Sports William l a.. Nebraska outfielder Jed Dalton swings at a pitch against Kansas Monday. The 18-8 Corn huskers will play Creighton in one nine-inning game today at 5:30 p.m. at Buck Beltzer Field. Huskers’ run of Division I games starts with Jays Fan support needed at games, coach says By Peter Theoharis Staff Reporter Nebraska baseball coach John Sanders will welcome Creighton today as more than an intrastate rival. Sanders said he was happy to get the Comhuskers into action against Division I opponents on days other than Friday through Sunday, the usual days of Big Eight contests. Nebraska and the Bluejays are scheduled for a nine-inning contest to begin at 5:30 p.m. at Buck Bclt/.cr Field. “It is good to have mid-week Divi sion I games,” Sanders said. “I wish we could have them every week.” Sanders said playing baseball in this region of the country made it difficult to schedule games against major baseball programs during the week. Besides Creighton, the closest schools are members of the B ig Eight and Wichita State. Creighton and Nebraska both played in the Pepsi/Johnny Quick Classic in Fresno, Calif., March 16-21, but did not play each other. The 18-8 and 3-1 Huskcrs arc scheduled to start Mike Zajcski, Sand ers said. In his last start, Zajcski set the all-time Nebraska mark for strike outs. The Huskcrs continue play Friday when they host Evansville fora four game series. Sanders said he hoped the major college competition would raise fan interest. “This is a good opportunity to get a run of Division I games, with four on the weekend,” Sanders said. “We’d like to see a lot of student and fan support.” Wednesday’s game will be a first of sorts for one member of the Blue jays. Coach Todd Wcnbcrg makes his first head-coaching appearance against the Huskcrs, after replacing Jim Hendry. Wenbcrg was an assistant coach at Creighton for seven years. Hendry led the Bluejays to a tic for third place at the 1991 College World Series in Omaha. Creighton compiled a 51-22 record last season, while fin ishing second in the Missouri Valley Conference to NCAA runner-up Wichita State. After the season, Hendry left Creighton to move to the professional ranks when he received a job with the National League expansion Florida Marlins. Nebraska leads the all-time series against Creighton with a 37-23-1 edge. The two clubs split their four-game series last season. All-Time: Nebraska leads 37-23-1 . — Last season: The two teams split four games. Nebraska won 8-7 and 5-3. Creighton won 6-5 and 14-3. .. This season: The two teams meet only twice. Tonight at 5:30 p.m. in Lincoln and April 15th at Omaha. Softball team seeks repair for seasons ‘ugly’fielding Coach says players must prove ability By Susie Arth Staff Reporter Nebraska softball coach Ron Wolforth will be looking for defen sive intensity and consistency when his team faces Drake Wednesday at the Nebraska Softball Complex. The two teams are scheduled to play a double-header at 3 p.m. Wolforth said the Comhuskers’ fielding had been “tremendously ugly” throughout the season, but he hoped to see improvement against Drake. Wolforth said the Huskers spent the off-season working on hitting because fielding had been strong in the past. This season, he said, hitting had improved but defense and pitch ing were the worst he had seen in years. “We don’t have a technique prob lem,” he said. “We don’t have to do anything different, we just have to do everything better.” Wolforth said it was crucial that the seniors started to show consistent leadership and set examples for the rest of the team. “Senior leadership is more impor tant than coaching on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “It will be contagious if the seniors start showing intensity and effort.” Pitching, he said, had also caused problems for his 6-14 team. One reason for the poor pitching, Wolforth said, was the loss of Stepha nie Wright to a knee injury during the preseason. Wright was the team’s projected number one pitcher. Wright’s injury, Wolforth said, had forced the team to use a two-pitcher rotation, and the team’s earned run average had increased from about one in past seasons to more than three this season. Two freshmen, Emily Mannon and Lisa Shandy, he said, had been forced into bigger roles than they would have had without the injury to Wright. Once they gel on track, he said, everything would start to improve. “When the pitching comes around,” he said, “the defense will feed off it.” Wolforth said the team needed to See SOFTBALL on 8 In-person view of NCAAs sheds new light on tourney This season’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has me thinking. Usually I just sit in front of my television and absorb the action, not bothering to use any of my gray cells, but this year it’s all different. From the way I view first-round games and officiating, and even fill out my picks, things have changed. First of all, the first round is great. When watching the first round on television, all you get to see is the games the network executives want you to sec. You usually don’t get to sit and watch all four games at one site. I had that opportunity this year. The Daily Nebraskan was gra cious enough to allow me to go to Cincinnati to cover the Comhuskers, so I was able to sec all the first round games. And 1 wasn’t disappointed. North Carolina and Miami, Ohio, went down to the wire. Alabama and Stanford traded leads throughout their game. Ohio State and Mississippi Valley Slate didn’t provide much excite ment, but Buckeye star Lawrence Funderburke did. Connecticut and Nebraska — well, the Connecticut mascot — put on quite a show. But getting to watch these games Nick ” Hytrek in person made the 13-hour drive worthwhile. I’ll probably never gel to see North Carolina or Ohio State play again. Or watch collegiate stars such as Ohio State All-American Jimmy Jackson and Connecticut’s Chris Smith. And you can’t beat the atmos phere. You don’t experience the ex citement of the small crowd of Mississippi Valley Slate fans when their team took a 4-0 lead over top seeded Ohio State by watching it on television. Only by being there can you get the feel for what the NCAA Tournament is all about. If you go nuts just watching March Madness on television, go to a game sometime and you’ll love it even more. This season I also learned to go with my gut instincts instead of trying to think through my tourna ment picks when filling out the brackets. If you spend more than 10 seconds making a decision, you’re going to be wrong. I learned to always pick a Big East team over a Big Eight team. Never pick Big Eight teams to make it to the Final Four, no matter how hot they’re playing or easy you think their bracket is. Never assume a team such as South Florida can beat Georgetown just because you thought South See HYTREK on 8