Nebraskan
VJI V X 1 \J W«dn**d«y,Aprtl21,19W
Fish tip
helping
Husker
heat up
By Tony West
Staff Reporter
Nebraska shortstop Robert Perry
put a little stink into Tuesday
night’s game against Kansas.
Although the Huskers lost 17-9
at Buck Bcltzer Field, Perry pro
duced nearly a third of the Huskers’
13 hits in the game with the help of
a sardine odor.
Perry said he realized he wasn’t
hitting as well as he hoped entering
the game, and resorted to supersti
tion in an effort to recharge him
self.
“I’m not hitting the ball well
lately,” he said. “So, I got a lip from
Jody (Splichal) from the softball
team. She said to put sardines in my
back pocket and rub it for luck.”
Perry entered Tuesday night’s
game balling .219 on the season
and raised his average 31 points to
.250 with a 4-for-4 performance at
the plate.
Nonetheless, the Huskers fell to
6-8 in the Big Eight and 16-17
overall. Kansas, the Big Eight
leader, improved to 30-8 overall
and 11-4 overall. The two teams
will complete the two-game scries
Wednesday.
rerry aia ms parv, nuung iwo
doubles, doubling his cxlra-base
hit total for the season and scoring
two runs.
Although the superstition paid
off. Perry said it was not a big factor
in his game.
“I don’t use superstition con
sciously,” he said. “But if I’m do
ing something different and we’re
winning, I’ll slick with it.”
The superstition was all part of
the mental game involved with hit
ting, according to Perry.
“It was just for good luck,” Perry
said. “Hitting is mostly confi
dence.”
With the gimmicks or without,
Perry said he has gained a little
more confidence at the plate. Now,
he said he is hoping his hilling
performance Tuesday night will
result into a good hilling habit.
“You just have to keep getting
good hacks, good hacks instead of
bad hacks, bad hacks,” Perry said.
“Eventually, it will become habit.”
Robin Triroar cfu/DN
Marc Sagmoen gets tagged out at second base by Kansas shortstop Dan Rude to end
the sixth inning during the Cornhusker’s 17-9 loss to Kansas Tuesday.
Jayhawks blast NU pitchers,
keep hold on Big Eight lead
By Jeff Griesch
Staff Reporter
Poor pitching spelled the begin
ning of the end for the Nebraska
baseball team against Kansas on
Tuesday night at Buck BeItzcr Field.
The Jay hawks, 30-8 for the regu
lar season, 11-4 in the Big Eight,
beat the Huskers 17-9 as four Ne
braska pitchers walked nine Kan
sas batters and hit five more. Ne
braska dropped to 16-17 and 6-8.
Along with taking the free passes
from Husker pitchers, Kansas hit
ters also pounded Nebraska pitch
ers for 15 hits.
Catcher Jeff Niemeicr led the
Kansas attack with three hits and
three RBIs, including a solo home
run that drove a hole in the
scoreboard in left field.
Tom Bergan took the loss for
the Huskers, falling to 2-6 on the
season. Bergan allowed nine runs
on six hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Bergan cruised through the first
inning, but could not find the strike
zone in the second inning, walking
three straight Kansas batters on 12
pilches after giving up a Icadoff
single. All four runners scored to
give Kansas a 4-2 lead.
“There is no defense for the
walk or the hit batsmen,” Nebraska
coach John Sanders said. “Some
thing like 50 percent of the people
you walk in college baseball are
going to score.”
Nebraska had jumped out to a
See HUSKERS on 11
Recruit
backs out
on Husker
basketball
By Susie Arth
Senior Reporter
A recruit has been snatched away
from the Nebraska men’s basketball
team.
Herb Baker, who signed his letter
of intent to play for the Comhuskers
next fall, changed h is mind and is now
headed to the University of Alabama
Birmingham, his junior college coach
said Tuesday.
Scott Schumacher, Baker’s coach
at Paris Junior College in Texas, said
he was shocked when he heard the
news.
Schumacher said Baker had seemed
excited about attending Nebraska and
playing in the Big Eignt Conference.
“I didn’t even find out about it
from Herb,” he said. “I haven’t seen
him since he signed for UAB.
“I heard the news from his mother.
Schumacher said the last lime he
saw Baker was last Wednesday, when
he signed the forms to send off to
Nebraska.
“I saw Herb sign the papers. I sat
there and I pointed my finger and
showed him the line he had to sign
on,” he said. “Then I took them to
mail them off.”
Schumacher said he sent the forms
to Baker’s parents in Houston, but
that Baker apparently had changed
his mind before his parents received
them.
Schumacher said he had no idea
what caused Baker tochangc his mind.*
Baker, a 6-foot-8,245-pound cen
ter who attended Baylor University
for two years before transferring to
Paris, averaged 13 points and 7 re
bounds last season for Paris.
He visited Nebraska Feb. 27 and
watched the Huskers’ 91-87 victory
over Iowa State. He gave his oral
commitment to Nebraska last month.
With Baker’s withdrawal, only
Clinton“Mikki” Moore of Blacksburg
High School in South Carolina has
accepted a sc holarsh ip from Nebraska.
Nebraska assistant coach Gary
Bargcn said late last week that he
expected the Huskers to give four
scholarships.
Nebraska coaches could not be
reached Tuesday for comment.
Defeat lingers with gymnasts; coach assures survival
On Monday, Comhusker coach
Francis Allen was strolling the streets
of Santa Fe, N.M., trying to get away.
Far away. Far away from the disas
ter-— Nebraska’s NCAA Final loss to
Stanford on Saturday.
Far away from The Pit, the Albu
querque arena where Nebraska gave
the national championship away.
Far away from anything remotely
related to gymnastics.
Just when he felt he had left the pits
in The Pit, an elderly lady approached
him:
“Hey, I know you. You’re the gym
nastics coach at Nebraska. How’d
you guys do?”
“I just wanted to say, ‘Yeah, hi
lady, just keep on moving,’” Allen
said.
You can be sure Allen is trying to
move on now.
Yet the disappointment will fol
low Allen and his Comhuskers until
next year.
' Richard Grace said the loss almost
followed him right into the individual
finals Saturday night.
“After wc lost the team finals,! just
wanted to go back to the hotel and
beat the (crap) out of someone,” said
Grace, who won the national champi
onship in the floor exercise.
“I just sal there in a daze. Then I
decided I was going to win the floor
exercise for the team.”
Grace said it was little consolation
for the team’s disappointment.
One day after scoring a season
best 286.525 on Friday night, Ne
braska scored just 275.5 points.
“To tell you the truth, I don’tknow
what happened. I have no idea what it
was,” Allen said.
“Stanford fell all over themselves
Friday. I didn’t think they had a rat’s
ass chance of winning. Going into the
finals, I thought wc had it won. I
thought it was going to be ho-hum.”
Grace said the ho-hums might have
hit the Huskers instead.
“We were really tired after Fri
day,” he said. “Wc weren’t as enthu
siastic on Saturday as wc were on
Todd
Cooper
Friday.
“Stanford was always up. And wc
weren’t”
Why not?
“There’s an outside chance we
were loo cocky,” Allen said. “But
how in the hell would you not be
confident after dominating the way
we did all season?"
Indeed, the Huskers dominated.
They went undefeated and untouched
throughout the season. They slipped
from the No. 1 ranking in the nation
just once.
And they throttled Stanford twice
during this season.
“Tlic Stanford coach says they train
for one meet all year,” Allen said. “He
said lhai Nebraska worries loo much
about scoring consistently all season
long. Thai’s bull-.
“Our system works. I have seven
(national) trophies and he has two.”
Yet Nebraska’s heralded Fab Four
recruiting class of 1990—Che Bow
ers, Dennis Harrison, Sumner Darling
and Burkett Powell — have none.
And so the comparisons continue.
Just like Michigan in basketball, de
spite all of their success, the Fab Four
hasn’t won a national championship.
“I said that class would have to
produce,” Allen said. “And I was
disappointed we got second. But they
produced. It would be unrealistic to
think they’re going to win every meet.
“And that’s only four guys. Thai’s
only half the team. It is the nucleus of
the team, but they ’re not underachiev
ers. A team that went undefeated all
year long — there’s no way they
could be underachievers.” -
Nevertheless, Grace said the
Comhuskers feel like they have some
thing huge left to prove.
“Losing just gives us that much
more of a drive to beat the crap out of
teams next year,” he said. “We have a
personal debt we have to pay back.”
Allen said that will be paid in full
next year.
“I’ll win next year,” Allen said. “I
can’t wail for it to get here.”
But until it comes, the loss — and
the disappointment— will linger.
• “WcMI remember the lasttwo years
for the rest of our lives,” Grace said.
“It felt worse this year than last year.
This just hurts more.”
How long will Allen hurt?
“I quit thinking about it yester
day," he said. “Ics a sport. I’m a
coach. I'm not going to die.
“These guys competed. Sure,
they’re disappointed. But they’re 21
years old. They’re not going to die.
“We’ll just win it next year.”
Cooper Is a junior news-editorial major,
the Daily Nebraskan w ire ed Itor and a sports
columnist.