Big
Notebook
The Nebraska baseball team’s 8
2 win over Oklahoma on Wednes
day afternoon saved the
Comhuskers from falling into last
place in the Big Eight. The
Comhuskers, whose roster features
24 newcomers, raised their Big
Eight record to 3-8 in the league.
The Sooners, 8-3 in Big Eight play,
are a half-game ahead of Oklahoma
State and Missouri. The Cowboys
were swept in a pair of games at
Kansas on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Kansas State is 2-3 in the con
ference and Kansas is 6-7. Iowa
State, the only Big Eight team other
than Nebraska with a sub-.500 over
all record, is 2-8 in the league. Con
ference play will not get any easier
next year for the Huskcrs in the Big
12. Texas Tech is ranked second na
tionally behind defending national
champion Cal State Fullerton, and
Texas is ranked 24th in the nation.
* * *
Last week was productive for a
pair of Kansas baseball players.
Freshman Chris Williams was
named Big Eight pitcher of the
week. Williams, from Edmond,
Okla., fired 7 2/3 scoreless innings
last week. He holds a 2-0 record in
seven appearances. Against Mis
souri, sophomore Casey Barrett
racked up his sixth save, which ties
him for the second-highest total in
a season at Kansas.
Missouri outfielder Matt Nivens
hit .476 (10 for 21) last week, earn
ing the Big Eight position player of
the week. As the Tigers lead-off
batter, Nivens reached base in 27
of Missouri’s first 28 games.
* * *
On the softball diamond, Big 12
competition has started one season
ahead of the rest of the league this
spring, and the conference is far
ing well in the polls. In the latest
USA Today/National Softball
Coaches’ poll, Oklahoma ranked
12th, Texas A&M 13th and Ne
braska 17th.
* * *
During the outdoor season, the
Nebraska men’s and women’s track
and field teams have picked up right
where they left off in the indoor sea
son. On the men’s side, the
Comhuskers lead the Big Eight
with five individual NCAA provi
sional qualifiers. The qualifiers arc
hurdlers Willie Hiblcr, Frank
Mensah and Miklos Roth, hammer
thrower Greg Armitagc and high
jumper Shane Lavy.
On the women’s side, shot putter
Tressa Thompson is one of only two
automatic individual NCAA quali
fiers in the Big Eight. The Huskers
also have three provisional qualifi
ers. They are: hammer thrower
Doreen Heldt, heptathlete Janet
Blomstedt and shot putter Paulette
Mitchell.
* + *
The NCAA Division I Directors’
Cup competition, which ranks
schools using 22 Division-I sports,
has Nebraska ranked eighth after its
indoor track performances.
Nebraska’s men finished second
and the women were fifth. UCLA
leads the competition, and
Nebraska’s Big Eight rival Colo
rado is fourth.
Notebook compiled by «tafT reporter
Vbice D’Adamo.
*
By Todd Walkenhorst
Staff Reporter
Just when the Nebraska baseball
team appeared to be incapable of com
peting against th<j upper echelon of the
Big Eight, the Comhuskcrs pulled off
a shocker at Buck Bcltzer Field on
Wednesday afternoon.
After losing its last two games to
conference (rowers Oklahoma State
and Oklahoma by a combined score
of 42-15, Nebraska beat 21 st-ranked
Oklahoma 8-2 behind a complete
game from Pat Driscoll.
The Huskers have had problems
this season finding strong pitching, but
one night after using six pitchers in a
24-7 loss to the Sooners, Nebraska
was able to hold Oklahoma in check
with one pitcher in front of a crowd
of 123 fans.
Oklahoma, 21-11 and 8-3 in Big
Eight play, jumped ahead 2-0 on sec
ond baseman Jesse Zepeda’s two-out
single in the second inning, scoring
Brian Shackleford and Jamie Gann.
Shackleford and Gann were the
Sooners’ primary sources of offense
Wednesday. Shackleford was 3 for 4
and Gann was 2 for 4. The pair com
bined for five of Oklahoma’s six hits
and scored the Sooners’ only two runs.
Driscoll (171) took advantage of his
first start by pitching a complete game
eight-hitter. The junior college trans
fer from Neosho (Kan.) Community
College allowed only three hits after
the second inning, posting Nebraska’s
first complete game of the season.
Nebraska coach John Sanders was
impressed with Driscoll’s command of
his pitches.
“The performance was outstand
ing,” Sanders said. “This Oklahoma
team is one of the best teams they’ve
had in a long time.”
Nebraska (11-18-1 and 3-8) did not
collect a hit off Sooner starter Joe
Victery until the fourth inning when
senior right fielder Mel Motley hit a
one-out triple. The Huskers took ad
Viola leads
NU to win
over ISU
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
For more than a year, one play has
haunted Ali Viola.
Last season Viola had a chance to
provide Nebraska with a game-win
ning hit that would have allowed the
Comhuskers to sweep their series with
Iowa State.
With two outs in the bottom of the
seventh inning, the bases loaded and
the Huskers down one run, Viola came
to the plate facing Cyclone pitcher
Debbie Nease. But Viola was unable
to produce, hitting a weak grounder to
second base as the Huskers lost 6-5.
Viola, a second-team All-Arriteri
can, went on to earn 1995 Big 8ight
player-of-the-year honors and set
school records for hits (87), home runs
(13), RBI (72), total bases (149) and
assists (160), but she knew she owed
Nease and Iowa State.
On Wednesday, Viola had her
chance.
With two outs in the bottom of the
10th inning, Viola came to the plate
against Nease.
“I was going to go hard,” Viola said.
“I knew ahead of time I was going to
swing at the first pitch. So I stepped in
the box and I just took my biggest cut.”
The cut against a high fastball
turned into a two-run home run, which
gave the 23-11 Huskers a 9-7 win over
the Cyclones in Nebraska’s first-ever
Big 12 Conference regular-season
See WIN on 8
Jay Calderon/DN
Nebraska freshman Craig Moore slides into third base Wednesday afternoon as Oklahoma’s
Israel Gonzalez tries to apply the tag. The 8-2 Husker victory was Nebraska’s first win over a
ranked opponent this season.
vantage of the hit when first baseman
Jason Fry lined an RBI double to right
field.
Fry, in replacing sophomore Todd
Sears — who suffered a bruised right
foot after fouling a pitch off Tuesday
night — finished 2 for 4 with three
RBI and one run scored. Designated
hitter Craig Moore scored Fry on a
two-out double to tie the game at two.
The Huskers took the lead in the
sixth when senior left fielder Matt
Meyer scored on a Motley single.
The seventh inning looked favor
able for Victery as he struck out
catcher Scott Schultz to begin the in
ning. But the ball rolled away from
Sooner catcher Javier Flores, allow
ing Schultz to advance to first.
Francis Collins reached safely on
a bunt and Meyer was intentionally
walked, leaving the bases loaded for
Motley. Motley grounded out, scoring
Schultz, and then Fry singled to score
Collins and Meyer to put the Huskers
ahead 6-2.
'Victery, who fell to 6-2, was re
placed by junior Brett Pennington in
the eighth. Victery finished the day
giving up six runs on nine hits, with
four walks and five strikeouts.
Nebraska added two insurance runs
off Pennington in the eighth inning.
“I told them before the game that
baseball is a game where you can turn
the page very easily and put the pre
vious day behind you,” Sanders said.
After having nine games canceled
this season because of bad weather,
Nebraska has scheduled two double
headers later this season to fill the
holes in its schedule. The Huskers will
play host to Nebraska-Omaha onApril
25 at 4 p.m., and on May 6, Nebraska
will play two games against Peru State
at Buck Beltzer Field at 2:30 p.m.
Next up for Nebraska is a three
game series against Oral Roberts Fri
day, Saturday and Sunday at Buck
Beltzer Field.
Good grades a habit
for NU’s gymnasts
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter
Before the Nebraska women’s
gymnastics team accepted its third
NicoHni
room.
consecutive
Big Eight
Championship
trophy Satur
day night in
Ames, Iowa,
five
Cornhuskers
were honored
for their work
in the class
JNeorasica s joy layior, Mm
DeHaan, Shelly Bartlett and Misty
Oxford all were named to the first
team of the 1996Academic All-Big
Eight team. Senior Meghan
Nicolini received honorable men
tion.
DeHaan and Taylor, both bio
logical science majors, joined
Oklahoma’s Michelle Antinoro in
receiving special recognition for
maintaining a 4.0 grade-point av
erage.
Taylor, who won the all-around
title with a Big Eight-record 39.375,
has been a first-team selection for
four consecutive years.
“It’s not something I’m always
thinking about,” said Taylor, a se
nior from New Palestine, Ind. “It’s
not like I say: 'I’ve got to keep that
4.O.’ It’s just been a habit that I
haven’t had to think about.”
DeHaan, a junior from Sioux
Falls, S.D., has been an academic
all-conference selection in each of
her three seasons at Nebraska. On
Saturday, she won the uneven bars
with a 9.9 and tied for first in the
floor exercise with a 9.85.
Bartlett, a junior all-arounder
who is majoring in education, owns
a 3.82 GPA.
“We study a lot,” Bartlett said.
“We study on bus and plane trips
all the time, and then if we have
time in the hotel rooms, we study.
Coach Dan Kendig hasn’t made
an effort to control the athletes’
study habits — he hasn’t had to.
“That’s the key. They are deter
mined,” Kendig said. “Yeah, I make
a point of making sure that they’re
in classes. But I can’t control how
well they do on tests. It comes down
to their determination, and I think
that has been contagious.”
The desire has spread to fresh
man Misty Oxford, who holds a
3.64 GPA after taking a year off to
improve her SAT score following
her senior year of high school.
Oxford was named the confer
ence newcomer of the year Satur
day and finished second in the all
around with a career-high 38.9.
Nicolini, a senior psychology
major from Annapolis, Md., has a
3.34 GPA. Kendig said Nicolini had
improved dramatically in the class
room this semester.
Nebraska’s academic success
hasn’t been limited to the Big Eight.
The Huskers won the 1995 aca
demic national championship and
finished second in 1994.
Gymnast
fights back
after injury
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter
After a two-year absence from com
petition, the gymnast labeled “the next
Reive
Jim Hartung by
Nebraska men’s
gymnastics coach
Francis Allen is
back.
Hartung, a two
time NCAA all
around champion
and 1982 Nissen
Award winner at
Nebraska, was a
two-time uiympian ana a goia mea
alist in 1984. Hartung’s a tough act to
follow. But J.D. Reive is going to try.
Reive, a true freshman from Fair
Lawn, N.J., has been sidelined this sea
son by a slightly cracked vertebra in
his lower back, an injury that he origi
nally suffered in April 1995 and ag
gravated last December.
Coming back from that injury,
Reive said, has not been as easy as he
would have liked.
“I was able to train for a few months
after 1 was first injured back in 1995,"
he said. “But then this December I
hurt it again. 1 have this bad habit of
working out until I hurt myself."
This season, Reive has endured a
rigorous upper-body strength regimen
that has kept him in shape and enabled
him to get back into action. Allen said
Reive’s workouts were just another
example of his desire to to be the best.
See REIVE on 8