Nebraska’s Jennifer Stevens slides home as University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Sheila
Taylor blocks the plate.
Softball coach blames
self for 21-14 record,
Iowa tournament loss
By Darran Fowler
Staff Reporter
If it sounds like Nebraska softball
coach Ron Wolforth is being a little
hard on himself, it’s because he is.
After going 2-2 this weekend at
the four-team Iowa Hawkcyc Invita
uonal - a tournament the Comhuskers’
fourth-year coach felt Nebraska should
win - Wolforth was highly critical of
the job he is doing.
In the opening game of round
robin play, Nebraska lost 5-2 to Mi
ami of Ohio, a team Wolforth fell the
Huskcrs should not have lost to again.
Miami already had beat Nebraska 3
1 earlier this season.
Nebraska followed with victories
over Adelphi of Garden City, N.Y., 1 -
0, and 16th-rankcd Iowa 3-1, before
going into the semifinals against Iowa.
Nebraska was eliminated by the
Hawkcyes 1 -0.
The weekend split puts the Husk
crs at 21-14 this season, an unsatisfy
ing record by Wolforth’s standards.
‘‘I feel we’re a better team than
21-14,” he said.
And he takes the blame for the
Huskcrs not being better.
He said this team has obvious tal
ent, strong pitching and great speed.
The only variable missing, he said, is
the one he controls ~ coaching.
“The bottom line is coaching,” he
said. “What can we do differently or
what could we have done differently?
“We do have a lot of talent and so,
as t ar as coaching, what do wc need to
change?
“Sometimes you need to sit back
and take a look at what is occurring
because sometimes the bottom line is
you.”
Wolforth continued his self-criti
cism, saying the team is not only
talented, but hard-working.
“I blame myself more than the
players,” he said. “I recruited these
players, and blaming them 1 don’t
think would be very fair or very wise.”
However, Wolforth said he is dis
appointed with players in one respect.
He said a goal for this team was to
improve 1 percent every day, every
game.
“I feel that wc haven’t done that
for quite some time,” he said. “We’ve
kind of stagnated the last few games.”
Wolforth said he is worried about
Nebraska’s lack of improvement and
subsequent lack of momentum. The
Huskcrs have 14 games remaining in
the regular season.
“I still think we’re a fine team, but
I don’t know,” he said. “It’s getting
awful late in the season, and I’m real
concerned about what’s happening.”
Wolforth said his feelings do not
mean he is ready to give up on the
season. He said he is going to analyze
the past and refocus for the remainder
of the season.
He has made a couple changes,
mostly shuffling the batting order,
but said “it is awful late in the year to
make too many changes.”
Will
Continued from Page 8
hits for ihc pitcher, while the pitcher
plays for the hitter. Even though it is
not used in the National League, Will
feels the strategy that comes from the
pitcher hitting is not worth watching.
He would rather watch a real bat
ter hit than have a lame-duck pitcher
take his cuts.
The argument against Will’s the
ory is that baseball is a complete
game, so a player playing the field
also should have a chance to bat.
Maybe, just maybe, Will really
dislikes the designated hitter and is
using Johnson’s “unfavorable chance
deviation” theory in hope the rule
will be changed. However, his rea
sons for favoring the designated hit
ter arc not clear.
That fogginess doesn’t take any
thing away from the book, as Will has
done what every baseball fan would
love to do -- write a book about base
ball and make money doing it.
Mil haven is a senior history major and a
Daily Nebraskan sports reporter and colum
nist.
Coaches ’ successes unnoticed; gymnasts headed for top
(•rant or Joseph?
After two weeks of spring football
practice, Nebraska junior quarterback
Mickey Joseph has jumped from the
gates early in the great Comhusker
quarterback race.
Joseph, a 5-fooi-10, 175-pound
player from Marrero, La., has out
Chuck
Green
performed teammate Mike Grant, a
junior from Valrico, Fla. through the
lirst two Saturday scrimmages, al
though Grant missed the first scrim
mage with a nagging shoulder injury.
Both players arc listed at the No. 1
spot on the Nebraska depth chart.
Given the obvious tendency of
Nebraska coach Toni Osborne to stress
Ask about our
special rates for
-students!
the rushing game, the pre-fall depth
charts may surprise a lot of sports
page coaches and list Joseph all alone
at the lop.
Osborne’s unwillingness tocvolvc
Nebraska’s offense into the 1990s
and employ a quick-striking passing
game may be just the thing that will
make Joseph a starter after three years
of disappointment.
Allen goes for No. 1 -- again
The Nebraska men’s gymnastics
team is again at the top of the colle
giate rankings - nothing new to Husker
coach Francis Allen.
In the last 11 years, Allen has
coached the Huskers to six national
championships and four second-place
finishes. Nebraska, which has been
ranked first throughout the season,
again is picked as the team to beat at
this weekend’s NCAA championships
in Minneapolis.
It’s interesting to see coaches of
money-making sports on this campus
receive large pay raises at the end of
mediocre -- or downright bad -- sea
sons, then watch the contrast when it
com6s to Allen.
Allen is the only Husker coach on
the campus that has consistently
contended for national titles year af
ter year, and actually won a few.
Unfortunately for him, it seems to go
unnoticed when salaries arc reviewed
and increased,
5 in the nation heading into this week
end’s NCAA championship meet in
Corvallis, Ore.
The Huskers, who have won the
Big Eight championship the last four
years, finished second to No. 1-ranked
Utah two weeks ago in the Midwest
Regional in Salt Lake City.
But the regional look place in Utah’s
home gym, and the Utes have been
See GYMNASTICS on 10
No wonder Nebraska’s athletic
department has financial difficulties
these days ...
... with Walton right behind
Allen isn’t the only Nebraska coach
shooting for a national championship
this spring. Rick Walton, the women’s
gymnastics coach, also is in the run
ning.
'i he Husker women arc ranked No.
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