Daily
Nebraskan
Monday, April 18,1994
Sports
Heroes use CPR to save life of softball player’s father
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter_
• ", .
Nebraska assistant softball coach Lori Sippcl
stopped short of calling herself and trainer
Chris Oclling heroes for their efforts to help 41 -
vear-old Bob Offenbackcr on Thursday niiiht.
Sippel
But Nebraska Athletic
Director Bill Byrne didn’t.
“They really saved his
life ” he said.
Offcnbackcr, father of
Husker designated hitter
Amy Offcnbackcr, col
lapsed at the NU Softball
Complex while waiting for
Nebraska and the Universi
ty of Missouri-Kansas City
to resume the rain-delayed second game of a
doublehcader.
Athletic Director Bill Byrne said Sippcl and
Oelling became heroes when they^ performed
CPR on Offenbackcr until paramedics arrived.
However, Sippel said Sunday, the real hero
of the situation was Offenbackcr.
“He fought just as hard as anyone else,” she
said.
While being called a hero was flattering,
Sippel said she was simply put in a situation
where she had to help.
“It was just reaction,” she said by telephone
from Stillwater, Oklahoma. “Together, we did
whatever we could to help him.
“We weren’t going to leave him until some
body else took over.”
Terry Beck, women’s sports information
director at NU, was at Thursday’s game and
called 911 after Offenbackcr collapsed.
Sippel and Ocll ing revivedOffcnbackeronce,
but he slipped back into unconsciousness by the
lime paramedics arrived two or three minutes
later.
“There was no heartbeat — no breathing at
all,” Beck said. “When the (paramedics) got
-M
It was just reaction.
Together, we did whatever
we could to help him.
— Sippel
Nebraska assistant softball coach
-ff -
there and hooked up the monitor, it was a flat
line.”
Paramedics applied a defibrillator, which
shocks the heart in an attempt to get it beating
again, to Offcnbackcr.
By the time they put Offcnbackcr on a stretch
er to take him to the hospital. Beck said, he was
conscious and talking.
Offcnbackcr is improving but is in serious
condition after undergoing six-vessel bypass
heart surgery early Friday morning, a nursing
supervisor at Bryan Hospital said Sunday.
She said he had since been taken off some
life-support equipment — including a respira
tor.
Sippcl said she was going to tell Offcnbackcr
that he was courageous when she saw him
again. She said she didn’t know what else to say.
“I don’t think what he’s been through —
what we’ve all been through—words can say,”
Sippcl said. ‘‘What it would come down to is a
big hug.”
While the team was focused on its games
Sunday against Oklahoma State and Monday
against Wichita State, Sippel said the events of
Thursday night were still on their minds.
“It was a real reality check for a lot of
people,” she said.
Hot bats propel NU to 1 Oth straight win
By Tim Pearson
Senior Reporter
Nebraska had outscored Kansas
Stale 11-8 in the previous two games
of the three-game series.
The Cornhuskcrs had beaten the
Wildcats in the past four games. •
But no one could have expected
what happened Sunday before a sea
son-high crowd of 2.385 at Buck
Beltzer Field.
Eleven pitchers were used as the
the two teams combined for 37 runs
and 31 hits in the Huskcrs’ 23-14
victory over the Big Eight cellar-dwell
ing Wildcats.
Nebraska won its 1 Oth straight game
and improved its record to24-16over
all and 8-7 in the conference.
The 23 runs eclipsed the previous
season high of 15 runs earlier this
season high of 15 runs against Kansas
State. Every Husker starter had at
least one hit as Nebraska swept a
season series with a Big Eight team for
the first time in six years.
Right fielder Matt McKay said the
Masker bats were on fire Sunday.
“But I didn’t expect it to be like
this,” he said.
McKay, who had two hitsanddrovc
in three runs, said the hitting outburst
didn’t come as a surprise to him.
“Ever since Oklahoma and Okla
homa State, we’ve started to improve,”
he said.“We’re finally getting to where
we should be.
“We’ve been building and build
ing, but it’s taken a while.”
It didn’t take long for the Husker
bats to get rolling Sunday.
After Kansas Stale scored in the
top halfofthc first inning, Nebraska’s
first five batters got on base as the
Huskcrs jumped out to a 3-1 lead.
But the Wildcats stuck with the
Huskcrs for a while.
With the score 5-1, Kansas Stale
batted around and scored six runs in
the third inning, including a two-run
homerunoffjuniorrighl-handerChris
Bauer. Bauer, who raised his record to
2-0 on the season, relieved starter
Cody Winget in the third inning after
the Wildcats’ first five batters in the
inning got on base.
Then the Husker bats ignited.
In the bottom of the third, 14 Nc
Travis Heyinq/DN
Nebraska’s Troy Brohawn slides safely into third after smashing a three-run triple in the sixth inning of the Huskers’ 23-14
victory over Kansas State Sunday. Brohawn went 3-for-3 to raise his average from .265 to .308. He added one RBI.
braska baiters came to the plate, and
the Huskers exploded for nine runs to
make the score 14-7.
Nebraska coach John Sanders said
he was happy to see the Huskers have
a big at-bat.
“We’ve been struggling to put big
innings together,” he said
Husker first baseman Alvie Shep
herd. who won his first game of the
season Friday to raise his record to 1
3. got it done with his bat on Sunday.
Shepherd hit a three-run home run,
his fifth of the season, over the center
field fence in the bottom of the fourth
inning to give the Huskers a 17-8
advantage.
The sophomore from Chicago
knocked in six runs on the day. Husker
designated hitter Troy Brohawn went
3-for-3 with four runs scored. And
third baseman Derek Dukart extend
ed his hitting streak to a career-high
18 games.
The Wildcats tried to mount a come
back against sophomore right-hander
Craig Sanders, who relieved Bauer to
start the sixth inning.
Sanders retired the first two Kan
sas Slate hitters he faced, but he then
gave up a single to designated hitter
Matt Miller and a double to catcher
Chris Bouchard.
The 6-foot-4-inch right-hander
walked Iwo to load the bases and then
walked in a run before getting the last
out ofthc inning with Nebraska up 19
Kansas State scored four more in
the top of the seventh before Husker
pitcher Bob Courier entered the game
to replace Sanders. Courier retired
one batter and walked another before
he gave way to Mike Bellows, who
leads the team with nine saves.
Bellows got the Huskers out of the
seventh and held the Wildcats score
less during the final two innings to
seal the victory.
Bellows will be available to pitch
Tuesday against Kansas in relief de
spile pitching in all three games, Sand
ers said.
“We have a day off (Monday), and
M ike’s pretty much a flow-type pitch
er who can go every day,” he said.
Sanders said the sweep gave the
Huskers a lot of confidence going into
their two-gainc set against Kansas
Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Kansas State has been able to
neutralize some teams,” he said. “We
have to give ourselves some credit
here. We just kept coming back. We
showed resiliency.”
Blackshirts dominate sputtering offense in scrimmage
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter
With one week remaining until the annual
Red-White game, the Cornhusker defense is
winning the battle of the spring.
The Blackshirts swarmed the Huskeroffcnse
during Saturday afternoon’s scrimmage, limit
ing the top Huskcr unit to minus 8 yards on its
first three possessions.
The Nebraska defense shut the offense down
until No. 3 l-back Marvin Sims plunged into the
end /.one from five yards out on the Huskers’
eighth series.
On the next possession. No. I quarterback
Tommie Frazier led the top unit down the field
against the No. 1 defense. Fullback Jeff
Makovicka scored on a 6-yard run.
That was the only score by the top offense
and the only points allowed by the No. 1 de
fense.
“The defense played real well.” Husker coach
Tom Osborne said. “As the scrimmage went
along, the offense played a little better. But we
still had some mistakes offensively.”
Osborne was encouraged by the play of the
Blackshirts, who have the potential to become
a dominating unit, he said.
“I think we have a chance lobe a little better
defensively than we were a year ago, provided
we get some good depth,” Osborne said.
Third-string quarterback Matt Turman, who
will be ajunior in the fall, was the most effective
signal-caller in the scrimmage. Turman com
pleted eight of 11 passes for 130 yards and three
touchdowns. He also was the only Husker quar
terback not to throw an interception.
-44
/ think we have a chance to be a little better defensively than
we were a year ago.
— Osborne
Nil football coach
“I don’t think you can get quite an accurate
picture of what our quarterbacks can do, with
the green jerseys on,” Osborne said.
He said Frazier would have been more effec
tive had he been allowed more freedom.
“We arc not running the same number of
options or the same type of options that we
would normally run,” Osborne said.
??
Frazier, who was sacked four times, com
pleted five of eight passes for 59 yards and no
touchdowns. He was picked off once.
Osborne said he also was worried about the
buskers’ kickinggame. Following the offense’s
See DEFENSE on 8