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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1993)
Nebraskan SPORTS Thursday, April 22,1993 W-JA V-/A V A L/ Travis Heying/DN Nebraska’s Brian Martin prepares for a windup while a Kansas runner leads off first base Wednesday. The Comhuskers lost the game 4-2. Pitching develops tor Huskers By Jiff Grtoftff Staff Reporter Nebraska just can’t seem to pul together all the necessary parts to pick up a win. The Htisker baseball team got the pitch ing it needed on Wednesday, but the hitters could not get their bats to produce runs, and Nebraska fell to Kansas 4-2 at Buck Bellzer Field. On Tuesday night, Nebraska pounded out 13 hits and scored nine runs, but Husker pitchers were unable to throw strikes and Kansas won 17-9. Kansas improved to 31-8 on the season, ^ ^ •' *• - - We got enough pitching to win today, we Just didn't get any hitting. The good sign Is that we at least pitched. —<Sanders Nil baseball coach -99 - and lead the Big Eight with a 12-4 record. Nebraska dropped to 16-18 and 6-9 in the . 'FTVTjk ‘ ~ - conference. Along with Nebraska’s inability to put its hitting and pitching together, the Huskers also made several mental and base-running mistakes in the series that killed rallies. Nebraska trailed. 1-0 in the third with runners on first and third with two outs. Marc Sagmoen tried to steal second on a pitch to Sean McKenna, the ball trickled away from Kansas catcher Jeff Nicmeier, and Troy Brohawn tried to score. Niemeier got to the ball in time to throw See KU on 16 Kansas pitcher follows rather s tootsteps By Tim Pearson Staff Report* The Kansas baseball team is hoping that having former major league pitcher Paul Splittorffon its side will help them to the Big Eight title this year. Unfortunately for the Jay hawks, Splitlorff will only be looking on as a fan and not taking the mound. His son, Jamie Splitlorff, pitches for Kansas, and ihc elder Spliltorff was on hand at Buck Beltzer Field Wednesday to watch his son’s team in action. Paul Spliltorff won 166 games during his 14-year career with the Kansas City Royals. He retired in 1984, having played his entire career in Kansas City. The younger Spliltorff is hoping to be like his father and he may be ahead of where his father was at his age, Paul Spliltorff said. “He’s more advanced than I was at his age,” the elder Spliuorff said. “He’s pitched quite a bit more, and he throws a little bit harder than I did.” Jamie Spliuorff said that time would tell if he would do as well as his father did. “He says I’m more advanced than he was, but I’m not so sure,” he said. Jamie Spliuorff,a freshman right-hander, is 5-0 on the season with a 3.35 ERA. See SPUTTORFF on 16 Miles wears several hats for Husker football team By Jeff Singer Senior Reporter See him cover a wide receiver. See him punt. See him return punts and kickoffs. There’s not too much that Barron Miles can’t do on a football field. The product of Roselle, N.J., who will be a junior when the football season begins, is listed on Nebraska’s spring depth chart at comerback, punt returner, kickoff returner and backup punter. So what can’t Miles do? “1 guess there’s no limit,” Miles said. ‘‘If I set out to do it, then I think I’ll be able to do it.” Versatility is nothing new to Miles. While at Abraham Clark High School, he rotated from such positions as quarterback and running back to punter and placekickcr. Miles said he enjoyed being able to help out the Comhuskers in more than one aspect, just as he did in New Jersey. During last Saturday s scrimmage. Miles would play his regular position at starting left comerback, but often would have to change jerseys to join the red squad as its punter. He had a team-best 53-yard punt in the team’s latest scrimmage, the last one before Saturday’s an nual Red-White game at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne said Miles’ ability to punt that accompanied his skills as a defensive back represented the kind of versatility the Huskers needed. “Barron Miles got one good punt off there, -which was kind of good to see, because he’s the ' guy that will be on the road trips,” Osborne said. “If he works on it a little bit, I think he’ll give us a little depth at the punting game.” Miles said the spring season had been good for him because hjg was able to practice each of his positioni it’s a rear help to help me see what I’m able to do, what I can’t do and to learn from my mistakes,” Miles said. He said he would do whatever the team needed him to do. “If the opportunity is there and Coach says I have to punt, then I’ll do it,” Miles said. “If I can do it, that will give us an advantage, because then we can run fakes or whatever; I’m like a running back back there anyway, so that would be a plus for the team.” But what if someone says Miles, who is 5 feet 8 inches tall, can’t do his primary job as a comerback because of his size? That is the worst thing someone can do, Miles said, because he knows how to use his size to his advantage. “I think it gives me an upper hand, because someone might say, ‘That’s a small comer out there,’ but I look at it as that’s just a guy who’s bigger, but he’s slower than me,” he said. “(A receiver) might look at it as an advantage, but then when I hit him, it’s a different story.” Hard hitting is just one way this year’s Nebraska defense should be viewed, Miles said. “The best defense in the nation—that’s our goal,” Miles said. “And to be the hardest hit ting, too. - Four-weekHusher high makes Turman’s spring season One of the best success stories during the Nebraska football team’s spring season has been a bit of a surprise. It hasn't had anything to do with a Heisman Trophy candidate at I-back or a rifle-armed Floridian quarter back or even a defensive back whose hobby is kicking 50-yard punts in scrimmages. The success story this year is about a 5-foot-ll, 165-pound walk-on de fensive back from Wahoo who now finds himself in a quarterback race. So move over Kevin Costner, Matt Turman has been living his own Field of dreams during the four-week spring season. A year ago, Turman was preparing to graduate from Wahoo Neumann and walk on to the Comhuskcr foot ball team as a defensive back in the fall. During a typical redshirt year, in which a lot of players tend to get lost in the shuffle, Turman was switched to wingback — one of Nebraska's deepest positions — with such play ers as Abdul Muhammad, David Seizys and Clester Johnson, returning in 1993 to compete for playing time. The position switch seemed to put a cloud over Turman’s chances of ever getting the chance to compete on the turf of Memorial Stadium. But with the loss of Husker quar terbacks Mike Grant, Joel Cornwell and Jon McMillen to graduation, Turman was again asked to switch positions prior to spring practices — this time to quarterback, the spot where he gained fame in high school. But with such touted athletes as Tommie Frazier, Tony Veland, Ben Rutz and Brook Berringer fighting for spots on the depth chart, when would Turman get the time to perfect his skills on the field? He opened some eyes when he completed the first Nebraska touch down pass of the spring in the Husk ers’ initial scrimmage three weeks Jeff Singer ago — a 47-yard strike to wtngback Riley Washington on a day that the Nebraska quarterbacks as a group struggled. As Turman was makinga name for himself on the field, his anonymity continued in the press box. “Who’s that No. 11 out there?” was the most popular question of the day, with consensus belief saying that it was Cornwell on the Held trying to sneak in an extra year of eligibility. But that was the last time Matt Turman’s name was foreign. In the next Saturday scrimmage, with Rutz, Veland and Berringer all hampered with injuries, Turman be came Nebraska’s new No. 2 quarter back, and he consequently threw for two touchdown passes of 39 and 36 yards on six of 11 passing for 94 total yards in the air. And even with Veland and Berringer’s returning last week, Turman still led the quarterbacks with 190 yards passing by completing 10 of IS passes and two touchdowns, the highlight being a 70-yard bomb to Brendan Holbein. With his big numbers during the scrimmages comes the attention. So has it been overwhelming for this walk-on defensive back? “It is—especially when you didn ’ t expect it,” Turman said. Turman said he enjoyed his time in the spotlight this spring, especially by getting thechancc to fulfill the dreams of many kids in small Nebraska towns: getting to come to Lincoln and play tor the scarlet and cream one day. “I think that’s a dream of a lot of kids in Nebraska: to play some high school football and then come down and play for Nebraska,” he said. “That was one of the reasons I decided to come here, even though I had to walk on, because the Nebraska football program is so big.” With Saturday’s Red-White game marking the end of spring practices, Turman’s lime in the limelight will probably dwindle as soon as the regu lar season begins in the fall, and Frazier, Berringerand Veland occupy the majority of the time running the Husker offense. But that’s probably what has made these four weeks so special for Turman. “It went so fast People have said that spring ball is really hard, but I’ve enjoyed it completely .’’Turman said. And what makes the spring season so enjoyable for Nebraska fans is getting the chance to see the little known Matt Turmans shine in their four weeks in the sun. Singer Is a senior news-editorial and po llttcal science m^jor and a Daily Neb Ask an •ports senior reporter.