
of weeks with a twisted ankle, Leonard
got one of his spot starts Saturday. The
Royals played Toronto, one of base
ball's best hitting teams, on a nationally-televised
afternoon game.
It was Leonard's first start since
early in the 1983 season and it was
probably his best performance in an
outstanding career. Leonard three-hit
the Bluejays. At one point, he retired 18
batters in a row.
Leonard's performance was needed
as the Royals could only score one run
off the Bluejay pitchers.
While an early season win isn't very
important, Leonard's performance Sat
urday was of extreme importance to
the defending World Champions. With
Leonard apparently fully recovered from
a severe knee injury, it will allow the
Royals to deal one of t heir other pitchers
for another everyday player, likely an
outfielder.
Not only does Leonard's return give
the Royals some trade leverage, it
should also insure that the young staff
has a leader it can look to for guidance.
Bret Saberhagen is a great pitcher, but
he is a young pitcher, and can hardly be
expected to lead the Kansas City staff.
Leonard's presence, both on and off the
field, will take some of the pressure off
the young pitching staff.
While Leonard's performance Satur
day took pressure off some younger
players, Nicklaus' performance Sunday
put pressure on the young golfers on
the tour.
Nicklaus shot a 65 Sunday to win the
Masters golf tournament for a record
sixth time. While most everyone else
had forgotten about Nicklaus, he didn't
give up on himself or his abilities. And
in the end, it was the failure of others
that gave Nicklaus the title, failure of
younger golfers.
Nicklaus lurked four strokes behind
leader Greg Norman going into Sun
day's final round. He was still lurking
after the front nine. But, on the mean
and nasty back nine that has claimed
so many titles, Nicklaus shot a record
tying 30. His eagle at the 15th hole
pulled him within two strokes and con
secutive birdies on 16 and 17 pulled
him into a tie for the lead with Norman.
Norman, known as the Great White
Shark, had a chance to tie at 18 with a
par, but he hit his second shot into the
gallery and ended up with a bogey.
Nicklaus looked Father Time in the
eye Sunday and told him to take a hike.
His performance in the world's most
prestigious golf tournament didn't sig
nal the end of his brilliant career, only
a new beginning.
Nicklaus and Leonard proved that
they were both definitely back.
Asmussen is a senior news-editorial major
and Daily Nebraskan Sports Editor.